What the "banana" word means in polls?

Abdul-Aziz · February 22, 2003, 21:33

Well, as I am new here, could someone please explain what the "banana" option on certain polls means (it seems this option is like on 80% of polls, and some polls has nothing to do with fruits). Is this considered a joke? If so, why does in certain polls I viewed when I browsed off-topic forums it gets so many votes?

ColdWizard · February 22, 2003, 21:35

it's a traditional poll option

Abdul-Aziz · February 22, 2003, 21:38

OK, I see that, but what does it means and what are the origins of it?

Frozzy · February 22, 2003, 21:42

It basically means abstain. You vote for it if you want to make a joke of the poll, or can't find an option to suit your needs.

In the Off-Topic forum, no polls are taken seriously if they don't have a banana option.

It's just an Apolyton tradition.

Zopperoni · February 22, 2003, 21:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Abdul-Aziz
OK, I see that, but what does it means and what are the origins of it?

It's a nonsense option, it doesn't mean anything really.

A long time ago, someone included the option "Banana" in his poll.
The responses to it were positive, and a tradition was born.

Abdul-Aziz · February 22, 2003, 22:06

OK, thanks, I understood it it seems... Thankfully tradition is only in Off-Topic, cause I already created a poll in civilization future forums without this option...

Lefty Scaevola · February 22, 2003, 22:07

The equivilent to "bannana" over at CFC is "Giant Radiactive Monkeys"

ixnay · February 22, 2003, 22:11

And at Something Awful, it's simply "Comedy third (or whatever option it is) option".

Abdul-Aziz · February 22, 2003, 22:27

And at Civilization - Macintosh forums it is "Apple", isn't it? :-)

mactbone · February 23, 2003, 00:01

I'm surprised that you weren't run off for not having a banana option.

I remember Mr.Fun was trying to get people to switch to "Strawberry" but it never really caught on.

Nubclear · February 23, 2003, 01:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
The equivilent to "bannana" over at CFC is "Giant Radiactive Monkeys"

CFC inferiority

H Tower · February 23, 2003, 04:00

you people should be ashamed of yourselves for not seeing through this obvious DL.

DL! DL!

/me does the DL dance

Frozzy · February 23, 2003, 04:03

H Tower, we've done that

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=78107

Dis · February 23, 2003, 04:33

It's a "phallic" thing

It has to do with the repressed homosexual urges of Apolytoners

DrSpike · February 23, 2003, 08:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Dissident
It's a "phallic" thing

It has to do with the repressed homosexual urges of Apolytoners

Still better than CFC's repressed bestial urges.

Gatekeeper · February 23, 2003, 15:33

I think the "banana" remains the "abstain" or "make fun of" option even in the Macintosh forums here. An apple, though, would make more sense ...

Gatekeeper

ColdWizard · February 23, 2003, 15:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Abdul-Aziz
OK, thanks, I understood it it seems... Thankfully tradition is only in Off-Topic, cause I already created a poll in civilization future forums without this option...

actually the tradition has spread outside the OT, though the banana option isn't necessarily expected in other forums

DarkCloud · February 23, 2003, 18:37

Quote:

A long time ago, someone included the option "Banana" in his poll.
The responses to it were positive, and a tradition was born

That's stefu's fault... or someone else- it happened during bananagate around late summer 2001, I think...

he made a poll about which type of fruit people liked... and many people copied the thread- we had about 20 or so polls with "banana" in their option lines

(over 6 people were 24-hr banned

)

IT was an amusing day

banana appears quite often in the demogames for some reason??

ColdWizard · February 23, 2003, 18:45

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkCloud
banana appears quite often in the demogames for some reason??

i noticed that in the civ2dg, dunno why though. carried by OTers in search of +1's perhaps

DarkCloud · February 23, 2003, 18:48

...I doubt they even know where it originated... sigh... youth...

DrSpike · February 23, 2003, 19:15

Quote:

Originally posted by DarkCloud

banana appears quite often in the demogames for some reason??

/me finds that not at all surprising.

mrmitchell · February 23, 2003, 21:22

Banana is an Apolyton tradition.

From simple poll option to synonym for Abstain to full-blown set of myths and legends (i.e. Apolyton sends you subliminal messages to buy bananas), it has become embedded in Poly culture.

But who started it? DarkCloud's been around enough to know, so I trust him. (Kinda.)

Ben Kenobi · February 23, 2003, 22:30

Quote:

banana appears quite often in the demogames for some reason??

Fear the banana

All of our uncontested elections, (and some of our contested ones,) run a banana option.

Sometimes the banana even wins.

Banana is a tradition of the Civ2DG because it encourages people to vote for what they agree with, not simply the least-bad option.

Polls that are a waste of time are banana vote havens.

Lefty Scaevola · February 23, 2003, 22:44

Quote:

Originally posted by DrSpike
better than CFC's repressed bestial urges.

Repressed?

H Tower · February 24, 2003, 02:44

well the reason that banana is so prevalent in the civ2 DG is because many of us are OTFers as well. Or it used to be that, but most of those who started the game have since dissapeared

aaglo · February 24, 2003, 05:41

If you do a poll in the OT-forum without a banana option, 9 out of 10 posters will ask "where's the banana option?"

TheStinger · February 24, 2003, 10:35

Bannana is as valid an option as many of the "normal ones offered"

Kassiopeia · February 24, 2003, 12:59

The SMAC Democracy Game's official polls always (IIRC) have a "Xenobanana" option. If a person who is an only candidate in an election loses to Xenobanana, he is "banana'd". Xenobanana even nearly won a region name poll (they were going to call a region "Xenobanan", oh the horror) but my aggressive campaigning finally made "Solaris" the winner.

Nikolai · February 24, 2003, 13:58

Fear the Xenobanana... Doesn't sound good....

Method · February 24, 2003, 19:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
The SMAC Democracy Game's official polls always (IIRC) have a "Xenobanana" option. If a person who is an only candidate in an election loses to Xenobanana, he is "banana'd".

actually, the word "abstain" was changed to xenobanana after Archaic was defeated in the term II elections by him, and he complained that "abstain" meant a forfeit of your vote (which would have allowed him to win), not for xenobanana, which signifies that you don't like either candidate, but does not give up your vote....or something