Are online polls legitimate?

[Ziggurat]

Boaty McBoatface won an online poll. So no, not legit.

There are all sorts of problems with the reliability of online polls, but Boaty McBoatface isn't one of them. There is no evidence that Boaty McBoatface wouldn't win in actual controlled polling. The problem with Boaty McBoatface isn't that it doesn't reflect the desires of the public (it very well may), but that it conflicts with the desires of the people who control the actual boat.

 

[Arcade22]

All polls "legitimacy" derives from the questions asked and, most importantly, how representative the samples (the people that are questioned) are of the wider population.

More often than not internet polls are not representative because of the fact that the people who vote in them are self-selected rather than randomly chosen. Together with certain political viewpoints being under/over-represented on many websites this can easily lead to the results of online polls being incredibly inaccurate.

 

[psionl0]

I was going to vote "Planet X" but there is no voting options on this question.

 

[Cleon]

Good rule of thumb:

If the people being polled are sampled in a scientific manner, it's a legit poll.

If the "poll" in question is a widget on a web site, it's not a poll, it's a click generator.