On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 09:18 AM, Tim Laureska wrote: > I have a basic yes/no survey question at a site that is not password > protected (we'd like to keep it that way so as not discourage response)
The only way to secure a survey is to require authentication, at which point your results will be as reliable as your security. If you don't want to require registration and authentication (which is sounds like you don't), the best you can do is use the cookie and/or IP technique others have mentioned. There are ways to minimize (but not eliminate) the inherent problems with using cookies or IP addresses. First of all, you can use a combination of the two, so that if someone does not have cookies enabled in their browser, you can fall back on their IP address. Additionally, you can use a hash of their IP and user agent to try to identify particular clients more uniquely than just IP addresses allows. The Pollster application on DRK 4 uses some of these approaches. The bottom line, however, is that unless you require authentication, your poll or survey cannot be considered scientifically reliable. Christian ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. http://www.cfhosting.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
