How-To's

Open the Create Poll page from the main menu and keep these points in mind:

• Use Fun mode for a quick public ranked poll: one question, one link, no signup to vote, and live results. When you need more setup control, move to Full mode: Basic for a simple setup, or Advanced for full control. If the outcome really matters, we recommend Advanced and suggest taking the time to understand what each option does - most of them matter more than they first appear to. Switching between Basic and Advanced keeps the values you have already entered.
• Apply a built-in preset or one of your saved presets, including the title, main question, description, settings, options, and additional questions.
• Fill in the required fields, starting with the poll title at the very top. Required fields are marked with red dots.
• For a fixed-duration poll, set the voting period. For a Living Poll, set the start date and the recalculation interval. Keep in mind that recalculation uses the limited RU resource. Every subscription, including the free one, includes some RU, and extra RU can be purchased through PAYG when needed.
• If the outcome needs to stand up to scrutiny, check the counting method and tie resolution. We recommend Schulze for finding a fair compromise, though its resource use grows cubically with the number of options. If the main method produces a tie, even for first place, the tie-breaking cascade determines the result.
• Choose result visibility in advance: Public or Private. In Private mode, results are visible only to you and the participants. If you want stronger privacy, enable Confidential; in that case the poll data is not sent to external moderation. In that mode, we do not take responsibility for poll content.
• Options and participants can both be added in bulk. Look for the cloud upload icon beside the relevant heading.
• If your poll needs other languages, add them in Advanced mode near the bottom of the creation page. Depending on your subscription, different translation tools may be available. Pay attention to Download translations and Upload translations - they are the quickest way to add, review, and edit translations.
• To let participants suggest changes to the option list during voting, enable Allow new option suggestions and, in Advanced mode, Allow removal suggestions. Suggestions are moderated and reviewed by the owner before they can be applied.
• Choosing Fixed list means the system will use personal invitation links with an accept-or-decline flow. The Invitation accepted status appears once the participant opens the link.
• If an email address in the Fixed list was entered incorrectly, you can still replace it as long as the link has not been opened yet or the participant with that email has not registered on the platform.
• There is one important limitation in Fixed list mode: if a participant becomes unavailable and you want to assign someone else instead, the poll has to be canceled and started again.
• Add a thumbnail if you plan to share the poll through the mini widget.
• Use Save whenever you want to keep a draft, and Activate when you are ready to publish the poll. You need to be logged in to save it.

With a Fixed list of participants in Full mode, enable Include other polls as participants to connect other polls as collective participants. Each linked poll contributes its own ballot with the weight you assign, regardless of how many people voted in it. See the option’s tooltip for compatibility requirements.

Open the poll link and drag options from Options to My ranking, from most to least preferred.

• Read the rules carefully before you vote - a lot depends on how they are worded.
• Move between the poll stages using the Vote, Observe, and Results tabs.
• If partial ballots are allowed, options left in Options are tied below every option in My ranking. Rank at least the minimum number required by the poll. If all options are required, move them all before submitting.
• When a minimum greater than one is required, My ranking (x/n) shows how many options you have ranked until you reach that minimum. Every option counts once. You can keep ranking after the counter disappears. There is no counter when all options must be ranked.
• If enabled by the organizer, small numbers on the right of each card header in My ranking show the order in your ballot: 1, 2, 3, and so on. The first three have small gold, silver and bronze circular backgrounds; later positions show a number only. These labels scale with the cards. Temporary ratings and poll results are shown separately.
• Temporary rating, the star button, is a private draft score that helps you remember your impression of an option. It does not determine your ballot by itself. You can move options with temporary ratings into My ranking automatically, sort them by those ratings, and then adjust the order.
• Click a card title to collapse or expand it. Use the column buttons to collapse or expand all cards at once.
• Notes are private reminders about an option. Use them to record details before deciding your final order.
• If vote updates are allowed, revoting may be available either immediately or only after a special invitation from the owner. That invitation is issued to all poll participants at the same time.
• Enable Keep me updated if the outcome matters to you. Important updates do happen.
• If the owner allows it, use + or - below the option list to suggest adding or removing an option. The poll changes only after the owner accepts and applies the suggestion.

Once your vote has been finalized, the poll still has two useful reading modes: one for reviewing the process and one for examining the outcome.

• Observe shows the poll after finalization without submitting another vote. Revisit the question, option details, and voting statistics there.
• Results shows the final ranking and, if the poll settings allow it, the vote history. You can also download the detailed calculation file for your own verification.

In Observe, the owner gets controls that affect the process itself rather than just the interface, so they should be used deliberately.

• In Observe mode, use Repeat to resend an invitation. If a participant cannot receive it, you can replace their email address.
• Manage the lifecycle of the poll through Cancel voting and Finish voting. This works for Living Polls as well, but be very careful: canceling or finishing a poll is not even remotely the same thing as pausing it.
• Use Recalculate now when you want the results to be refreshed immediately with the newly submitted votes. This spends RU.
• Do not overlook widgets. They are a practical way to share the poll and embed it into other sites through iframe.
• If you expect to create a similar poll again, use Use this poll as a preset in the sharing menu. It starts a new draft from the current poll without creating a saved preset or copying participants.

The practical way to judge a poll is not by promises, but by settings you can verify and the traces the system leaves behind.

• Read the poll conditions carefully: participation mode, visibility, revoting policy, and vote-history policy.
• Check key conditions in the primary language of the poll. Translations may differ in wording or option order.
• The ability to revote can reduce the perceived neutrality of the process.
• If vote changes are allowed, hiding the change history lowers transparency. A public history makes it easier to spot abrupt shifts and late reversals.
• Check participant weights, including the owner weight where applicable, because they directly affect the outcome.
• Check the counting method and the tie-breaking cascade. In our view, the most fair compromise-finding algorithm is Schulze, although it is also the most resource-intensive. The cascade matters because ties can happen even at the very top of the ranking.
• Option order matters. Random reduces positional bias; an owner-defined Custom order may increase it.
• Verify the outcome through the downloadable results file.

My Polls works both as a workspace and as an archive: it helps you see where you are the owner, where you are only a participant, and where recalculation costs may still be accumulating.

• Use My Polls to access all polls related to your account.
• It shows both the polls you created or are still preparing and the polls created by others where you participated.
• If you actively use recalculation and PAYG, it is worth checking billing from time to time so that RU usage does not surprise you.