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If on your site you simply pretend to care about what other people think when in reality you do not care, you should avoid asking for opinions all together. Sometimes it is better to not ask for any opinions if you cannot handle them, the way some high profile bloggers disable comments on their sites these days. When should you ask users about their opinion, and when should you avoid asking users for their opinions? One effective way to answer such a question is to find out whether or not you are ready to listen to other people when you ask them for their opinion through polls and comments.

Polls - should you care about the minority voters?

You can have polls on your site to allow people to vote for different things. However, the moment you ask someone to participate in a poll, you yourself enter a world of dilemma where you have to answer two questions; how many people who vote on your polls should you please, and how many people will you end up upsetting along the way?

For example, imagine running a poll on your site that asks your readers if they think it is a good idea to change your current site colors, say green, to orange. Now assume you get the following results from people who vote:

• 50% want the site colors changed to orange
• 49% want the site colors to remain green
• 1% do not care

In this case, you can run to the idea of democracy and say that you have to appeal to the majority of the people. But what should be done about that 49% that does care about the issue? Should you ignore them or simply say “Sorry!” and move on? Do they have to be neglected and penalized simply because they were short of the few necessary votes? It seems unfair that someone should be ignored simply because there were not a lot of other people agreeing with them. Those 49% voters who lost to the majority voted because they respected your choice to listen to their opinion. You should respect each of their vote and act accordingly also, regardless of what you do with their votes.

Even when you do not do something that the minority voters wanted, you should at least acknowledge their vote and offer a good explanation for your decisions. Saying “because majority of the people thought this was a good idea” is not a reason to do something. It is an excuse to hide the fact that you are going along with the idea that will give you the least resistance or criticism. Being opposed by 49% of the people may appear to be a better choice than being opposed by 50% of the people, but you can try to make those 49% unhappy people satisfied in some ways also.

Each and every comment needs proper care and attention

When you allow people to comment on your site, you are asking them to take some time to write out their thoughts, feelings or opinions. That is a huge favor to ask for, and you should respect people for doing you that favor. Making it easy for other people to comment helps people participate more on your site, and that means you have to respect people even more because you make efforts to make sure people are drawn into dedicating time on your site. Respect any participation and try to listen to people who participate. If you get criticized through different types of criticizing comments, learn the “Art of Reacting to Criticizing Comments.” No matter what you do, listen to everything and react accordingly and with respect.

I see more and more blogs and companies everyday that disrespect most user comments by ignoring them. However, these same blogs and companies respond to every comment by high profile bloggers, whether on their own sites or on the high profile blogger’s blog. None of these bloggers and online services treat blog readers equally. They simply jump into the conversation arena when they want to please a high profile blogger. That is in my view a disrespect to everyone else, and I notice it on many low and high profile blogs. Do you notice a similar trend on sites you visit?

Can you ever listen to everyone?

Forget the myth that you should get everyone involved and then after a poll or comment, leave the minority in the dust. Treat everyone the same and with respect, even the people who wanted something that you did not or could not provide in the end. You may not be able to please everyone, but you can try to satisfy and respect everyone. Not being able to respond to every comment or vote is an excuse in my view; if you have time to respond to all the people you consider important, you should also have time to respond to people you may not know or may consider insignificant.

Your blog is your country: run it in ways to make everyone happy while making sure your basic duties are fulfilled. Your basic duties include helping your people, who are your blog readers. When your other basic duties like improving site design get affected when you are trying to appeal to people along the way, stick to things you believe in, and offer explanations to people whose opinions you did not consider in your decisions. When you sincerely explain to someone why you could not please them after you asked for their comment or vote, you are expressing that you are of the opinion that the laws of nature do not allow you to do everything that everyone wants at the same time. People would rather be told why something did not happen instead of being ignored.

Be accommodating asking for opinions

When you ask for opinions, be flexible and creative. Commenting takes time, and so does participating in a poll. Just because you provide commenting and polls for free does not mean you have to neglect the importance of votes and comments you receive. Spending time on your blog is one of the most important favors you can ask people, and when you do, be ready to respect those people regardless of their opinions. There are ways to satisfy people, even when you do things they do not like.

Try not to ask for opinions on things you have already decided on unless you are a flexible person who is willing to change opinions if convinced with good logic. Otherwise, over time, people will start realizing that you simply ask for comments and votes for polls in order to act as if you care, but in reality you simply want to go with the flow and get more traffic.

If you care about only what majority of the people or high profile bloggers think, you should not ask everyone to comment or vote on your site in the first place. If you do ask for everyone to comment or vote with such a mentality, try having a header on your site that says “Comments and votes allowed only from people I care about, or people who make a lot of money!”

[update 1 - 11:34 am PST - 03-08-07] Edited one sentence for clarity and validity as per Stacee’s suggestion and my response below[/update]

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