Reply #110: The problem with this is one has the impression the polls are anonymous. [View All]

[Stephanie]

There is no warning or indication that a poll vote might be held against you in any way, or indeed that anyone is monitoring an individual's vote. To track the vote and then use it against a DU member is a little akin to warrantless wire-tapping. You've violated our presumption of privacy, Skinner and it's kind of creepy, to tell you the truth. In a George Bush world are we becoming that which we despise?

Further, to TS someone because of a likely flippant vote in a deliberately provocative poll strikes me as very unfair. Minstrel Boy, for instance, has been posting here for years and from what I know of him I truly doubt that his vote coincided with his actual beliefs. More likely he clicked yes just becuase the poll itself was so outrageous.

The question above about PMs is relevant too. One expects the admins are not reading our PMs. That expectation has just been blown out of the water.

To have simply deleted the offensive poll would have been the correct thing to do instead, since everyone is aware that racist crap is going to get deleted. The admins have got themselves in an ethical pickle here with this decision, IMHO.