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]

Neil Zanella wrote:

Hello,

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

1. allowing users to vote any number of times
no workie, does give the wrong result
2. allowing one vote per IP
no workie, some have dial ups, and adsl with changing ip addresses
3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
survey)
possibly a good idea
4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting
until
the user closes the web browser no workie, the user can simply close and vote again, 5, other
Feedback welcome,

Regards,

Neil

depends also on what survey you are doing.
--
www.gh-webinteractive.com

[John Dunlop]

svenne wrote:

Neil Zanella wrote:

I am just wondering, what is the current best
common practice for online surveys:
[ ... ]
3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
survey)

possibly a good idea

Some people have more than one email address.

--
Jock

[Simon Stienen]

John Dunlop <John Dunlop <us*********@john.dunlop.name>> wrote:

Some people have more than one email address.

And the others can use mailinator.com or similar.

--
Simon Stienen <http://dangerouscat.net> <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]

nz******@cs.mun.ca (Neil Zanella) wrote in message
news:<b6**************************@posting.google. com>...

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

1. allowing users to vote any number of times
This is the easiest to implement, with obvious drawbacks.
2. allowing one vote per IP
This is meaningless, since IP addresses these days can hide huge
networks behind them. ISPs, corporate users, universities, you
name it...
3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a survey)
Indeed...
4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
the user closes the web browser

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]

"Nikolai Chuvakhin" <[e-mail]> wrote in message
news:32**************************@posting.google.c om...

nz******@cs.mun.ca (Neil Zanella) wrote in message
news:<b6**************************@posting.google. com>...

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

1. allowing users to vote any number of times

This is the easiest to implement, with obvious drawbacks.

2. allowing one vote per IP

This is meaningless, since IP addresses these days can hide huge
networks behind them. ISPs, corporate users, universities, you
name it...

3. requiring email address verification (seems overly complex for a
survey)

Indeed...

4. setting a cookie on the web browser and allowing no more voting until
the user closes the web browser

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

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

--
Tony Marston

http://www.tonymarston.net

[Michael Fesser]

.oO(Tony Marston)

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

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

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]

"Neil Zanella" <nz******@cs.mun.ca> wrote in message
news:b6**************************@posting.google.c om...

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

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]

Chung Leong <ch***********@hotmail.com> wrote:

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.

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