Joined: 5/23/2006
Posts: 361
Location: Washington, United States
Though I wasn't signed up here when the forums were created, it seems that, at one point, non-registered users could vote on movies:
What about introducing a separate poll specifically for these users? I think that feedback from casual movie-watchers is often forgotten since they cannot vote in the main movie poll.
Although I can't say whether a bias already exists, it appears that the current voting system has the chance to introduce one - the users who have been here longer will usually have higher standards about technical performance. While I agree that feedback from users experienced with this site's standards will generally be more valuable, feedback from lurkers/casual users can be important as well.
If any abuse occurs, it would be isolated from the "regular" voting system. I'm also not advocating that this separate poll be treated on equal ground as the regular movie poll - I'm just suggesting a way for others to express their opinions about a movie.
The whole point of preventing lurkers from voting is to ensure that people don't register under multiple user names just so that they can flood a paticular movie with yes votes.
From what I've read a good judge will not only check the results of the poll, but also read the thread before making a decision on the movie, so constructive input from people who can't vote yet could still be helpful.
That's right. Giving lurkers a "free" vote will decrease a chance of them posting and explaining their opinion. And an explained opinion has much more value than a single vote.