What good do internet polls do? Are we being duped for advertisers?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Why are we spending so much time "unfreeping" polls? Believe me, I do it myself, but am I wasting my time?

[gpandas]

1. probably n/t

[LittleApple81]

2. Not for all. I have seen in MSNBC they actually publish the results

during their news programs...that it does any good, I don't know. But...

[sadiesworld]

3. They're BS, but unfortunately they are quoted regularly on the

whore cable stations as if they are relevant-which, again unfortunately, makes them arguably relevant.

(Well, that was a mess of a sentence :7)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. I love it!

A post - after<my own> HEART!!!!

:)

[R3dD0g]

4. There are 2 reasons that I can think of.

One is that in some cases reporters & pundits actually report the results of these crappy things as if they had some relevance. My local paper used to run a call-in poll during the '80s and the conservative columnist would repeatedly use (with no disclaimer whatsoever) the results to bolster his arguments. So, while most everyone knows these are BS, it never hurts to make sure they can't be used to persuade the few who don't.

Second, is that every time some DU'er clicks through to the poll, the web sites log will include a click from DU in the referrer log. That will let the poll's author realize that DU is a force to be reckoned with. So, what if they know the poll was DU'ed, they will know that DU is big.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

6. How does that referrer thing work?

Is it for real? If it is I'll vote and erase my cookies and vote again 1,00 times!

[11cents]

7. The bogus "news" now cites these bogus "polls?"

How apt. I suppose the one useful thing that unfreeping internet polls does is this: if the pseudo-polls consistently yield liberal results, the whores will stop citing them and perhaps even stop running them.