October 29, 2004

• I always wondered who they were asking, because I've never heard firsthand of anyone getting polled...
• I have never heard of anyone ever being polled either. However, aren't the polls based on things usually like 500 people called or 1,000 people called? That slims the odds down.
• I've been polled (by telephone) for Canadian elections in the past. I liked the idea that my opinions would be extrapolated to represent thousands of voters. That made me feel important...for about five minutes...then it was back to reality
• I never answer my landline phone. It's only telemarketers and people like the dentist's office reminding me about appointments. I think most surveys are over home telephones, so they miss out on those of us who screen our calls. I've seen some commentary that this phenomenon is resulting in polling data that is skewed towards an older, less cell-phone oriented folks, like my parents.
• Nope.. I've never been polled, but I haven't had a land-line in ages, so that could be why. But I'm a lousy citizen anyway, I never vote, and only go to jury duty when they threaten me with jail. (as far as voting, before you jump down my throat, I live in NYC, and we're a blue state. I also have an informal agreement with an equally lazy republican friend here in which he promises not to vote if I don't, so it evens itself out)
• Nope.. I've never been polled, but I haven't had a land-line in ages, so that could be why. But I'm a lousy citizen anyway, I never vote, and only go to jury duty when they threaten me with jail. (as far as voting, before you jump down my throat, I live in NYC, and we're a blue state. I also have an informal agreement with an equally lazy republican friend here in which he promises not to vote if I don't, so it evens itself out)
• MonkeyFilter America: it evens itself out
• I get poll calls once in a while. Less now since I've indicated a strong pro-Kerry position, now that I think about it. I'm on several consumer poll groups though, so I might be on a few lists.
• I have never been asked. However, when I was living near toledo ClearChannel would call me on a regular basis asking me to listen to snippets of songs and rate them. It was pretty fun. If I was busy, I would tell tehm and they would ask when they could call back, and if I gave them a specific time, they usually did! I usually gave the lowest ratings to everything, but they kept calling me back! So no one can say that I didn't try my best to defend the Toledo area from the Creed's and Hoobastank's of the world!
• I get polled by Zogby online occasionally, but that's about it. But I never answer my landline (too).
• I've been inundated by the pollsters this week (I live in Ohio). I get at least one call a day. I have refused to take part, out of sheer ornreyness (does anyone know how to spell that darn word? Is is ornrey? Onery? What?) Also, my voice is really young sounding, so when telemarketers/pollsters ask me if my parents are home, I say no! (Because they're not, not at my home anyway).
• Did a focus group once, come budget time. Wasn't for the majority party either. The most interesting thing was how during the after-budget discussion the people in the group rationalized their (generally similar) immediate reactions to the budget briefing with their pre-existing views about the government. Cognitive dissonance in action.
• or·ner·y adj. or·ner·i·er, or·ner·i·est Mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; cantankerous.
• Meredith: I realize you know the definition of the word, I just thought the def. suited me well.. :)
• Never been polled, or knew of anyone who'd been polled. And thanks, Warrior, for putting into words that which I've been wondering about for quite some time! :o)
• I was polled yesterday by a kid from the polysci club at the University, as I was getting lunch. I don't thik that really qualifies, though.
• I've been polled a lot this election, including some excitingly evil "push polls". I'm in Portland, and Oregon of course is a swing state (well, sorta), so that's part of why they call; my roommates and I all have odd schedules, so there's usually someone home, and so we've managed to get all the poll calls. And I'm excited that I get to take part in them, since that makes my candidates and opinions count for, what, thousands of people's. And people are weird how they like to vote the winning party. So it feels like it's making a difference.
• Please give bogus answers to the pollsters. It will render their polls meaningless, and prevent people from voting for perceived winners and not voting for perceived losers.
• I was polled a couple weeks back by the CBS/Newsweek people - if you'd been in the same room with me you would've heard the following: "Kerry ... Kerry ... Kerry ... Kerry ... Kerry...."
• There's an argument that claims that the current polling methods are inaccurate because they rely on landlines and the type of people who will answer their landlines and participate in a poll. (Read: they're skewed to old people.) I think there's some truth to this argument. But how true it is? Dunno. I've never been polled. But I don't answer the phone, ever, even when it's my mother who's calling.
• I got a telephone poll about the soon to be voted on Illinois 'wear a seatbelt or get a ticket' law. They ask me about 30 questions regarding my awareness and approval of the new legislation. It pissed me off because they asked me a lot of questions based on incorrect assumptions that limited my range of answers to suboptimal choices. There was no way for me to say wearing a seatbelt is a good idea and I always do, but if someone choses not to, it's none of the state's business or that it smelled like a revenue generation racket to me. I walked away with the impression that they were more interested in building a case for a given outcome than what I really thought about the subject. Like jccalhoun's radio survey, he could give Crud and Hoobastank an entirely justified thumbs down, but there was no way to tell them to expand their god damned playlist was there? Shortly after buying property and putting several thousand in debt on a credit card, I a got a couple dozen market researcher calls. I always tell them that everyone involved is making money on my personal data but me. If they want my info they can pay me for the time.
• Thanks, Debaser626! I was leaving out a whole syllable because of the TX accent. I think the definition fits me on certain days, too. Sometimes I'm just *Rawr*! Sometimes it's just more fun.
• meridithea, I'm from TX, too, and I never heard that word pronounced any way other than "onry." Now that I'm in CA, I completely avoid using that word because I don't know how they say it out here or if people even know what it means! /derail Carry on.
• KamakazeGopher: yeah, my conversations get mired in "southern speak" from time to time, but the people I'm talking to seem to enjoy mocking me about it, and I'm hard to embarrass.
• mmmuttly: I actually did tell them to broaden their play list. Didn't do much good though. (insert WOXY plug here)
• my three roommates and i have been polled at least four times for the presidential race. usually involves a computer asking to press the button corresponding to who you want. i felt special though! my vote does count, damnit (at least according to zogby)