We have updated the WordPress plugin to version 1.3.

If you are using WordPress.org, you can download the latest version here.
You can also read the latest support article on installing the plugin on a WordPress.org blog here.

Included in this update are new poll actions, open and close poll.
These actions, as the names suggest, allow you to…

Open a poll – the poll will accept votes.

Close a poll – a poll will not accept votes, also the poll title will say the poll is closed.

Also, if you have custom styles created on your PollDaddy site, you will now be given an option to select one of them when creating a poll.
When creating or editing a poll, just select the Custom Styles link under Design.

This will present you with a drop down menu of all your custom styles for you to choose from.

Use the Standard Styles link to be presented with the standard style templates again.

We intend to add more functionality to the plugin on a more regular basis so keep an eye on this blog for further updates.

We have added a new billing history page to the site.

You can access this page if you have a Pro/Pro2 account, by going to your account profile page. Here you will now see a ‘Billing History’ tab, click on this to be directed to the new billing history page.

This page shows you the following;

• All billing transactions to date
• Subscription Status
• Next billing date
• Cancellation link
• Invoice link
• Customer Reference Number

You will now be able to fully manage your subscription with PollDaddy from this page, from downloading past invoices to canceling a subscription.

If you have any questions about this page, please leave a comment or feedback here

Our rating widgets are now available directly in your WordPress.com dashboard. Look out for the “Ratings” option in your admin bar. You can see a full low down on how it all works over on the WordPress support site.

http://support.wordpress.com/ratings/

Also, check out this video for a demo of how to use this new feature.

We have added a new feature… survey filters.

The survey filters feature will create a sub set of responses based on conditions that you specify. You can set conditions based on the answers given by a respondent or the following response properties.

• Start Date
• End Date
• Total Response Time
• Country
• IP Address
• Respondent Tags

This new feature will allow you to create more meaningful reports based on your specific needs.

As an example, you may have a question in your survey like, “What is your gender?”. If you then created a filter on this question and specified the condition to be; all respondents that answered ‘Male’. After you enable this filter, all the reports will display just the answers given by the respondents that answered male.

For more information, read the support article.

We are busy trying to add more features and if you have any suggestions, please leave feedback here.

Our old site for our support documents was a little hard to use. We have now cleaned it up and refreshed the current documents there to make them easier to navigate and read. It is still a little light on content but we will be working to add new pages every month to make it quicker to find answers to your questions about PollDaddy.

Go take a look and let us know what you think: http://support.polldaddy.com

A number of users have complained in the past that accessing options on the ‘List Polls’ and ‘List Surveys’ pages was difficult. We used to use the ‘Options’ drop down menu (pictured on the right).

Today when you log into your account you will notice that we have changed the layout of these links (pictured below). Now when you hover over one of your polls, surveys or ratings, a menu with all available options will appear underneath it. This should make it easier to access these features and remove one mouse click from the process.

PollDaddy is proud to be providing the voting mechanism for the inaugural TechCrunch Europe Awards. Almost 100 different companies, entrepreneurs, and investors have been nominated for awards in 14 different categories.  You can vote online in all of these categories over the next week. Voting closes on the 2nd of July next week. If you are interested in European start ups then head on over for a look!

Award categories

The Europas: Best Web Application Or Service (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Design

The Europas: Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old)

The Europas: Best Social Innovation (which benefits society, EMEA)

The Europas: Best Enterprise / B2B Startup (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Cleantech / Environmental Startup (EMEA)

The Europas: Best European / Real World Gadget (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Entertainment Application or Service (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Mobile Startup (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Mobile Application (EMEA)

The Europas: Best Startup Founder(s)

The Europas: Best Investor (VC or Angel fund, EMEA)

The Europas: Best Investor Personality (EMEA)

The Europas: Best New Startup, Summer 2008-2009

We have updated the WordPress plugin to version 1.2

This version has fixed the last two remaining known bugs. The first bug was very tricky to locate as it was specific to the user’s hosts contraints.

Basically, when the plugin is installed, it requires you to login to retrieve an API key from PollDaddy. This key allows the plugin to communicate with PollDaddy. The request for the key uses SSL, however we found out that some hosts block SSL requests… so the plugin never retrieves an API key and thus, does not work for some users. We have now included an option to make a normal http request in this case.

The other bug was minor. After you logged in, the page would not redirect to the polls list… we have added a fix to correct this.

As far as we are aware, this release will resolve all known issues and from now on, we plan to keep adding more functionality to the plugin.

If you have any feedback about this plugin, please leave feedback here or use our feedback form.

We have been playing around with a new rating widget for the past few weeks here at PollDaddy HQ and we reckon its time to give it a public showing. Before I continue, this is very much a beta feature and there will be the inevitable few bugs cropping up so its not just ready for prime time yet. When you log into your PollDaddy account you should see a new option in the account menu for ‘Ratings’.  Here you can create a couple of different types of rating widgets as shown below…

You can create a star rating…

and you can also create a nero style rating…

As with all of our widgets, the ratings will be fully customizable to suit your needs. You can find a full low down on how all of this is going to work over on…

http://support.polldaddy.com/rating-widget/

We really need your help in making this a useful tool so please send any comments, suggestions or bugs to our support folks.

Lenny
PollDaddy.com

We have updated the site to allow you to enter a UTC offset or timezone in your account profile settings. This offset will now be applied to all the dates across the site, including the reports. Most importantly, this offset will allow you to localize all these dates relative to your timezone.

The reason we choose to change to UTC timezones rather than use standard GMT timezones, was because we found it more rigid and issues with DST cropped up. We choose a simpler offset for now but we’re pretty sure it will meet everyone’s requirements.

On the account profile page, you will now find a UTC setting, with an up/down counter to allow you to enter your UTC offset. As you click the up/down buttons, the local time relative to the current UTC offset will be displayed.. when this matches your local time, then you have the correct offset. You can set this value to any valid UTC offset and the dates in the poll/survey reports will reflect the new dates relative to this UTC timezone.

If you have any questions on this or anything else, please leave feedback in the comments or on our feedback page and we’ll get back to you.