Saturday 17 November 2007

Why muck around with these ninemsn polls?

In a long series of poll fixing at the increasingly unreliable ninemsn come the following two. I didn't keep a large number of screen shots, as the topics didn't seem to be worthy of manipulation even if there is a left wing position to push.

The first came about due to Santas being told not to use the phrase 'ho ho ho' and to use 'ha ha ha' instead. One of the reasons given is that the phrase might be offensive to women (especially black ones). Someone is kidding.

Anyway, the vote was going along at a rate of about 50-60:1 to the No vote and it was leading 20,000+ to 400 before, whammo, a heap of votes came in for the Yes vote.



Bizarre.

Next up, in response to police being a bit over the top using Tasers the question was asked about whether Australia should have them. The vote was going along 2:1 in favour over more than 15,000 votes (i.e. 10,000 - 5,000) before the usual overnight fixing.



Leaving aside whether these questions are at all relevant they do indicate that ninemsn has not yet implemented poll fixing software to combat the issue.

By not doing so ninemsn damages the credibility of its brand, especially when they quote their own online poll results in stories on their website from time to time.

(Nothing Follows)

2 comments:

Ellen K said...

So what would be the reaction of people who were hit with a taser by someone shouting hohoho? HAHAHA seems more like someone would be laughing at them. Perhaps we should arm all police with cream pies and revert to the Three Stooges level of enforcement. Of course the bottom line is that if idiots would stop committing crimes, there would be no need for tasers, or pies! HOHOHO!!!

Jack Lacton said...

Ha! Good one, Ellen!