Skip to main content

How to add a poll (survey) to your topic


Kenneth R
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Community Manager
  • 430 replies

Curious to know whether your members like your new community design?  Polls let you offer a vote to your community members so they can make their voices heard.

This option isn’t limited to Moderators - any registered user can add a poll to a topic. But users can only vote in a poll once, so make sure you choose wisely!

How to create a topic with a poll

  1. When creating a new topic (in Community or Control) click the three dots ‘...’ → Poll. A Poll form field will be added below your topic description
  2. Add your question
  3. Add options (at least 2)
  4. Type up your topic and hit ‘Publish’ when you’re done.

How to View Poll Results

  1. Click on the topic in Control → the Poll results will show in the topic itself. 

 

:gear:  Tips, Tricks, & Technical Bits:

  • Polls can’t be added to existing topics.
  • Once you've created a poll, it's not possible to add new options to it.
  • If you close a topic containing a poll, members will still able to vote on it - the only way to disable voting is by trashing the topic.
  • To delete a poll from a topic, view the topic in Control, click 'Edit Poll', then (make sure you're certain, since this next step will immediately delete the poll) click 'Delete poll'.
  • Typo in your poll? No sweat! View the topic in Control, click 'Edit Poll', correct the poll option, then hit 'Save changes'. You can also remove poll options (as long as no votes have been cast for that poll).

 

Did you find this topic helpful?

24 replies

  • Contributor ⭐️
  • 2 replies
  • November 7, 2018
Hi Frank,

Are you able to track which users have voted within the poll?I.e. who voted for definitely in the poll above?

Thanks,
Ed

Shane1
  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 119 replies
  • November 9, 2018
Hey Ed,

There's no easy way for you to see this information at the moment, as we just show the poll results and not which users voted.

If you would like this information to be accessible somewhere then be sure to post it as an ideation topic here 🙂

Is it correct that you can only see the results after you voted yourself?

Shane1
  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 119 replies
  • April 25, 2019
Hi Patrick,

If you view the poll in the control environment you can see the result without voting 🤓

But if you would like to be able to see the poll result on the front-end without voting be sure to upvote this idea!

  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 10 replies
  • November 20, 2019

I’m trying to correct a spelling mistake in a poll and when I try to save it, I get the message that this is not possible since there are already some answers… How can I correct this error without deleting the poll?


Julian
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 908 replies
  • November 21, 2019

Hi Vanessa,

sorry to hear about this, I think this has to do with limitations when we re-enabled polls: https://community.insided.com/news-platform-updates-16/our-new-text-editor-is-now-available-on-all-communities-1788/index5.html#post6507

 

I can have a discussion with my colleagues as to if there is a possibility for us to improve this or help you, but it seems currently you cannot change the text after people have voted.


m4rc
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 66 replies
  • June 18, 2020

Hi

What is the limit on the number of poll answers? 


Julian
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 908 replies
  • June 19, 2020

I am not sure if there is a limit to this. You are speaking about the possible options, right? Just to avoid confusion...

 

I just tested a poll with 20+ options and it worked fine. Asked the other way around: Why would you want to limit the options here? So far I have not seen any cases of abuse, hence the chance of someone abusing this functionality is small.


m4rc
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 66 replies
  • June 19, 2020

Thanks @Julian Yep, number of possible options. I’m not looking to limit the number, I just want to know so that we can advise our members.

Unlimited sounds great! :grin:


Julian
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 908 replies
  • June 19, 2020

Ok great, good to hear that! :)


m4rc
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 66 replies
  • July 21, 2020

Does anyone know if a user doesn’t accept level 3 cookies whether they can still create a poll?

We’ve got a regular (who alas is anti cookies) struggling to post polls. Seems that the text editor is only seeing one poll option when in fact she’s created five. 

I’m wondering if it’s cookies related as it’s site functionality :thinking:


Julian
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 908 replies
  • July 28, 2020

I am still checking with our developers, but I had some challenges reproducing it. I now registered on inSpired, using a incognito browser where I only accepted the minimum cookie level. I was still able to create a poll.

It could be that you have a different cookie mapping, but I would not think that there is a restriction based on cookie level for creating polls. This feature is not using any third-party tools or anything that could cause this.

It might be much easier: It could be that the user is trying to add a poll in a reply - this is not possible. Polls can only be created in the opening post of a new thread. Can you verify that the user is aware of this?


m4rc
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 66 replies
  • September 3, 2020
Julian wrote:

It might be much easier: It could be that the user is trying to add a poll in a reply - this is not possible. Polls can only be created in the opening post of a new thread. Can you verify that the user is aware of this?

