Bit of a niche issue with old poll results here, but I noticed when reviewing some older threads in the @hwgty series that despite users having voted for up to three choices in the polls, the older polls in the series now seem to have saved only one vote from every user.
Example:
The album poll in this post has 30 voters and 30 total votes. I know for a fact that most users voted for three albums. I actually commented at the end of the thread that when closing the poll 73% of voters had voted for Joy Division; now it is 10%, and my own vote is one of the many missing!
Compare to a slightly later poll which is not affected by these votes changing - somewhere between 2 - 3 votes cast per user.
The issue seems to be limited to polls earlier than July 2023 - I haven’t checked every single thread but all the ones I’ve checked before that seem to have this issue.
You should make an investigative reporting style podcast about this
Part 1- nostalgic look back at some of the most fondly remembered poll threads of our times
Part 2- quizzical reporter fumbling through old threads trying to get the polls to work properly. Phones round a few users, some interesting anecdotes are uncovered but the mystery looks ultimately unsolvable
Part 3- just when you think it’s about to finish the audio goes quiet and a phone rings crackly voice down the line hi this is Theo reporter Theo? Theo GB? voiceover it was right then, when I’d given up, that I got the call.
Theo explains the simple reason behind the issue. The podcast ends
