I would've thought that somebody at malaysiakini would have recognised an online poll ('Singaporeans overwhelmingly favour death sentence', June 7) as being of no statistical value, and unworthy of being represented as such. Internet polls are great for generating page views and discussion, yes; for providing valid data applicable to a wider population, no.

We just can't draw general conclusions based on the responses of a self-selecting sample which is almost certainly not representative of the general Singaporean community in age, sex, education, earnings, religion and all kinds of other important factors.

Put another way, votes cast by a self-selecting sample may be an acceptable way of deciding the outcome of a game show, but the result isn't statistically valid and it rates more as entertainment than news.