The phrase
Make the options make sense might not be all that useful as most users appear to think that whatever they type does indeed make sense.
Since this appears to be the core of what I perceive to be most user's difficulty when composing polls, let me stay a bit with this part.
As anyone trained in marketing and related disciplines ought to know, the choices in a poll should be 'orthogonal', or - when expressed as sets - they must not intersect. Thus, 'a browser' and 'Firefox' can not both be options within the same poll, but 'InternetExplorer' and 'Firefox' can.
Also, each option should express one and one idea only. The examples you give express that nicely:
I use product x is a good choice,
product y stinks is also a good choice, but never the twain shall be combined into one option.
These appear to be two key concepts for designing a meaningful poll: mutual independence of options and one single concept or value per option. Reminds me a bit of normal forms in the construction of relational tables. Can this concept be expressed in fewer and simpler words?
Another equally important concept is already covered by your text, namely that the options should completely cover the space.
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