Why your vote is locked

Once you pick a side on Splitted, you can't change it. That was a hard decision, and a deliberate one.

People ask me this more than anything else: why can't I change my vote?

I understand the frustration. You tap Yes, you read a good argument for No, and you wish you could take it back.

But think about what the results would mean if you could. Every percentage would drift toward whatever the crowd already believed. People would vote, peek, and switch. The split at the end of the day would stop showing what people thought, and start showing what they thought after checking what everyone else thought.

A locked vote keeps the result honest. It's a snapshot of first instinct, from people who committed before they knew which way the wind was blowing.

It's also why you can't see the results until you've voted. Your answer should be yours, not a reaction to a number.

None of this means your mind can't change. It just means the place for that is the conversation afterwards. Tell people why you voted the way you did. Tell them if the other side got to you. Some of the best comments I've read start with “I voted A, but…”

Changing your mind in public, with your original vote sitting right there, takes more courage than quietly flipping a switch. I'd rather build for that.

So the vote stays. The conversation is where it keeps moving.