Surveys

This is a feature on other popular "BBS" software that would be nice to see here too.  There was some functionality for this under the old Altiris forums, on Altirigos.com, and maybe the old Juice too...

when they are actually filled out, done correctly, and with legitimate (or true) answers\results, can be a pretty great tool for shaping discussions and future planning.

Granted, it's hard to get all three of the above in any survey attempt, but it's worth a shot!

We've been scoping a feature like this on Connect, we're just trying to figure out exactly how to implement it.  We've got two pressing questions at the moment:

1) Where should surveys go?  Most forum software puts surveys as a special forum discussion type, which always felt awkward to me, it's not a discussion, it's a survey (with comments).  So we are considering adding this as a unique content type separate from forums.  Thoughts?  

2) What functionality should we have?  You can really do all kinds of crazy polls on the web these days, but in the end it feels like the simple multiple choice polls are the most useful.  We CAN put every single fancy polling option in there but it makes the poll creation form very cluttered and confusing.  So we are starting with the assumption that a basic multiple choice poll is required, then trying to decide what other poll types should be allowed.  What other poll types would you find useful?

is the best in my opinion. Leaves very little wiggle room (you have to answer something) and the results are easy to use. Each section (product or whatever) could have it's own "polling station" right at the top of the page.

Yes, basic survey should be sufficient.
I wouldn't create a seperate section for it, as the forums section gets most attention.

(I would maybe even integrate the "Ideas" section into the standard forums)

Cheers

PLUS commentability. Many (some at least) BBS systems have the ability to start a forum post with a poll, then comments thread like a normal forum thread below it.