Thursday, May 17, 2018

No more polls? (updated)

Alex - artwork created by Champ

Original date: 05/16/2018

Okay, I'm confused.

I just tried to create a new poll for this site just like I always do this time of month - and I can't find the poll feature on blogger anymore! It was there a month ago, and now it seems to be gone.

Does anybody know what happened? Have they disabled it because of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that's going into effect later this month? A quick search for information didn't bring any results. Does anybody know what's going on?

And, more importantly: Does anybody know an alternative that allows me to embed polls on my site (for free if possible)?

Thanks for your help!

Update: 05/17/2018 

Apparently, Google has "retired" the polls widget. It is listed among others in this post. Thanks to an anomous They don't cite a reason other than a general "we thought it made sense to retire features that had very low usage". That doesn't ring true to me but who am I to judge. Whatever the reasoin, I don't think they will be bringing it back, which means I will have to find a new polls widget. *sigh*

I'm looking for a polls widget that
- allows anonymous voting
- has reasonable measures against cheating
- is free of charge (or very inexpensive)
- can be embedded on my blog
- doesn't require a huge amount of programming skills.

Any help is appreciated!

6 comments:

Lenny Bennu said...

That is really strange, I just checked on my own blog to see if this was the case, and I can't find it either. That's very unfortunate, and very disadvantageous. I'll see if I can find anything helpful to contribute in my spare time, and I'll keep my eye here to see if there any alternatives or helpful comments pop up.

Jimmy said...

Oh no! I love the polls! Why would blogger take them away?

Jimmy

Alex said...

Thanks for your comments, guys! I have updated the post with some new information. :-/

Anonymous said...

I don't know if it can be embedded into the blog, but try Straw Poll. They're really easy to make, allow for only one submission per IP dress to (hopefully) stop cheating and is free. If it can't be embedded, it can at least be linked to.

-Daniel

Lenny Bennu said...

I can attest to straw poll. It's super easy to make and access, somewhat reliable (I don't see it being significantly more/less difficult to screw with than the polls widget), and free. I'd use that in the future, unless something more reliable shows up, which is possible.

Here's a sample straw poll, for those interested.

https://strawpoll.com/86pfpxba

Does suck that they retired the poll widget. I can't see it being too taxing for them to keep it, but I'm not a programmer.

Alex said...

Thanks for your help, guys! I‘ll be away for the weekend but I’ll have a look at Straw Poll as soon as possible. :-))