• Optional@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Does a pre-cleared set of volunteers who willingly gave their demographic information in order to participate in online polls count as a random sample?

    • dan@upvote.au
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      1 month ago

      I don’t know how participants in polls are selected, so I’m not really qualified to make assumptions about it.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The methodolgy section of their site lays it all out. It’s a selling point. And no, it’s not random.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          1 month ago

          And no, it’s not random.

          In that case, the data is practically meaningless :D

          • Optional@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Well that’s the thing. Do meaningless things make the national news everyday in October? Yes. And here we are in June. They’re gonna throw more money at us until we forget about 2016. And since that’s not going to happen, it’s all this.