What does this setting do?
This setting is on by default in all surveys. When it is on, we detect if someone enters the questionnaire twice using the same device+internet browser combination. It enables the respondent to return to change or add to their responses and makes it more difficult to spam the survey.
Where can I find it?
Go to Settings > Publication and scroll down to Allow only one respondent per device+browser.
What should I do if multiple respondents share a device? Or if a researcher is collecting responses from multiple people on the same computer?
Collecting answers from several people on one device? With this setting on, each new person on the same device and browser overwrites the previous person’s answers, and the earlier answers are lost. This often happens with a tablet at an event or when entering paper responses. Solutions:
Turn the setting off for all respondents (Settings > Publication > switch off Allow only one respondent per device+browser)
Open the survey with a reset link (
?reset=true) for each new person.- Use a separate survey for the shared device respondents. Create a copy of the survey (click the three dots next to the survey's name and select 'Copy') to be used with the setting turned off. Note that you won't be able to merge responses from two surveys in Maptionnaire (exporting the data to another software does allow this).
Need more protection against spam?
This setting makes spamming harder, but someone can still answer again from another browser or device. If you are worried about automated spam, we recommend turning on bot detection. It checks respondents in the background without a captcha, and lets you filter out responses flagged as probable bots in the analysis tool.
If you need even stricter control over who answers, you can also:
- require respondents to register and log in before answering, or
- send each respondent or group a unique link and track which links are used with the panel tracker.
Any questions?
Contact support@maptionnaire.com, we'll be happy to help!
More help: Respondents report a problem? Common causes and fixes.