Understanding Polls: A look into comments that started flamewars

Polls: Everyone on the BNCS has mixed reactions about these. Some don't really care about them. Some are fine with it. Some love them. Some hate them.

Whatever your thoughts are, we must admit: polls are powerful. They managed to cause (as of writing) 3 "wars" in the comment section.

And, I mean, we really gotta ask:

Why?

First, we need to look into WHAT a poll is.

Defining the "Poll"
A poll is a survey collecting opinions of others, and finding out which side has higher votes.

The term "poll" is most generally used in elections, like when we're voting for president.

However, the Big Nate Comments Section twists this definition. When people ask polls on the BNCS, the answers can be infinite. In political and definition all terms, polls can only have a few sides.

So, most literally, what BNCS deems "polls" are actually just "informational gathering questions".

Now, we need to look the history before polls on BNCS.

2005-2017; Big Nate B.P. (Before Polls)
This was the era in which the BNCS actually had comments RELATED to the strip (sounds like a dream, right?). Due to this mindset, people didn't really appreciate unrelated comments. This mindset would cause problems for...

2017- Present Year; Big Nate A.P. (After Polls)
2017 was the year the first poll (at least, that triggered war) was commented. People of the B.P. mindset disapproved, but some people didn't really seem to care. This was actually a poll related to the strip.

The disagreement of these two sides caused what is today known as "The Poll War".

The pollers and people agreeing with polls were known as "Narwhals" and people disagreeing with polls were known as "Anti-Pollers".

After the Poll War, two more poll wars happened (all In different years).

As of writing, polls are still a problem.

Impact
You may not realize, but polls have actually paved the way for how the BNCS functions today. A study I conducted on the comments on strips ranging from the B.P. and A.P. years shows that more comments from the A.P. years tended to go more off topic of the strip than B.P.

What this means is that polls made the Big Nate Comments Section be, well, not about Big Nate! Without polls, we may not have had a Big Nate Comments Wiki, or a Big Nate Comments Discord Server, or anything special like that! We would have just been another comment section on GoComics.

There are over 200+ comic comment sections on GoComics, and we are just one of them. So what makes us special? The diversity. Literally anyone, whether they read Big Nate or don't, can come here and still comment and have a good time. Whereas elsewhere, you'd just comment about the strip.

So, to all who hate polls, just think that we wouldn't have anything special if they didn't happen. Sure, they may be annoying, and people apparently can't learn to stop after 3 freaking Poll Wars, but in the end, they changed the BNCS.

I'm no Narwhal. I don't appreciate polls. But I appreciate their 'impact. 'Because of them, I could go on Big Nate and comment "Cheese is cool" and no one would fight me (except maybe cheese haters and B.P. sticklers)

Final note
Polls have had an important part in the BNCS. While it caused a lot of fights, wars, and hate, in the end, it made us special. It made us a gold piece in a sea of silver.

I hate you, polls, but thank you.