Polls

A poll is a post with a question and 2 to 10 options for the community to vote on. It starts in a Feed space (as a status, where the question is the text) or a Content space (as a post, where the question is the title), and otherwise it is a post like any other: it shows up in the Feed, gets reactions and comments, can be pinned and notifies like a new post.

Polls exist only in Feed or Content spaces; in any other kind of space, the API refuses.

#What it's for

#How it works

#Who can do what

The finance role votes like any member but does not create or manage polls. Someone who sees the post without signing in finds Sign in to vote; someone signed in who is not a member of the community sees Only community members can vote.

#Single or multiple choice

The card shows the Poll badge and, under the question, Choose one option or Choose one or more options:

• One option: clicking the option casts the vote.
• Multiple choice (when the poll was created with Allow multiple choices): the person ticks the options and clicks Vote.

After voting, the chosen option is marked Your vote, and Change vote and Remove vote appear. While the poll is open, people can change or remove their vote as many times as they like.

#Who sees the results

• Members see the bars with the percentage and the total after voting, or once the poll is closed. Before that, the card shows Vote to see the results.
• The team (owner, admin and moderator) always sees the results, whether they voted or not.

Each option's percentage is of the people who voted, not of the total votes. In a multiple-choice poll the sum goes over 100%: if 10 people voted and 7 ticked March, March has 70%, even if they ticked other options too. The footer says "N people voted" (or No votes yet).

#Deadline and closing

With a Deadline, the poll closes on its own at the chosen date and time, in the community's time zone, and the card shows Closes on … until then. Without a deadline, it stays open until someone on the team clicks Close poll.

Once closed, it gets the Closed badge and the line Closed on …: nobody can vote, change or remove a vote any more, and everyone sees the final results. The votes are kept. A closed poll cannot be reopened.

#Votes are anonymous to members

Members only see the numbers. Who voted for what is visible only to the team, in See who voted.

#Notification

A poll follows the path of a new post in the space: the same notifications and e-mails as a status in the Feed or a post in Content, according to each person's preferences. Voting notifies nobody.

#Step by step

#Create a poll

Role: owner, admin or moderator.

1. Open the Feed or Content space.
2. In the header, click the arrow next to New Status (in Content, New Content) and choose New poll. The same menu holds Import content, which only the owner and the admin see.
3. Fill in:
   • Question: in the Feed, it is the status text (up to 500 characters); in Content, it is the post title (up to 255).
   • Options: 2 to 10, up to 100 characters each, no repeats. Add option adds one more; the × removes one.
   • Allow multiple choices: each person can tick more than one option.
   • Who sees it, in the Feed only: Public (the default), Members or Subscribers, as in New Status. In Content there is no choice: the poll is public, like New Content.
   • Deadline (optional): date and time in the community's time zone, which the screen shows. No deadline removes it.
4. Click Publish poll.

In Content, the post starts with only the question as its title. To add text under it, edit the post afterwards.

#Vote

1. On the poll card, click the option (in a single-choice poll, that already votes).
2. In a multiple-choice poll, tick the options and click Vote.
3. To change, Change vote; to give up, Remove vote.

#Edit a poll

Role: owner, admin or moderator.

In the card's ⋮ menu, Edit poll.

• Before the first vote, everything can change: the options (text, order, adding and removing), Allow multiple choices and the deadline.
• After the first vote, the options no longer change, neither text nor order: the fields show disabled ("There are votes already: the options can no longer change, so what people chose stays the same."), and Allow multiple choices is locked. The question stays editable through the post, and the deadline can still be set, moved or removed.
• Closed with no votes, only the text of the options.

The question is the post's text (or title): to change it, edit the post.

#See who voted

Role: owner, admin or moderator.

In the card's ⋮ menu, See who voted. The Who voted dialog lists the people, latest vote first, with each person's options. Filter by option shows only who chose one of them.

#Close

Role: owner, admin or moderator.

1. In the card's ⋮ menu, Close poll.
2. Confirm with Close. There is no way back: the poll cannot be reopened.

#Examples

Event date. In the Home Feed: "Which month is best for APICON Rio?", with March, April and May, single choice and a deadline at the end of the month. Pin it to the top so everyone sees it.

Next class topic. In the class's Content space: "Which topic do you want in the next live class?", with five topics and Allow multiple choices. The team follows the results from the first vote and closes it when it decides.

#Common errors and how to fix them

#Frequently asked questions

Can a closed poll be reopened? No. To ask again, create another one.

Can an existing post become a poll? No. The poll is born with the post, in New poll.

Does deleting the post delete the poll? Yes, the poll goes with the post.

Do members know what I voted for? No. Only the team sees who voted for what.

#Through the assistant

The assistant creates, votes on and follows polls with the same rules:

• create_poll: creates it in the Feed (the question is the text) or in Content (the question is the title). Owner, admin and moderator, without confirmation.
• get_poll: the results. Any role; for people who haven't voted, the numbers stay hidden until the poll closes.
• vote_poll (by option or by its text) and retract_poll_vote: in the name of whoever connected, without confirmation.
• update_poll: edits, and asks for confirmation when the options change. close_poll: closes, always with confirmation. list_poll_votes: who voted. These three are for the team.

Ask like this: "Create a poll in the Feed asking which month is best for APICON Rio, with March, April and May." In Claude, the recipe Ask the community (poll) builds the request. See Tools · Content.

#In the API

The poll goes in the poll field of POST /api/status (Feed) and POST /api/content (Content): options (2 to 10 texts), allowMultiple and closesAt (optional, in the future). Only owner, admin and moderator; any other role gets 403 with param: "poll", and nothing is saved. poll comes in the items of GET /api/feed, in statuses, in content and in recommendations.

For someone who may not see the results, resultsVisible is false, and votes, percentage and totalVoters are null (hidden, not zero).

See Polls.

#Related

• Feed
• Content
• Roles and permissions
• Tools · Content