New Poll on TiltMeters

[Muhammad]

Please check out our new poll on TractorByNet.com...

Would you like to see all new tractors sold with TiltMeters?

Yes, or No?

A TiltMeter is a safety device that mounts on your tractor and indicates the degree angle at which you are operating at. By knowing this angle, you can know which slopes are safe to operate on, and which are too steep for safe operation, based on your tractor's rated safe operating angle. (See your owner's manual for that information.)

Click here to vote!

Thanks for your participation!

 

[glennmac]

What's to prevent ballot stuffing? I know we want to help Rick, but you wouldn't want the site's credibility and integrity questioned.

 

[Bird]

Glenn, have you voted on the issue yet? I did, then went back to it again and it didn't give me the option of voting again, it just gave me the results so far; 12/zip in favor. So I'd guess if you're a member logged on, it ain't gonna let you vote twice. Now if I could just figure out a way to vote a few more times in the presidential election . . ../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[Muhammad]

There isn't any ballot stuffing going on, and if there ever was (almost impossible technically with the way the poll works), we would do all we could to stop it, and correct the 'stuffed' votes. One vote maximum for every IP address.

I, and the other people who help keep this site running are all for safety, and we believe most of the users here are as well. This topic is about safety, and I think it is worth a vote. Nobody is paying us to take a vote on this, and nobody even asked us to take a vote on the tiltmeter topic. After seeing the popular discussions over the past month or so, and how popular tiltmeters are, we found this topic to be worth being featured and voted on.

If you don't think the topic is appropriate, you simply don't have to vote… and you are welcome to suggest future poll topics in the feedback forum.

 

[huckflynn]

I have an idea for a poll. Who thinks that owner's manuals and safety stickers should be ignored/discarded as so much garbage that the manufacturers are feeding us to safeguard themselves from lawsuits. And who thinks that abiding by owner's manuals and warning stickers is a good idea?

If we can't pay attention to what the manufacturer is giving us now -- why should they give us more?

Huck

(I think I'm still suffering from an adverse reaction to the "benefit" derived from a lengthy discussion about the use of ROPS and seat belts -- to me it should have been a no-brainer -- but then, I'm a huckleberry) /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by huckflynn on 11/2/00 02:47 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[glennmac]

I think it is an appropriate topic on which to vote, and I was sure that you had considered the multiple vote issue. I just wanted to anticipate the question because it is one that would naturally come up in the mind of some third party who may be informed of the results of the poll.

 

[BobT]

Online web based polls are usually tied to both cookie files and ISP addresses. So, it is possible that if a user accessed from two different places, they could vote twice. However, out of the several thousand votes that are likely to be registered on a poll such as this, "double votes", if they occured, would constitute less than 1% of the vote total. As we all know, the polls that are offered several times a day by the top commercial polling firms, are stated to be "within 4%" or similar numbers. Plus or minus 4 to 5% is considered a statistically valid poll sample, and accepted by the experts. The polls here are probably more accurate than presidential and other political polls ---amongst the target market, that is, TBN users, but not as a random sample of the total US population.

BobT.
A Indiana Boy

 

[Bird]

Huck, I'm not sure how such a poll would be worded, but I'm one of those nuts who wants to read the entire owners manual on anything I buy (first 30+ pages of my wife's car's owners manual is devoted to what I'd consider to be just common sense safety matters). When I start to repair or work on anything, the first thing I want to do is read the manual. My youngest brother is exactly the opposite; he tears into it, and if he runs into a problem, then he reads the manual. And I'm sorry to say he's a better mechanic than I! One thing I'll probably never forget, though, is that in one of the classes I took in my previous profession, we were told to "go by the book until you know more than the book." I still believe that's the way to go. I'm pretty much a "by the book" sort of guy, but there are exceptions. You have to remember that the book was written by a human, he probably knew more than we do when he wrote it, but possibly not, and he might have made a mistake or two somewhere (who hasn't), and there may have been specific reasons for what he said that don't apply to our situation. At any rate, I never throw the book away; I might need it someday.

Bird

 

[huckflynn]

Bird,

What would your brother say about blowing an engine and then reading the manual about warming times? Or, heaven forbid, burying a loved one, and then reading the manual about the use of ROPS and seat belts?

Blowing an engine is only blowing money. And we've all done our fair share of blowing some money. But you don't always get a second chance when you blow it on safety. We need to err on the side of conservativism.

I'm all for TiltMeters. And I'm all for established standards for safe operation so that audible warnings could be given when approaching hazardous angles. But it won't do any good if people are out there preaching that it is just a "cover your ass" approach from the manufacturers.

I think that is irresponsible.

Huck

 

[DVerbarg]

Muhammad,

Those of us who have dial-up accounts into ISPs (vs cable or DSL connections) receive a different IP address everytime we dial-up. Hence a new IP address and another opportunity to vote on a poll. From home I have an opportunity to vote everytime I check TBN, every morning and evening. From work I use the same IP address and never receive a second opportunity to vote.

Have not tried since the new poll was started so I don't know if anything was changed but ballot stuffing is possible, although on a slow and limited basis.

DaveV