web surveys: common practice

[Neil Zanella]

Hello,

I am just wondering, what is the current best
common practice for online surveys:

1. allowing users to vote any number of times
2. allowing one vote per IP
3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a survey)
4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
the user closes the web browser
5, other

Feedback welcome,

Regards,

Neil

[svenne]

Re: web surveys: common practice

Neil Zanella wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> I am just wondering, what is the current best
> common practice for online surveys:
>
> 1. allowing users to vote any number of times[/color]

no workie, does give the wrong result
[color=blue]
> 2. allowing one vote per IP[/color]

no workie, some have dial ups, and adsl with changing ip addresses
[color=blue]
> 3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
> survey)[/color]

possibly a good idea
[color=blue]
>4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting
> until
> the user closes the web browser[/color]
no workie, the user can simply close and vote again,[color=blue]
> 5, other[/color]
[color=blue]
>
> Feedback welcome,
>
> Regards,
>
> Neil[/color]
depends also on what survey you are doing.
--

https://www.gh-webinteractive.com

[John Dunlop]

Re: web surveys: common practice

svenne wrote:
[color=blue]
> Neil Zanella wrote:[/color]
[color=blue][color=green]
> > I am just wondering, what is the current best
> > common practice for online surveys:[/color][/color]

[ ... ]
[color=blue][color=green]
> > 3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
> > survey)[/color]
>
> possibly a good idea[/color]

Some people have more than one email address.

--
Jock

[Simon Stienen]

Re: web surveys: common practice

John Dunlop <John Dunlop <usenet+2004@jo hn.dunlop.name> > wrote:[color=blue]
> Some people have more than one email address.[/color]
And the others can use mailinator.com or similar.

--
Simon Stienen <http://dangerouscat.ne t> <http://slashlife.de>
»What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,
The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done.«
-- Sherlock Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[Nikolai Chuvakhin]

Re: web surveys: common practice

nzanella@cs.mun .ca (Neil Zanella) wrote in message
news:<b68d2f19. 0409212233.123b 535b@posting.go ogle.com>...[color=blue]
>
> I am just wondering, what is the current best
> common practice for online surveys:
>
> 1. allowing users to vote any number of times[/color]

This is the easiest to implement, with obvious drawbacks.
[color=blue]
> 2. allowing one vote per IP[/color]

This is meaningless, since IP addresses these days can hide huge
networks behind them. ISPs, corporate users, universities, you
name it...
[color=blue]
> 3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a survey)[/color]

Indeed...
[color=blue]
> 4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
> the user closes the web browser[/color]

How about setting a cookie that expires when the survey ends and not
displaying the survey if that cookie is found?

Cheers,
NC

[Tony Marston]

Re: web surveys: common practice


"Nikolai Chuvakhin" <nc@iname.com > wrote in message
news:32d7a63c.0 409220718.3e39c 607@posting.goo gle.com...[color=blue]
> nzanella@cs.mun .ca (Neil Zanella) wrote in message
> news:<b68d2f19. 0409212233.123b 535b@posting.go ogle.com>...[color=green]
>>
>> I am just wondering, what is the current best
>> common practice for online surveys:
>>
>> 1. allowing users to vote any number of times[/color]
>
> This is the easiest to implement, with obvious drawbacks.
>[color=green]
>> 2. allowing one vote per IP[/color]
>
> This is meaningless, since IP addresses these days can hide huge
> networks behind them. ISPs, corporate users, universities, you
> name it...
>[color=green]
>> 3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
>> survey)[/color]
>
> Indeed...
>[color=green]
>> 4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
>> the user closes the web browser[/color]
>
> How about setting a cookie that expires when the survey ends and not
> displaying the survey if that cookie is found?[/color]

That won't work if the client has been configured not to accept cookies.

--
Tony Marston

http://www.tonymarston.net

[Michael Fesser]

Re: web surveys: common practice

.oO(Tony Marston)
[color=blue][color=green]
>> How about setting a cookie that expires when the survey ends and not
>> displaying the survey if that cookie is found?[/color]
>
>That won't work if the client has been configured not to accept cookies.[/color]

Even if the client accepts cookies: he just has to delete it and vote
again. Additionally it's not too hard to write automated voting scripts.

Micha

[Chung Leong]

Re: web surveys: common practice

"Neil Zanella" <nzanella@cs.mu n.ca> wrote in message
news:b68d2f19.0 409212233.123b5 35b@posting.goo gle.com...[color=blue]
> Hello,
>
> I am just wondering, what is the current best
> common practice for online surveys:
>
> 1. allowing users to vote any number of times
> 2. allowing one vote per IP
> 3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a[/color]
survey)[color=blue]
> 4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
> the user closes the web browser
> 5, other[/color]

The challenge of most online surveys is getting people to participate, and
not keeping them from voting multiple times. I have seen enough polls that
failed to break double digit in votes. So I say let them vote as many times
as they want. Makes your site look better.

[Daniel Tryba]

Re: web surveys: common practice

Chung Leong <chernyshevsky@ hotmail.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> The challenge of most online surveys is getting people to participate, and
> not keeping them from voting multiple times. I have seen enough polls that
> failed to break double digit in votes. So I say let them vote as many times
> as they want. Makes your site look better.[/color]

This mindset is the way to go, especially since there is no (pratical)
way to prevent fraud. I would just store about everything known about
the client at the moment of the vote so you can at a later time filter
anything you want.

--

Daniel Tryba