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| ANES Online Commons |
| General |
| What are the goals of the American National Election Studies? How is the ANES different than other election studies? Please visit the About ANES page on the ANES website. Back to top |
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| What is the purpose of the Online Commons? The Online Commons displays proposals and message boards relevant to the development of ANES surveys. They are designed to foster innovation and debate about the most effective ways to measure electorally-relevant concepts and relationships and they increase the transparency of ANES survey design. The Online Commons presents an exciting opportunity for researchers and graduate students to be more involved in the development of ANES data collections. Back to top |
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| Beyond helping improve ANES data collections, what are the benefits of the Online Commons? The Online Commons can provide benefits to scholars beyond those that accrue directly to improved ANES questionnaires. Consider, for example, opportunities for senior and junior scholars. Some senior researchers have sufficient resources to conduct their own studies. Many innovative insights come from such work. However, it is also true that for most such studies, there is limited incentive or opportunity to solicit broad feedback about study design. In some cases, a study is fielded quickly. In other cases, scholars who want broad feedback do not have a mechanism through which to get it. The Online Commons provides a forum for vetting such ideas. Whether or not these questions ultimately appear on an ANES survey, scholars can get constructive feedback about their proposals. Some junior faculty and graduate students are fortunate enough to be in settings where they get good advice about study or question design. But many others do not – and even those who do get good advice from a few senior scholars may get additional valuable advice from a more diverse scholarly audience. High-quality feedback can be especially important to young scholars and thereby to the scientific community that will one day learn from them. As a focal public resource for election scholarship, the ANES can help the user community to exchange ideas with itself. We envision the Online Commons as providing an open forum for such mentoring. Back to top |
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| I’m not interested in surveys or science. I just want to state a political opinion. Can I do that here? No. The purpose of this site is to facilitate efficient and effective research on matters relating to voting and elections, particularly via the ANES. Back to top |
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| Is posting on the Online Commons a necessary condition for adding a question to an ANES data collection? Yes. Back to top |
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| Technical Issues |
| Why can't I log in? Have you registered? You must register in order to log in - after registering, within approximately two business days a username and password will be emailed to you by ANES. Have you been banned from the board? (A message will be displayed if you have.) If so, you should contact the board administrator (anes@electionstudies.org) to find out why. If you have registered and are not banned and you still cannot log in, then check and double-check your username and password. Usually this is the problem; if not, contact the board administrator (anes@electionstudies.org) -- they may have incorrect configuration settings for the board. Back to top |
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| Why do I get logged off automatically? The board will only keep you logged in for a preset time if you are not actively using it. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. Back to top |
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| Where did the flashing checkmarks go? To see the flashing checkmarks (which indicate new proposals or comments posted since you last visited), you need to log in to the Online Commons first. The Online Commons needs to know who you are to know when you last visited in order to show flashing checkmarks in the appropriate places. Of course, before you can log in, you need to register first. Back to top |
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| I've lost my password! Don't panic! While your password cannot be retrieved it can be reset. To do this go to the login page and click "I've forgotten my password". Follow the instructions and you should be back online in no time. Back to top |
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| How do I change my settings? If you are a Registered User, to change your settings click the "Change Password/Preferences" link at the top of the page. This will allow you to change your password and/or timezone. Back to top |
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| The times are not correct! The times are almost certainly correct; however, what you may be seeing are times displayed in a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case, you should change your profile setting for the timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by Registered Users. So if you are not registered, this is a good time to do so, if you pardon the pun! Back to top |
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| I changed the timezone and the time is still wrong! If you are sure you have set the timezone correctly and the time is still different, the most likely answer is daylight savings time (or summer time as it is known in the UK and other places). The board is not designed to handle the changeovers between standard and daylight time so during summer months the time may be an hour different from the real local time. Back to top |
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| How do I post a discussion in a forum? Easy -- click the relevant button on either the forum or discussion screens. You will need to register and log in before you can post a message. Back to top |
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| How do I edit or delete a post? Unless you are the board administrator or forum moderator you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post (sometimes for only a limited time after it was made) by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic that lists the number of times you edited it. This will only appear if no one has replied; it also will not appear if moderators or administrators edit the post (they should leave a message saying what they altered and why). Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied. Back to top |
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| Can I use HTML? This function is set by the board administrator (anes@electionstudies.org). Users are currently allowed to use the following HTML tags: B, I, U, PRE, A, and IMG. Back to top |
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| Can I post Images? Images can indeed be shown in your posts. However, there is no facility at present for uploading images directly to this board. Therefore you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor to images stored behind authentication mechanisms such as Hotmail or Yahoo mailboxes, password-protected sites, etc. To display the image use the appropriate HTML. Back to top |
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| What are Locked discussions? Locked discussions are set this way by the board administrator (anes@electionstudies.org). You cannot reply to locked discussions. Discussions are locked for various reasons. Back to top |
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| What are Administrators? Administrators are people assigned the highest level of control over the entire board. These people can control all facets of board operation which include setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc. They also have full moderator capabilities in all the forums. Back to top |
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| What are Moderators? Moderators are individuals whose job it is to look after the running of the forums from day to day. They have the power to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally moderators are there to prevent people going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material. Back to top |
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| phpBB 2 Issues |
| Who wrote this bulletin board? This software (in its unmodified form) is produced, released and is copyrighted phpBB Group. It is made available under the GNU General Public License and may be freely distributed; see link for more details. Back to top |
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| Why isn't X feature available? This software was written by and licensed through phpBB Group. If you believe a feature needs to be added then please visit the phpbb.com website and see what the phpBB Group has to say. Please do not post feature requests to the board at phpbb.com, as the Group uses sourceforge to handle tasking of new features. Please read through the forums and see what, if any, our position may already be for features and then follow the procedure given there. Back to top |
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| Whom do I contact about abusive and/or legal matters related to this board? You should contact the administrator of this board (by email to "anes@electionstudies.org"). Please note that phpBB Group has absolutely no control and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. Back to top |
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