Thanks @Julian 

The user was trying to create polls in the opening post. Not replies.

It’s a mystery! 


m4rc
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 66 replies
  • September 15, 2020

Hey @Julian 

The same community member is still having poll issues. She’s accepted cookies, but when she adds an option to her poll and hits ‘return’ it deletes the option. She’s using an iPad. I’m going to raise a servicedesk ticket :thumbsup:


Julian
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 908 replies
  • September 15, 2020

Hi Marc,

thanks for letting us know, that sounds like a bug within the editor. Hopefully my colleagues will be able to sort it out quickly!


Casstastr0phee
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 55 replies
  • January 4, 2021

Is there a new ideas/feature request already open to make editing polls an option after someone has voted? A Community mod accidentally published their poll post (mostly because he couldn’t see the poll in draft mode and wondered what would happen if it posted), but then a user participated in the poll. Now we can’t edit the questions anymore, which just seems a little silly. I guess I can understand to some extent why that might be hazardous, as you can maybe be malicious and edit the poll title and options and make it look like people voted for something else….but I mean...if thats the case, can you at least make it so that you can see what a poll looks like in draft mode? I’m sure there are bigger fish to fry in terms of feature requests...but I still think this would be a helpful little thing :) 


jessicadaniels
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 24 replies
  • December 12, 2022

Is it still correct that users (not admins, community managers, or moderators) have to vote to see the answers? And, does this include the user who posts the poll who must vote to see the answer?

 

Thanks! 


JessicaMendez
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 44 replies
  • November 28, 2023

Hello!

I’d like to share the preview of an article with someone who is not an admin. When I share the preview, they cannot see the poll in the post. The post only shows the copy, not the poll.

 

Is this an error or are polls not visible in preview format? Thanks!


jevaaler
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️
  • 8 replies
  • November 1, 2024
jessicadaniels wrote:

Is it still correct that users (not admins, community managers, or moderators) have to vote to see the answers? And, does this include the user who posts the poll who must vote to see the answer?

 

Thanks! 

Came here looking for an answer to this question and it looks like this is still the case. Would be amazing if we could get an update from Gainsight about this.


Kenneth R
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Author
  • Gainsight Community Manager
  • 430 replies
  • November 7, 2024

Hey @jevaaler - this is still the case.  If you want to have more features and flexibility around polling, it’s possible to do it in other ways.  Typeform surveys, for example, can be easily embedded into a community topic and will allow you to create much more elaborate types of polls.


  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 24 replies
  • November 19, 2024

Hello - I see in the original article it states “Polls can’t be added to existing topics” - I am encountering an issue when I try to add a poll to a Draft - I am assuming a draft would be considered an ‘existing topic’ in this case. Can anyone confirm?

 

Seems odd that you can’t add a poll to a draft. 


Kenneth R
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Author
  • Gainsight Community Manager
  • 430 replies
  • November 19, 2024

Hi ​@lyoung - this isn’t something I’ve done a lot myself so I just did some testing to be sure.  You can add a poll to a draft article.  However, similar to the limitation mentioned above around it not being possible to add to an existing topic, you can only add the poll when you’re initially creating the draft.  Once you’ve saved the draft it’s no longer possible to add a poll to it. 

Once added, as mentioned in this topic already, the poll doesn’t show in the preview, but it will be there when you publish it.  

This isn’t the most elegant functionality but I suspect it’s not that common for our customers to add polls to articles.  I will mention this to our Product folks.


  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 24 replies
  • November 19, 2024

Thanks ​@Kenneth R  - Sorry if my first post was confusing. In this case I am referring to a draft as a saved article (i.e. not yet published but found in the Drafts section of Control) We are not looking for customers to add polls to articles.

 

Our use case is that Moderators will create an article in Control and then save it as a draft. They then go into drafts and want to add a poll to the article they started and saved before publishing. I understand from your response that polls cannot be added to drafts (articles started and then saved) but just wanted to clear up the use case if you do talk to product teams. 


Kenneth R
Forum|alt.badge.img+5
  • Author
  • Gainsight Community Manager
  • 430 replies
  • November 19, 2024

Gotcha, totally clear ​@lyoung - thank you!


Reply


Cookie policy

We use cookies to enhance and personalize your experience. If you accept you agree to our full cookie policy. Learn more about our cookies.

 
Cookie settings