Introducing »Fraud Bot« – our new artificial colleague

»Fraud Bot« is an artificial intelligence (AI) that can help you detect fraudulent participation and thus protect you from election fraud.
When PollUnit is used to conduct online elections such as club elections or board elections, the invitation function with a one-time code is usually used. This ensures that each invited person can only vote once. For votes of this type, it is usually no problem to send out invitations, since the members are known.
The situation is different if the voting members are unknown. For example, when holding a photo contest. Organizers usually want to encourage new users to participate. Often the hurdle for participants has to be weighed against fraud protection.
This is where »Fraud Bot« comes into play. It can analyze the behavior of voters, recognize multiple participations and mark them. The security settings of the PollUnit are not relevant here. Even with anonymization enabled, our AI is able to detect fraud attempts.
Even though »Fraud Bot« has already proven to be a very good sniffer in numerous polls, you should be aware of one thing: a hundred percent security cannot be achieved this way. It is technically impossible without authentication, like our previously mentioned one-time codes. But »Fraud Bot« gives you a relatively accurate impression of the fraudulent behavior of the voters. This allows you to delete suspicious votes or disqualify submissions.
Published at: 2022-01-05 12:19 AM
Introducing »Fraud Bot« – o...Customizations for individual polls and photo contests
Today we are back with two new customization features. These give you the necessary tools to adjust the visual design of PollUnit to your company or your taste. This makes your PollUnit as individual as you and your brand.
With our new layout settings for photo contests, organizers can customize the display of the gallery and the individual images.
You can access the layout settings in the admin link by clicking on the pencil right above the images. You can define the width of the gallery and the format of the images. This includes automatic, square, portrait and landscape format.
If these settings don't go far enough, you can now create your own Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in your themes.
CSS is a language that describes and determines the appearance of an HTML website. A Theme defines the look of your PollUnit. With the necessary technical know how you can also customize details. This includes colors, shapes, sizes of elements and fonts, hover effects and much more.
Published at: 2021-12-27 10:22 PM
Customizations for individu...
Descriptions for photos

If you use PollUnit as a Photo submission platform, we have an update for you. Our subtitle and link addon is complemented by a description addon.
Addons are additional information about images. If you activate them in the first step, all submitters will be able to fill in this information when submitting a picture. These fields are visible for all visitors of your photo contest. If you want to request information that should only be accessible to administrators, you can configure this in the »Advanced« step.
In contrast to the subtitle, which only displays short texts, the description is also suitable for very long texts with formatting such as font styles, links, lists, etc.. This allows photographers to tell their own story about their images and add more information.
Visitors can find the description in the context menu, but also in the information block of each image. In the lightbox you can toggle the description. The Lightbox is a player for images with full screen function and much more.
Published at: 2021-11-10 03:34 PM
Descriptions for photosWe're improving our comment features
In PollUnit you can start a conversations, ask questions, or engage with others through comments. You can leave general comments to the PollUnit or specific comments on options and images.
Especially due to our photo contests this function became more important for many of our users. Here the comment function is used to exchange useful tips in photo reviews. But also in the idea collections thoughts, pros and cons are exchanged. So we decided to improve our commenting features.
We already released the first update. It is now possible to reply to other users comments. It's easier to have a discussion that way. But also to separate different discussions from each other.
We plan to release more comment features in the near future. These include reactions through emojis and images in comments. Are you still missing a comment or feedback function? Then don't hesitate and write us in our support forum or to support@pollunit.com.
Published at: 2021-11-10 08:11 AM
We're improving our comment...
Clear statements with superlative elections and votings

