I'd be paranoid about being perceived as exploiting the "poll culture" that exists in my corner of LJ. Polls cause excitement and people rush to fill them out, because, dude, TICKY BOX, and I don't like the notion that I might be riding on the coattails of the ticky box's popularity to get more feedback.

This gets me every time I go to post a fic now. Every time I forget a poll, though, someone mentions it to me, so I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I think the only way I reconcile this is by making sure the polls go beneath cuts at the end of the story, so at least they aren't susceptible to drive-by clicky madness.

Plus, filling out a poll and then also leaving a comment feels like saying that your opinion counts twice or something.

This just reminded me of how perdiccas once responded both to the poll and with a comment saying "I think I picked the wrong option." I think she cancelled herself out.

I would suggest putting in a couple options with reactions you were expecting and/or hoping for, to see if the overall impression of your fic came across.

I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do this in an unbiased way, but that's definitely going to be on my mind now.

Re: poll feedback - I think I'm just as happy with poll feedback as I am with comments, although I think if I were to receive only poll feedback and no comments, I would be a very sad panda indeed.

Final note: brontosaurus never existed, so yeah you've got your dinos in a row. :)