We need your input!

Active polls:

Mysterium 2009 Date and Input Survey

For a complete list of all polls at any time, please visit here.

Results of closed polls:

Because the Mysterium Committee is committed to being open, we provide the tabulated results of our polls here:

Mysterium 2008 Location Survey Results - ended March 15th, 2008

Mysterium 2008 Date and Attendance Survey Results - ended March 15th, 2008

Our polling methods:

Internally, the Mysterium Committee is run by consensus: we care that any minority voice is heard, simply because being in the minority does not mean that your input is invalid. So we also express that sentiment in some of our surveys. In our ‘ranked’ surveys, where you rank your preferences from most-desirable to least-desirable, the method being used is also called the Borda count. From Wikipedia, “Because it sometimes elects broadly acceptable candidates, rather than those preferred by the majority, the Borda count is often described as a consensus-based electoral system, rather than a majoritarian one.”

Of course, we use this method only where it makes sense. For example, it would make sense to choose a location using this method, but it would not make sense to ask people if they will be attending Mysterium using this method.

A basic explanation of our ranked surveys is as follows: Since there were 7 location candidates for the location poll, you were asked to rank the 7 candidates from most-preferable to least-preferable. After the survey was closed, we assigned points to the candidates based on how many votes in each ‘ranking’ they received. Thus, the first-choice votes were multiplied by 7 for each location, the second-choice votes by 6, and so on for each location. This means, then, that the last-choice points would count the least, assigning only one point to that city.

For example, in our 2008 Location Survey, Boston overwhelmingly received the most number of first-choice votes. Those votes count the most. The runner-up in terms of first-choice votes was Atlanta. Thus, if we had just run a simple ‘pick-one’ survey, Boston would have came in first, with Atlanta in second. However, when the results of our ranked survey were assigned weighted points in respect to their various rankings, Pittsburgh actually came in second, because it received more 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-choice votes than Atlanta. Those positions are worth more together weighted than the first-choice votes. In the same token, Detroit came in dead last because it received the most worthless points, essentially; it was 38 people’s LAST choice, the overwhelming majority of last-choices.