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.
• If you do not want to start from an empty form, open Preset. You can apply a built-in preset or one of your saved presets, including the title, main question, description, settings, candidates, 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, pay attention to the counting method and tie resolution. In our view, the Schulze method is the fairest option, but it is also the most resource-intensive, with cubic complexity relative to the number of candidates. The tie-breaking cascade matters just as much: if the main method produces a tie, even for first place, the final result depends on that cascade.
• 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.
• Both candidates and participants can be added in bulk. Look for the cloud upload icon next to the relevant headings.
• 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.
• If you want participants to suggest changing the candidate list during voting, enable Allow new candidate 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.

Participants open the poll link and rank candidates by dragging them from Candidates into Your preferences.

• 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, every candidate left unranked receives the same lower rank than any candidate already placed into Your preferences.
• The star button - temporary rating - is a personal draft score for quick comparison. It helps you remember your impression of a candidate and does not affect the final results by itself. Candidates with temporary ratings can be moved into Your preferences automatically and sorted there by temporary rating before you make final adjustments.
• A note is your private note about a candidate. Use it to keep details and context in one place before you settle on the 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 the + or - buttons under the candidate list to suggest adding or removing a candidate. A suggestion does not change the poll until the owner accepts and applies it.

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 state of the poll after finalization without sending a new vote. It is where you can revisit the wording of the question, the candidate presentations, and the voting statistics.
• 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.
• Key conditions are best checked in the primary language of the poll. That is the anchor version; translations may change and may differ in wording or candidate 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.
• Candidate display order matters. Random reduces positional bias, while an owner-defined Custom order can 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.