anonymous users limited to one repsonse?

[johnmark]

I am using email lists to invite users and have set the survey to limit one response per user. When I look at the responses, it isn't clear that users can only answer the survey once. How is the one response per user enforced?

[jfischer]

The answer to this can depend on a few factors. Most importantly, what is your "Survey Security" set to in the "Permissions" section of the survey?

[johnmark]

Thanks for your quick reply. I left all of the boxes unchecked.

no public registration
no email required
users are not allowed to edit their own info
users can't reset their password

[johnmark]

Hi,

I think I misunderstood your other question,

the survey security setting is "Invitation only"

and under response options I have selected "allow users to resume" and "allow users to edit responses" with the maximum responses per users set to one.

Thanks again.

[jfischer]

Great, thank you for the clarification. Each email that goes out when you send an invitation to an "Invitation Only" survey includes a unique identifier in the URL of the survey. When the respondent clicks on the link to the survey, this unique identifier is checked against the list of invitations sent out. If this unique identifier is in the list, and has not been associated with a previous completed response, the respondent is allowed to continue with the survey. If the unique identifier is already associated with a completed response, the respondent will be notified that no more responses are allowed.

Do you need any further information on this?

Thank you.

[pwiesner]

I wanted to add one thing. If you are testing your survey using your own account the max response response limit will not be applied. Response limits are not enforced on individuals who can edit the survey. I do not believe this will impact you with an invitation only server; however, it often confuses people when deploying registered user surveys.

[johnmark]

Thanks for your answers. I now understand that each of my invitees will only be able to save one completed survey.

How does one handle the incomplete surveys? Is there any value in this information given the anonymity of the respondents? Is there anyway to connect related replies while maintaining respondent anonymity?

Thanks.

[jfischer]

There is no way to connect related replies while maintaining anonymity. In fact, if someone clicks an invitation link, fills out part of it, then starts again later, the original response is removed.

As for the usefulness of incomplete responses, we do not have much in the way of advice on that. It's up to you to determine whether you want to consider half filled out responses legitimate.

[jfischer]

I apologize for the mistake, but I missed that you said you had "Allow Users to Resume" checked off. In this case when someone clicks an invitation a second time, they will be brought where they last left off, and there will not be any "related" responses.