Windrider wrote:I think we're probably a pretty good sample of the overall kiting population.
There are about 25,000 members on this forum, representing a very small fraction of actual kiteboarders.
There are 400 votes cast as of this writing, representing only about 1.6% of forum members.
For every single member that cast a vote, more than 60 members and thousands of other kiteboarders didn't bother, know or care.
Suppose that one out of every 500 kiteboarders under age 25 knows about this forum, is a member of this forum, and cares enough to cast a vote. Now suppose that only one in 5,000 kiteboarders over age 50 does the same. That's very plausible, and it would skew the results by a factor of 10.
Online activity is a cultural thing. Don't imagine for a second that people from different age groups and other cultural sub-groups do it in equal proportions. That's why online polling of any kind is normally of little use other than hype and entertainment.
Phone polls aren't much better. For example, voters who are more symapthetic to liberal government policies may also be more sympathetic to giving the time of day to telephone pollsters that interrupt their dinner.
Cheers,
James