Polls on the Effective Altruism Forum are a built-in feature that allows users to embed simple, interactive voting tools directly into their posts. This functionality was publicly launched during DIY Debate Week in April 2025, which encouraged users to experiment with making their own polls to prompt discussion and engagement.
The feature was introduced to:
Encourage structured discussion through interactive prompts.
Enable novel post formats (e.g., dialogues with reader voting, debate-style arguments with polling after each claim).
Support a “vote → comment → discussion” pipeline that had proven successful during earlier Debate Weeks .
Use cases and format
Polls are designed to support a range of uses:
Gauging community sentiment on a statement or claim.
Choosing between two competing ideas or options.
Assessing levels of agreement on ethical or strategic questions.
Further reading
DIY debate week (April 28 - May 4th)
Mini Forum update: Draft comments, and polls in comments
Related entries
DIY Debate Week | Events on the EA Forum | Effective Altruism Forum