I may have not done enough testing to make sure how this works, but it seems that invitations can be used more than once for submissions, but only once for voting. Also the same invitation will work for both submissions and voting. Please confirm this is the expected behavior.
My club typically gets 200-300 photo submissions for our annual photo contest. A maximum of 13 photos can be submitted in 3 different categories. During voting, members are asked to vote using a 5-star system to rate each photo. We have over 1000 members, but only about 10% of them participate (submit entries and vote) in our photo contest.
My main concern is that members may not be able to rate all 200-300 photos in one session. I don't want to have to give them a second invite, but do want to limit both submissions and voting to members only. I think a password would work fine for this, but don't see how I can implement password-only security. Please advise.
Hi Jane,
Yes, this is expected behaviour.
In step 4 of the wizard you can set a password. Maybe this solves your problem?
Kind regards
Philipp
I can set a password, but I don't see that I can use that as my only security measure. I am forced to select one option in the Restrict Voting section. Which one can I select that would allow a member to vote in more than one session, i.e. use a participant link (not an invite link) and vote, and then return to the site later using the same link and finish their voting?
The second option would allow that. The user can resume the session, when the same browser is used and the cookies are not cleared.
I am now preparing for the voting part of my contests. You said I could pick the second option, Allow only one participation, so the user can resume their session using the same device and browser. However we have husbands and wives that have memberships and use the same computer. If they both use the same computer and browser, their votes will be assumed to be from the same individual, correct? This is not the results I am looking for. Can you suggest any other alternatives?
Then you could use the first option to allow multiple votes from the same device.
So I understand that allows new participations on the same browser/device, and there is a button to start new participations. But I don't want to encourage one person to do multiple participations, only multiple sessions of the same one participation. I'm going to use url parameters that are unique to each participant so I can try to identify cheating, but if I use this setting the same url parameter would be used for new participations by different people. That defeats the benefit of using url parameters.
We have single and family memberships, and everyone on each membership will be able to vote. I'm guessing the only way to allow family members to use the same browser/device for independent multiple participation sessions by the same individual is to require a PollUnit account. I prefer not to make anyone sign up for an account, but trying to explain to members that have a family membership how to do this may be difficult for some to understand and may not be effective.
The most reliable and robust solution is to have your members use a PollUnit account.
This ensures that:
- each person is uniquely identified, even when using the same device
- submissions and ratings can be continued across multiple sessions and devices
You can still combine this with password protection or private links, but for fair and clean voting in larger clubs, I generally recommend using PollUnit accounts.
Using a PollUnit account work the same regardless of whether or not it is required, correct?
Yes, that’s correct. A PollUnit account works the same regardless of whether it is required or used voluntarily.
However, if multiple people share the same computer, a session created by someone without an account can be lost permanently when another person ends it. For your specific use case, requiring participants to log in ensures that sessions are preserved.
Markus, I'm not sure I understand your last statement. Can you elaborate?
What I meant is this:
If you know that someone else might use the same computer, it’s a good idea to require users to create an account. Otherwise, another person could accidentally end the session of someone who already voted. And if a session without an account is ended, that person can’t join again as the same participant.
However, if different people use separate logins on the same computer (for example, different user accounts in the operating system), this should not be a problem.
