I Need to Ask a Poll-Type Question

Question

I am trying to find out the pronunciation of a computer term, but since it is (mostly) a poll-type question, I figured I would ask for advice first in order to avoid getting raped by the seemingly ever-increasing aggressive people on the SE sites. :-|

What I wanted to do was to simulate a poll by posting the question (I’m not sure whether it is more appropriate here or on the English site), about how the computer term should be pronounced and give a bit of explanation about the two main pronunciations—both have their merits. (I considered clicking community wiki as well, but that is no longer available by default.)

Then I was going to post both of the pronunciations as answers so that people can vote for the pronunciation they use. I also considered posting the two main pronunciations as comments to the main question, particularly since it prevents people from down-voting the one they don’t use; posting them as answers relies on the honesty of users.

The assumption is that after a decent number of votes, a relatively clear picture of what the more popular (and thus de facto “correct”) pronunciation is, while still allowing for the possibility of someone giving an answer/link about a possible de jure answer.

(In one of the discussions about polls on Meta, someone suggested that polls belong on pollmnkey.com—which for the record is blocked by the anti-ad section of my HOSTS file. If that is considered correct, then wouldn’t posting the question there and then posting a link to that poll on a StackExchange site not be extraneous and redundant? Worse, wouldn’t that make it difficult to form a valid SE question since there is no actual answer? Besides, who wants to register yet another account on yet another site, especially one that would be used infrequently?)

So now I’ve got two questions (in addition to the original question, um…, in question):

1. Would such a question be more appropriate for SuperUser or English?
2. Would I/my rep get killed for asking it and/or the question get shut down, leaving me scratching my head with a still-unanswered question?
3. Should I use a third-party site instead, and if so, how do I get people to vote on it?

Answer 1

Poll type questions are ill advised for any of the Stack Exchange set of sites.

For pronunciation, your hypothetical question is better for English Language & Usage as their FAQ states the following territory:

The English Language and Usage Stack Exchange is for linguists, etymologists, and (serious) English language enthusiasts. Questions on the following topics are welcomed here:

Usage, word choice, and grammar
[...]
Pronunciation (phonetics and phonology, dialectology) [...]

If you posted the question on Super User it would be closed as off topic.

Not sure how EL&U would handle it. Though, if it was made into a poll, would most likely suffer the same fate as here.

If you need eyeballs on it, you could ask the people who hang out in chat.

Answer 2

I am racking my brain, but I can't think of any way ...

How do I pronounce [this computer term]?

.. would be on topic for Super User even a little.