Errata: The Online Poll
The idea: a poll anyone can answer measures the people who chose to answer; ask who saw it, who voted, and who never had the chance.
Read it
Who is in this book
- Corah Who got left out of the sample changes the answer from InferForge
- Deed Go to the original document, not a summary of a summary from NewsForge
- Danya a child of the Green Asks "how do we know?"
- Prei Of everything that got flagged, how much was really what you feared from FilterForge
- Sana Before you trust a result, check who was counted and who was left out from InquiryForge
- Attest Every claim names its source, and a correction names one too from NewsForge
- Tara a child of the Green Listens longest, speaks last
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- A poll in which people choose for themselves whether to answer is called a self-selected, or voluntary response, sample. It tends to over-represent people with strong views, and cannot be assumed to speak for everyone. Source
- In 1936 the magazine Literary Digest predicted the wrong winner of the United States presidential election from more than two million replies, because the people it asked, and the people who chose to reply, were not like the country as a whole. Source
- In the case, 115 of 140 is about 82%; 92 yes votes from one group's link and 23 from everyone else make 115; 23 of the other 44 is about 52%.
Stretched
- In the case, the website records exactly which link each vote came through. What we simplified: Real websites can often tell where visitors came from, but not always, and one person can sometimes vote more than once. Even a perfect record of the voters cannot tell you about the people who never voted.
Made up
- The Green Gazette, its poll, the Green Neighbours group, Nadia, Mr Okafor, Kai and the skate park's youth worker are made up. The idea of self-selection is real.
Tara’s sentence
The case stops where Tara speaks. Write the sentence you would have said. It stays on this device.
Kept.
Your sentence lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.