This is a bad idea. I believe that hn actually will weight every comment you make based on your total karma to a degree. I've certainly heard people make anecdotal claims that if they have a lot of karma their comment, even if not heavily upvoted, appears near the top frequently.
This algorithm makes sense. Since upvotes are supposed to mean something like "I want to see more comments of this type and quality", it is giving the majority what they want to promote people who typically make such contributions.
As soon as you try to value an upvote as something different (here as an impromptu poll) you damage the entire system. What if I would dream of this but don't want to see more comments like yours since it's effectively spam? What if I like the idea and want to upvote it for visibility but would 'never dream' of this somewhat specialized idea?
The point I'm trying to make is that this is a bad idea without even going into how incredibly inaccurate such a poll is. This comment will not give any useful data, actively "abuses" hn's value system by asking for upvotes, and doesn't breed meaningful or intelligent discussion. Good for you I can't downvote yet :-). (notice how I added a smiley so that it would seem childish but friendly? Excellent tactic!)
If you want to do a poll I believe the polling option google docs provides will be much better suited (if perhaps slightly tainted by evil).
> As soon as you try to value an upvote as something different (here as an impromptu poll) you damage the entire system.
I'm a hacker and it was an experiment in trying to make the system do something beyond its advertised capabilities. At the end of the day, net 9 upvotes didn't "damage the entire system".
> What if I would dream of this but don't want to see more comments like yours since it's effectively spam? What if I like the idea and want to upvote it for visibility but would 'never dream' of this somewhat specialized idea?
I think you're taking this more seriously than it was intended.
What we learned was:
A. There are several others who had, in fact, dreamed of making this kind of system. But for whatever reason didn't execute on the idea.
B. This mechanism of polling has some limitations. A built in method for commenters to do an impromptu poll in the comments could be an interesting addition to HN.
I think an easier way would be to make two posts, Vote one up for each choice. Wouldn't prevent double voting but the difference between the two would still be accurate.
EDIT: 5 - 1 = net +4 votes as of 10:23 PDT.