The reason these "poll" threads are being merged or locked is that they are merely a parallel discussion of the exact same topic. Whether there is a poll or not doesn't matter - we merge parallel discussions into one, in order to consolidate. Frequently, it's not only the same discussion, it's also the
same participants. We have two threads to discuss Elon Musk:
Elon Musk Where you can discuss the man himself and things that he's done/is doing/who he is dating and how many babies he has. It's a real National Enquirer for those who like that kind of thing.
Elon & Twitter Where you can discuss how the Twitter purchase affects Elon's public image, how the project is going, and other circular arguments.
We do not need more threads on this and the moderation team has agreed we will not allow them, poll or not. Besides, polls here at TMC have no real world informative purpose. They're a fun toy, that's it.
Sorry, it's just incredibly inefficient to have this same thing going on all over the place and it causes a lot more work for a moderation staff who would love to lock all the Elon/Elon-Twitter talk out of TMC entirely.