Re: Idea for determining what users use

[Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu>]

Richard Stallman wrote:

   Anyway, if you normally send mail thru Emacs, there won't be a problem.
   This feature would use compose-mail, like everything else in Emacs that
   sends mail, so these messages would go through your setup and would work.

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:

   it sounds like the requirements for us are that we get extremely
   compacted information (1-bit per feature) associated w/ a
   particular release.

and:

   in our case, for any feature, it is desirable to get only one bit
   of info (that it is, whether the feature is indeed being used).

If somebody files a "bug report" after proper thought, we get to see
why he needs the feature, or believes he does.  With the proposed
system, if somebody sends a reply ranting and raving about how much he
resents the "intrusion on his privacy" we will just conclude that he
uses the feature.

Popping up a mail buffer makes it super-easy to complain for people
with permanent internet access and inconveniences other people.  If we
just pop up information and an email address (bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
maybe), then only people who really care about the feature will
complain (and if people do not really care, then what is the problem?)
and we will see why they still need the feature.  Maybe we can still
get rid of the feature, but add the needed functionality to the
feature that replaced it.

What is the need for the extremely compacted information Thien-Thi is
referring to?  If we really need extremely compacted information then
there is no problem: the feature is incredibly useful and should not be
obsoleted.  If we care enough about this to inconvenience (and
potentially antagonize) users, we should also care enough to read what
they have to say.

Sincerely,

Luc.