Polls (and Doodle-esque Polls for meeting scheduling)

Public How To
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Polls

Polls are a key tool of any online community, and great to get opinions quickly. They are also a really good way to promote engagement.

You find the button to Build Poll behind the :gear: icon on the Composer bar - it is pretty straightforward.

Here are some more detailed instructions if you need:

Doodle-esque Polls

You can modify a poll to create a ‘Doodle’-like poll. This is brilliant for arranging video (or physical) meetings.

So now there’s no need to use an external service when trying to determine the best time for a meeting, or to die by 100 emails. It takes a bit of finesse but isn’t too hard for those used to Discourse. And you get the bonus of an easy discussion space as part of the bargain.

If you are comfortable with markdown, you can simply skip to step 4, copy the code into your post, and modify it to suit.

Step 1 - Open a new post

Open the new topic, reply, or personal message you want the poll to go in. Whether you use a post or a personal message will depend on whether this is an open meeting or one where you want to specifically invite certain individuals.

Step 2 - Create the poll

  1. Create a Poll using the Build Poll option from the Discourse composer toolbar, via the dropdown from the :gear: menu.

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  2. Select Multiple Choice

  3. Under Options, put in your date / time options, each on a separate line.

  4. Put 1 in Min Choices and the number of choices in Max Choices. It should now look like this (don’t hit Insert Poll yet):
    image

Step 3 - Tweak the Options

  1. Hit the other :gear: button bottom right to reveal the advanced options

  2. Add a Title such as “Please indicate your preferred option” (Optional)

  3. You can Limit voting to these groups or Automatically close poll if you wish (Optional)

  4. Tick :ballot_box_with_check: Show who voted so that people can see what other people have chosen. This is how it should look once complete:

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Step 4 - Test it!

The markdown code in your post should look like this:

[poll type=multiple results=always min=1 max=5 public=true chartType=bar]
# Please indicate your preferred option
* 13 Jun 2023 1530-1700
* 20 Jun 2023 1530-1700
* 22 Jun 2023 1530-1700
* 27 Jun 2023 1530-1700
* 30 Jun 2023 1100-1230
[/poll]

You can tweak this direct in the Markdown if you wish / need to.

Poll appearance

Your poll should look like this:

Please indicate your preferred option
  • 13 Jun 2023 1530-1700
  • 20 Jun 2023 1530-1700
  • 22 Jun 2023 1530-1700
  • 27 Jun 2023 1530-1700
  • 30 Jun 2023 1100-1230
0 voters

If you have any concerns, contact @moderators and ask for help.

2 Likes
2

This is actually really useful!

PS: The real reason for my comment is to say that I laughed a lot with “death by 10 emails” as it used to happen to me every day… harmonizely changed that, but before it was a real struggle.

2 Likes