That will allow to better understand what buying experience to expect from a seller.
Something like:
Likely there is a better question list, but that’s what I could think of for now.
I like the idea. The only problem I can see is old votes still counting even though the service level may have changed. So if the store “experience” level goes down (or up) very quickly, the poll would be “slow to react”.
It’s rare that I agree with a cat! 
Not a bad idea. The main factor is technical in nature: it’s currently not possible to add a poll to an existing thread. Rather, a new poll thread would have to be created.
this will probably too complex to implement, but a real database with the content from shipping threads would be useful.
DSR (detailed seller ratings) or similar from ebay would be a concept to adopt, we don’t want to capture every single purchase, but a general view on how a seller is doing at each time of the year would be cool.
but there are too many variables. which shipping option was selected, which warehouse, (…)
maybe a simpler version is feasible ?
What if we used an outside poll service embedded in the OP? I have seen Freeme do that, and it might add more options than the built-in feature.
I’m not opposed to an outside polling service, but I’d rather see the poll hosted here, if possible, so that the possibility of losing it or people not being able to reach it for various reasons would be lessened. I do agree also with your earlier statement about the old votes. If we could somehow account for that, it would certainly make the (on-going) results more accurate and therefore more meaningful.
Another problem I just thought about is sellers trying to manipulate the votes. Fake reviews are quite easy to spot, fake votes are much less so.
That would also mean the number of users with multiple accounts will increase, like it has been lately, not only that, but there will be acute periods where such thing will happen because it is done in a anonymous fashion, meaning just tick the box you want to add to the poll numbers.
It strikes me as too complicated and messy, for no real gain.
If we could get it to work I think there would be a real gain; you could see how a seller is doing at a glance instead of reading a whole thread. However, I (stupidly) hadn’t thought about fake votes skewing the results. I can’t think of a way around that. There’s no point to having the data if it can’t be trusted.
Too easy to spoof
Yep, I am afraid it is
Is it only me or that troll seems to be back with other users? An example of something that which does not seem controllable at all so far.
I have no proof, but I see the signs. Makes me wish I had a Delete account and Block IP-range from joining button :evil:
Pools in a public forum with no permission levels, are really easy to spoof as many new accounts can be created with that purpose.
Also votes are more difficult to relate to somebody , because opposite to messages, author´s profile (and in fact number of messages, date of join…) can´t be seen next to it.
I don´t think it is a good idea without more changes in the forum.
Can’t a poll be done where the user have to have at least 10 posts to vote or something to fix the fake account fake votes problem.
how many members are here on a daily base?
or say contribute at least once a week ??
a few hundred?
a trusted member could run a thread where everyone can give Grades (1-5 / 1 is best;3 average;5 is worst) for different shops at once
maybe also divert into categories like
every Post can be explained and be more trustfull that way
the trusted member then sums up the posts and grades in the OP for all
Shop A
145 votes
reliability 1,3
shipping 2,3
CS 4,8
reputation 4,1
Shop B
487 votes
reliability 3,5
shipping 2,1
CS 1,9
reputation 2,9
etc