The superlative indicates that a thing, person or object has the highest possible level of a property or characteristic compared to other things.
In an online superlative election or vote, participants choose their favorite – or one favorite per category. And they do so with a clear statement. They have to decide which option, image or person they consider best.
If you are using our Poll Maker to let people vote in different categories, your categories should also be named in the superlative. For example, a Halloween costume photo contest could consist of the following categories: Most Creative, funniest, scariest, bloodiest, or best team outfit, etc.
You can specify our new voting type in the basic settings (step 1) when creating your PollUnit. Besides the "Superlative Voting" you will find many other vote types. Try it out right away, the basic functions are for free!
Published at: 2021-10-25 10:36 AM
Clear statements with super...Asking questions visually: Descriptions with pictures
Create engaging image-based polls and surveys. Supplement your questions with photos, explanatory graphics, or marketing materials.
Voting on images has always been one of the core features of PollUnit. Now there is another possibility to add images to your PollUnits.
In the descriptions of polls, photo contests, ideas and the individual questions of your questionnaires you can now add images. You can upload and place images by clicking on the image icon in the rich text editor.
Published at: 2021-09-29 09:11 AM
Asking questions visually: ...
Impress your audience with custom made themes and colors

Already at the release of our poll maker, users could create their own themes and choose the appropriate color from a color palette. Themes are design templates that contain color information as well as font and graphics.
With our improved color handling you can now pick your own colors or insert them using a hex color code.
This way you can ensure a consistent appearance of your company and brand. But colors are not only important recognition features. Colors generate emotions and affect the way we feel. The power of color is now in your hands and you can freely and easily create more appealing questionnaires, polls and photo contests.
Learn more in our tutorial »Create your own theme«. Customizable colors has been frequently requested. So we are curious how you like it and what we can do better - feedback welcome!
Published at: 2021-09-27 09:29 AM
Impress your audience with ...Let the dice decide: pick random winners
Usually, online voting is about collecting votes, preventing fraud, and finally awarding the options with the most votes and selecting them as winners. However, in some cases, random voting is also useful.
This includes all kinds of fun contests such as a photo contest among friends and colleagues. However, an additional and random draw can also encourage participation. In stalemate situations, i.e. in case of a tie or very close voting results, it can help to let chance decide.
When closing your PollUnit you can now draw random winners or results. The decision is made by a random algorithm.
Published at: 2021-09-27 09:27 AM
Let the dice decide: pick r...
Photo contest with categories

Is it all a matter of taste? One and the same photo can please one viewer and not the other. Moreover, the perception of quality depends on the experience, knowledge and culture of the viewer. So how can you objectively evaluate photos and learn something from these evaluations?
Voting categories help to define evaluation criteria. Popular criteria in photo clubs for image review or image judging are, for example, shooting and editing technique, image composition and design, image message and motif. With these or similar categories, a fairer and more objective judgment can be formed when analyzing the images. Once the jurors have evaluated all the images in the categories, the votes are combined.
This has advantages for the jurors as well as for the photographers. It is easier for the jurors to make a well-founded judgment than if they make their overall impression the basis of their evaluation. The photographers get a more precise analysis and can recognize weak points in their work and learn from it.
For this reason it is now possible to create rating criteria or voting categories in PollUnit. If you use the PollUnit photo contest maker you can choose category winners as well as the overall winner.
In addition to voting categories, you can also define submission categories. This allows participants to assign their photos to specific themes when uploading – for example, categories like architecture, portraits, or landscapes.
Published at: 2021-09-22 10:09 AM
Photo contest with categoriesVote with a smile
The new voting type »Emoji Voting« allows participants to express their feelings with the help of smileys and makes PollUnit your online smiley feedback system. Smiley voting is very easy to understand and ideal for polling customer satisfaction or happiness at work.
Over 3 or 5 emojis from »Dissatisfied« to »Satisfied« or from »Angry« to »Very satisfied« the votes are given. Particularly negative and particularly positive votes are increasingly rated.
The evaluation helps to identify the most important parameters to increase customer or employee satisfaction.
Try it yourself and create a poll or survey. Happy voting!
Published at: 2021-07-11 08:38 PM
Vote with a smile