Doepfer

hi Florian,

first, the list of open polls is not endless. 
they are only 10 open polls at the moment. all these open polls are created by other group members and not me, so i just wanted to respect their freedom and allow these members to end their polls when they wanted to.
that's why i left them open, not due to bad moderation.

regarding the huge list of closed polls (dating back from 2001!) these do not get in the way at all, and i leave them there just for historical value. (they make a fun read.)

if i leave a poll open for only a week, i think that the number of voting members will be even lower. i think two weeks is a nice time frame. not too long and not too short.

i still believe that the low number of participants is the main reason for the limited usefulness of some polls.

(btw, to the members that have created the polls that are open at the moment: please close the ones that are open for more than a month.)


Bakis Sirros - Parallel Worlds / Interconnected / Memory Geist
[Doepfer_a100] group owner
www. parallel - worlds - music. com
www. myspace. com/ parallelworldsmusic
www. myspace. com/ interconnectedmusic
www. myspace. com/ memorygeist
www. DiN. org. uk
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www. rubberrecords. gr
Athens - Greece

Hi Bakis

> they are only 10 open polls at the moment. all these open polls are created by other group members and not me, so i just wanted to respect their freedom and allow these members to end their polls when they wanted to.
> that's why i left them open, not due to bad moderation.
Ok, then I would be a worse moderator and close these after 14 days. 
They guys, should feel lucky that you are the moderator instead of evil 
me. ;-)


> if i leave a poll open for only a week, i think that the number of voting members will be even lower. i think two weeks is a nice time frame. not too long and not too short.
Thats ok with me. But I would restrict the polls of individual members 
to this time frame too.


> regarding the huge list of closed polls (dating back from 2001!) these do not get in the way at all, and i leave them there just for historical value. (they make a fun read.)
> [...]
> i still believe that the low number of participants is the main reason for the limited usefulness of some polls.
Thats where the arguments come back like the cat bites its tail. I say 
the low number of participants is due the fact of too long lasting polls 
and too many obsolete viewable polls.

The question is, what do you want to achieve with these polls? Should 
they be a market research instrument, or should they be plain fun (ok, 
this is described very black-and-white'ish). This is a private list and 
it is not a part of marketing department of the company "Doepfer". So it 
is your choice.

Florian

> Thats where the arguments come back like the cat bites its tail. I say
> the low number of participants is due the fact of too long lasting polls
> and too many obsolete viewable polls.
I would say there could be a more real-world reason why people don't
participate in polls: They simply may not have the time to stay right
on top of list activity to know when a new polls exists!  I know I
can't, even though I try to participate as much as possible.  With the
exception of the retired or independently wealthy, I would gather than
many people are busy doing things like working, spending time with
family/friends, responding to email, running errands, rehearsing or -
gasp - even using their modulars!  I know I spend more than your
average amount of hours in the week simply working while still trying
to carve out time to use my modular systems which makes it near
impossible to stay up on all of my lists and RSS feeds of interest.
The only reason I even know what's going on in this gorup is that I
subscribed to have the messages delivered and sorted to a folder in my
inbox.  But even then I can only keep up on about 15% of the activity
here - and I consider myself a pretty loyal and regular Doepfer
customer.  So unless there's some driving reason to close a poll
quickly, what harm is there to leave it open so the largest number can
participate?  Maybe a few spaced reminders that the polls exist for
those that may have missed the initial announcement.

Just another angle to consider.

Kindest regards,
John

> i still believe that the low number of participants is the main reason for
> the limited usefulness of some polls.
One other thing that might increase participation or provide more
meaningful results is to provide additional information on how a new
module might be used.  Remember, people using modulars these days have
varying degrees of experience - from the frustrated VST user or
curious newbie to the seasoned master and every point in between.  So
a link to a page that perhaps included where the concept of the module
originated, examples of ways it might be used in a patch and perhaps
even historical references of where it's been used before could help
people to make more informed decisions.  I realize that some polls are
born directly out of prior discussion threads on this list, but not
all people will have had the opportunity to read those prior threads
to understand the possible significance of a particular new module.
So again, a summary and some examples would help educate the masses
before the vote.

Kindest regards,
John

Hello John


> So a link to a page that perhaps included where the concept of the module
> originated, examples of ways it might be used in a patch and perhaps
> even historical references of where it's been used before could help
> people to make more informed decisions.  
Very good point!

Florian