Why Using Reddit For Polling Doesn't Work

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Instead of talking about the recent Reddit acquisition (which has been all the rage this week), I’d rather get back to the basics and consider a different topic.

With increasing frequency, it seems that people are attempting to use Reddit as a voting engine in the “vote up if you believe [x] or down if you don’t” type model.

Here’s one example:  http://reddit.com/info/p5lb/comments

It has already been brought up that these types of Reddit points should not count towards karma.  Though I agree with that point, I don’t give a flying flip about Reddit karma points because they really do anything for me (but if you like them, may you go in peace).

What I would like to comment on is the simple fact that using reddit as a voting mechanism like this doesn’t work.  The reason is very simple:  Reddit quickly becomes a “self-reinforcing” loop so that those that agree with whatever the question is are more likely to see the poll in the first place (because that article will make it to the top of the list).  So, the outcome of the poll is immensely influenced by the way the question is structured (i.e. what it means to vote up or down).

Am I missing something, or is this mechanism to try and poll popular opinion one of the silliest ways to go about this?