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FAQ Topics

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NOTE

If you are experiencing connection issues, content appears to be missing or the start button doesn’t seem to work, please check Known Connection and Proxy/Firewall Issues below.

What does DirectPoll Cost?

I'm just wondering if the service is free of charge.
DirectPoll is a free service and offered as is. We limit any poll to 500 concurrent voters.

What is a Restricted Poll?

When do I create a Restricted Poll?
You can restrict access to your poll in order to prevent multiple voting and system abuse. Any poll can easily be restricted by checking the “Restrict this Poll” checkbox.
How do I configure my Poll to be restricted?
Check the “Restrict this Poll” checkbox while creating your poll or at any time while using the service.
Can I convert a Restricted Poll into an unrestricted one and vice versa?
Easily! By simply checking and unchecking the “Restrict this Poll” checkbox at the bottom of the poll. Do not forget to click “Save” to save the changes.
Why are voters requested to type in a token?

You have restricted access to your poll to authorized audience only. Votes can’t be cast without an authorization token. Please distribute tokens to the audience to vote.

You can create personalized links for your voters by appending a token parameter (see “Where do I get tokens”) to the vote link. E.g if your vote link is https://etc.ch/abdce, append the token12345 as follows: https://etc.ch/abcde?token=12345. Create these links by using the tokens of your poll and send them e.g. by email to your voters. Don’t forget to mention that these links are not to be shared, as there is only one vote permitted per token.

Where do I get tokens?
Tokens can be downloaded by pressing “Download Tokens” button  at the top of your poll.

How to Run a Poll

I'd like to run my DirectPoll in a browser, how do I do that?
Just open the result-link in a separate browser window. You can obtain this link either directly from the DirectPoll cockpit or from your DirectPoll administration mail.
How can I include the Poll in my Presentation using PowerPoint, Keynote or other presentation software?

Using a web browser

You can switch from the presentation to a web browser showing the results screen. You can make this transition appear seamless by putting the browser in full-screen mode on the presentation screen before you start playing the presentation. That way, when you temporarily switch out of the presentation, the DirectPoll result screen is shown.

Using a Plugin

The Poll results page can be embedded in some presentation programs using a plugin. That way, you don’t have to leave the presentation: just navigate to the slide that contains the embedded Poll results page to show the Poll to your audience.

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a Web Viewer Add-In. Read how to add an Add-In for PowerPoint here.
Click here to go straight to the Web Viewer Add-In.

Apple Keynote, Google Slides and Prezi do not currently offer plugins of their own to embed live websites in their presentations.

A possible alternative is the free Live Slides Application which creates slides with Embedded web content for Keynote and PowerPoint.

Oh no, I lost my admin e-mail with the Cockpit links! How can I get it back?
That’s bad. Unfortunately we can’t help you with that. Please re-enter your questions and preserve the admin-link this time. But before you do that, check your browser’s history to see if you can find it there: the links to your poll are persistent, so they will still work.
Can I add questions while conducting a poll?
Sure. They’ll be added after pushing

Your cockpit control is updated immediately after you saved the poll. You may use your questions as soon as the poll is started and the new questions appear in the dropdown of your cockpit control.

Why can't I see full answers / questions on the "Results screen"?
Both questions and answers are now limited to 1000 characters. However, when you are presenting the “Results screen” only 180 characters will be visible for each question and 40 characters will be shown for each answer.
I like to start with the first question
So does DirectPoll. It displays the first question on the result page and the voting page after you pressed “START” on this element for the first time.
Can people vote on all the questions on their own or do they have to wait for the next question?
DirectPoll is made for Live Voting where the presenter controls which question is shown. Therefore, it is not possible for voters to skip to the next question.

If you only have a few questions, you could potentially create a new Poll for each question and leave them all active. This may not offer the experience you’re looking for but it is a potential workaround.

Where do I see the answers to the current question?
Just open the result page with the link from your Poll’s Cockpit page. The results are also shown on the cockpit page next to each question and answers.
How long does my Poll remain available on DirectPoll.com?

Your poll expires in 30 days after its creation or last save. We will send you an expiration warning 5 days before the poll expires. (IMPORTANT NOTICE! We send the expiration notice only once. Afterwards, it is your responsibility to re-save the poll again to have it active). You can extend that period any time by just opening the cockpit and clicking “Save Poll” again. If you miss that your poll will be purged from our database without any recovery option.

Large Audiences of more than 500 voters

I have a large audience of more than 500 people for my poll. Do you support that?
We currently limit DirectPoll to serve 500 connected voters per poll at a time. As soon as someone closes the voting screen, puts their device to sleep, or navigates away their “spot” is freed up for someone else. As long as not more than 500 users access the vote link at the same time, the number of voters is practically limitless.
I need a reliable uptime during my event. Will the service be up then?
DirectPoll is running in best effort mode. We do not work on service-level-agreements or likewise, but we try to keep the service running 🙂

Polling in the Classroom

I'm a teacher and I'd like to use DirectPoll in class.

Please do. We offer several features that are useful for polling in your classroom. You may like to indicate which answers were correct after the vote? Or you would like to hide answers while polling? Please check our Education page for all details.

Known Connection and Proxy/Firewall Issues

I'm experiencing problems while steering my poll.
DirectPoll is based upon WebSockets, some old proxy servers still don’t support that technology quite well. Try to remove the proxy connection or use an alternative connection. Proxy problems might occur with stepping back and forth between questions or while starting a poll. The firewall might cause problems as well by filtering WebSockets. Try another connection, ie. with your mobile phone. Last but not least you may like to check if your webbrowser supports Websockets. Most browsers offer that feature by now.
My poll doesn't run and I have a "Connection closed" message in my Cockpit.
This might be caused by proxies, firewalls or managed networks that are filtering Websockets. Try to use an alternative connection with your mobile phone or convince the system department to allow Websockets.

Comparison to Ordinary Surveys

Can I create a questionnaire in order to ask others to fill it in?
No, DirectPoll is a live polling service. You’re asking questions and your audience answers them right away by using their smartphones. Every answer is counted and displayed live in an animation on the result page.

Android Browsers

Voting with my Android Browser just doesn't work!
DirectPoll uses WebSockets. Please update your native Android Browser to V4.4 or higher. A list of all supported browsers can be picked up here.

Security and Reliability

Is using DirectPoll secure?
We only use a secure connection using HTTPS to encrypt the traffic between our server and your browser.
Is the DirectPoll service reliable? Will there be service interruptions?
DirectPoll is a reliable service, we try to keep it running with high availability. We currently run DirectPoll on a best effort basis. Any updates are usually done on Wednesdays between 08:00 and 09:00 in the morning, CET Timezone. They usually only take a few minutes.
Does DirectPoll have a reliable and accurate vote count?
From the system perspective, the number of votes given equals the number of votes displayed in the result (very reliable). Restricted polls provide more accurate results for a few reasons. First of all, you know the number of tokens you distribute hence can control the number of votes, and secondly tokens can’t be re-used. Therefore, the vote count is quite reliable. If you are using an unrestricted poll the system will still give accurate number of votes, though your voters could be voting twice through multiple devices or by manipulating cookies.

Download Results from your Poll

How can I download the results of my Poll?

Since Release 2.9.0 You can download the results of your poll by just clicking the “Download Results” button at the top of your cockpit page for free for a limited time. We might make this a premium feature in the future, but until then: let us know what you think about this feature.

Delete your Polls

How can I delete my Poll?
You can delete all your polls by pressing “Delete Poll” button at the top of your cockpit page. Then follow easy steps and delete one poll or all the polls associated with your e-mail.