diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/text.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/text.js.es6
index fba637345b8..01c15add3c0 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/text.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/text.js.es6
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ export function cook(text) {
 
   const opts = {
     getURL: Discourse.getURLWithCDN,
+    currentUser: Discourse.__container__.lookup('current-user:main'),
     siteSettings
   };
 
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/pretty-text.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/pretty-text.js.es6
index e254d7dbc42..a70da34ccf5 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/pretty-text.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/pretty-text/pretty-text.js.es6
@@ -12,7 +12,17 @@ export function registerOption(fn) {
 export function buildOptions(state) {
   setup();
 
-  const { siteSettings, getURL, lookupAvatar, getTopicInfo, topicId, categoryHashtagLookup } = state;
+  const {
+    siteSettings,
+    getURL,
+    lookupAvatar,
+    getTopicInfo,
+    topicId,
+    categoryHashtagLookup,
+    userId,
+    getCurrentUser,
+    currentUser
+  } = state;
 
   const features = {
     'bold-italics': true,
@@ -34,6 +44,9 @@ export function buildOptions(state) {
     getTopicInfo,
     topicId,
     categoryHashtagLookup,
+    userId,
+    getCurrentUser,
+    currentUser,
     mentionLookup: state.mentionLookup,
   };
 
diff --git a/app/models/post.rb b/app/models/post.rb
index 1946d4fa71f..8bb5ef151ed 100644
--- a/app/models/post.rb
+++ b/app/models/post.rb
@@ -197,12 +197,16 @@ class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
     if cook_method == Post.cook_methods[:email]
       cooked = EmailCook.new(raw).cook
     else
-      cooked = if !self.user || SiteSetting.tl3_links_no_follow || !self.user.has_trust_level?(TrustLevel[3])
+      cloned = args.dup
+      cloned[1] ||= {}
+
+      post_user = self.user
+      cloned[1][:user_id] = post_user.id if post_user
+
+      cooked = if !post_user || SiteSetting.tl3_links_no_follow || !post_user.has_trust_level?(TrustLevel[3])
                  post_analyzer.cook(*args)
                else
                  # At trust level 3, we don't apply nofollow to links
-                 cloned = args.dup
-                 cloned[1] ||= {}
                  cloned[1][:omit_nofollow] = true
                  post_analyzer.cook(*cloned)
                end
diff --git a/lib/pretty_text.rb b/lib/pretty_text.rb
index 6259f4107aa..85ba6df90b5 100644
--- a/lib/pretty_text.rb
+++ b/lib/pretty_text.rb
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ module PrettyText
     end
   end
 
-  def self.markdown(text, opts=nil)
+  def self.markdown(text, opts={})
     # we use the exact same markdown converter as the client
     # TODO: use the same extensions on both client and server (in particular the template for mentions)
     baked = nil
@@ -143,7 +143,10 @@ module PrettyText
         context.eval("__optInput.topicId = #{opts[:topicId].to_i};")
       end
 
+      context.eval("__optInput.userId = #{opts[:user_id].to_i};") if opts[:user_id]
+
       context.eval("__optInput.getURL = __getURL;")
+      context.eval("__optInput.getCurrentUser = __getCurrentUser;")
       context.eval("__optInput.lookupAvatar = __lookupAvatar;")
       context.eval("__optInput.getTopicInfo = __getTopicInfo;")
       context.eval("__optInput.categoryHashtagLookup = __categoryLookup;")
diff --git a/lib/pretty_text/helpers.rb b/lib/pretty_text/helpers.rb
index 81f419977db..fa61e9efc2f 100644
--- a/lib/pretty_text/helpers.rb
+++ b/lib/pretty_text/helpers.rb
@@ -68,6 +68,12 @@ module PrettyText
         nil
       end
     end
+
+    def get_current_user(user_id)
+      user = User.find_by(id: user_id)
+      staff = user ? user.staff? : false
+      { staff: staff }
+    end
   end
 end
 
diff --git a/lib/pretty_text/shims.js b/lib/pretty_text/shims.js
index 040d56b0ac3..c156fdb0cd7 100644
--- a/lib/pretty_text/shims.js
+++ b/lib/pretty_text/shims.js
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ function __lookupAvatar(p) {
   return __utils.avatarImg({size: "tiny", avatarTemplate: __helpers.avatar_template(p) }, __getURL);
 }
 
