Poll bugs and suggestions

[Pollaetorian]

Bugs: 1) I think there is a bug with the eligible polls list: https://www.nationstates.net/page=polls/v=eligible . It shows public polls restricted to high influence nations, such as https://www.nationstates.net/page=poll/p=101065 as being eligible to vote on, even when I don't meet the criteria.

2) There is also a 2nd bug where polls are sometimes deleted without any message in the regional happenings? I was monitoring a poll in https://www.nationstates.net/region=the ... e_alliance and it disappeared this morning when there was still at least 12 hours to go. There is no note in the regional happenings which should happen if polls are deleted. Was this a bug or another action such as a mod deletion?



Suggestions:

1. Can we make the Eligible Polls page easier to find? It the most convenient page to have to find polls to vote on, but the page itself so hidden that the only way you'll find it is if you stumble on a region's poll, somehow decide to click on the link in the title to go to the poll direct link e.g. https://www.nationstates.net/page=poll/p=101415 and after that decide to click on Eligible Polls. This benefits nobody as it also makes it more difficult for public poll creators to find an audience to answer their polls.

The other pages available such your own poll voting history e.g. https://www.nationstates.net/page=polls/v=me and regional poll creation history e.g. https://www.nationstates.net/page=polls ... on:lazarus are useful too, but mysteriously hidden.

2. Polls have 4 breakdowns (WA/Influence/Population/Voters) while poll creation has 5 options (Residents/Natives/WA members/large nations/influential nations). WA/Population/Influence has their breakdown/creation counterparts, but is it possible to have residency available as a poll breakdown? The most obvious use for it is to see if there is are any differences between the regional vote and the global vote in a poll, which tbh would more useful than any of the breakdowns we have currently. It'll also encourage more people to put public polls if they know they can still get a "residents only" filter of results.

(You can similarly add the "native" breakdown, if only so it encourages more commotion. "Native" is better as a breakdown than as a poll creation option as no one really trusts it anyways, but at least as a easily accessible breakdown people can see the results and make their own arguments from it).

[Pollaetorian]

As to how 1) should be revamped, Polls should be given it's own section on the sidebar, like we do with dispatches. It deserves as much exposure and people are just as likely to be interested in finding polls if not more than they we reading random dispatches posted around the world. The page with all the sections is already set up, so it's just a matter putting it there - it's odd it wasn't and dispatches was, given how long the polls feature existed.

Preferably, people which the right access should also be able to make polls directly from the polls page.

[The Stalker]

I fully agree with the points made here.

It is a little annoying how hard it is to get to any of the poll option. As someone who runs / has run a number of regions over the years I often reused old polls for holidays and what have you, so I often am looking up old polls i've done.

However unless I have a poll going on or done a poll recently, I have to search around for a region that has a poll going on or had one going on to get to the page where I can switch to the "Hells Poll" tab.

I imagine it might not to be too tricky to just include "Poll" in the region sidebar along side message board, activity, and administration.

[Aclion]

I'd really like polls to get more attention, and adding them to the regional sidebar seems like a good start.