+function __getCurrentUser(userId) {
+  return __helpers.get_current_user(userId);
+}
+
 I18n = {
   t: function(a,b) { return __helpers.t(a,b); }
 };
diff --git a/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/initializers/add-poll-ui-builder.js.es6 b/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/initializers/add-poll-ui-builder.js.es6
index 82b830c3e16..66fbb764047 100644
--- a/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/initializers/add-poll-ui-builder.js.es6
+++ b/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/initializers/add-poll-ui-builder.js.es6
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ import { withPluginApi } from 'discourse/lib/plugin-api';
 import showModal from 'discourse/lib/show-modal';
 
 function initializePollUIBuilder(api) {
+  const siteSettings = api.container.lookup('site-settings:main');
+
+  if (!siteSettings.poll_enabled && (api.getCurrentUser() && !api.getCurrentUser().staff)) return;
+
   const ComposerController = api.container.lookupFactory("controller:composer");
   ComposerController.reopen({
     actions: {
diff --git a/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/poll.js.es6 b/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/poll.js.es6
index c182c2439ba..927aa5cc522 100644
--- a/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/poll.js.es6
+++ b/plugins/poll/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/poll.js.es6
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ const WHITELISTED_ATTRIBUTES = ["type", "name", "min", "max", "step", "order", "
 const ATTRIBUTES_REGEX = new RegExp("(" + WHITELISTED_ATTRIBUTES.join("|") + ")=['\"]?[^\\s\\]]+['\"]?", "g");
 
 registerOption((siteSettings, opts) => {
-  opts.features.poll = !!siteSettings.poll_enabled;
+  const currentUser = (opts.getCurrentUser && opts.getCurrentUser(opts.userId)) || opts.currentUser;
+
+  opts.features.poll = !!siteSettings.poll_enabled || currentUser.staff;
   opts.pollMaximumOptions = siteSettings.poll_maximum_options;
 });
 
@@ -179,11 +181,11 @@ export function setup(helper) {
 /*!
  * Joseph Myer's md5() algorithm wrapped in a self-invoked function to prevent
  * global namespace polution, modified to hash unicode characters as UTF-8.
- *  
+ *
  * Copyright 1999-2010, Joseph Myers, Paul Johnston, Greg Holt, Will Bond <will@wbond.net>
  * http://www.myersdaily.org/joseph/javascript/md5-text.html
  * http://pajhome.org.uk/crypt/md5
- * 
+ *
  * Released under the BSD license
  * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license
  */
diff --git a/plugins/poll/lib/polls_validator.rb b/plugins/poll/lib/polls_validator.rb
index c02920bf383..2321f7f0af4 100644
--- a/plugins/poll/lib/polls_validator.rb
+++ b/plugins/poll/lib/polls_validator.rb
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ module DiscoursePoll
     def validate_polls
       polls = {}
 
-      extracted_polls = DiscoursePoll::Poll::extract(@post.raw, @post.topic_id)
+      extracted_polls = DiscoursePoll::Poll::extract(@post.raw, @post.topic_id, @post.user_id)
 
       extracted_polls.each do |poll|
         # polls should have a unique name
diff --git a/plugins/poll/plugin.rb b/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
index c752e0dfcdd..91f070a1b25 100644
--- a/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
+++ b/plugins/poll/plugin.rb
@@ -4,8 +4,6 @@
 # authors: Vikhyat Korrapati (vikhyat), Régis Hanol (zogstrip)
 # url: https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/plugins/poll
 
-enabled_site_setting :poll_enabled
-
 register_asset "stylesheets/common/poll.scss"
 register_asset "stylesheets/common/poll-ui-builder.scss"
 register_asset "stylesheets/desktop/poll.scss", :desktop
@@ -145,10 +143,10 @@ after_initialize do
         end
       end
 
-      def extract(raw, topic_id)
+      def extract(raw, topic_id, user_id = nil)
         # TODO: we should fix the callback mess so that the cooked version is available
         # in the validators instead of cooking twice
-        cooked = PrettyText.cook(raw, topic_id: topic_id)
+        cooked = PrettyText.cook(raw, topic_id: topic_id, user_id: user_id)
         parsed = Nokogiri::HTML(cooked)
 
         extracted_polls = []
@@ -252,6 +250,8 @@ after_initialize do
   end
 
   validate(:post, :validate_polls) do
+    return if !SiteSetting.poll_enabled? && (self.user && !self.user.staff?)
+
     # only care when raw has changed!
     return unless self.raw_changed?