From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Proposal for an Emacs User Survey Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 01:23:24 -0400 Message-ID: References: <30addebe-999b-c1cc-a8d8-27aba3fac566@gmx.com> <4a1188f8-9864-54c0-ae6f-5f32102d9757@gmx.com> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="28958"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Adrien Brochard Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sun Oct 11 07:25:56 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1kRTro-0007Sq-7v for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sun, 11 Oct 2020 07:25:56 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35148 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kRTrn-0003So-AB for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Sun, 11 Oct 2020 01:25:55 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:52442) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kRTpO-0001qU-0w for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 11 Oct 2020 01:23:26 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:46915) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kRTpN-0006xZ-H3; Sun, 11 Oct 2020 01:23:25 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1kRTpM-0006v9-Jw; Sun, 11 Oct 2020 01:23:24 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4a1188f8-9864-54c0-ae6f-5f32102d9757@gmx.com> (message from Adrien Brochard on Fri, 9 Oct 2020 19:12:23 -0400) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:257340 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] Since this is a general survey rather than a focused inquiry, some of my plans don't apply. A multiple choice answer-taker would be usable in principel for these questions. But it needs to meet our ethical criteria -- not sending nonfree JS code to the browser. Also, each question should offer a way to answer "none of the above" or "I'm a strange case". Your questions seem pretty good overall for a survey. Here are a few specific critiques. > ** What OS do you primary use? > - Linux Linux is a kernel, not an operating system. So it should say, "GNU/Linux." See https://gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html and https://gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html, plus the history in https://gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html. > ** How do you use Emacs? > - GUI > - Terminal (TUI) Some people will not know those terms, so let's use names that anyone will understand. > ** Which completion/selection framework do you use? Is it correct to assume a person uses only one? > ** Have you ever contributed to Melpa package? If it mentions Melpa, it must explain the ethical reason we cannot recommend anything about Melpa. I would rather not mention that name at all. > ** can you recall any difficulties you faced initially learning Emacs? Add, "Please be as specific and concrete as your memories permit." > ** If there is another survey in 2021, would you be opposed to it > containing optional & general demographics questions? > It could include age backets, gender, country or language Let's not ask that. We should not invite people to make difficulties for us. > ** Do you have a preferred platform for filling out the survey in the > future? That question would be useless -- people would recommend unjust platforms based on practical convenience. Let's add a short test: we could offer multiple choice answers for each of these. For some questions the user should be able to select multiple answers, and should select all that are valid. > What is GNU? > What is GNU/Linux? > How does GNU Emacs related to GNU? > What is free software (libre software)? > Which of these are free liceenses? > How does GNU relate to free software? -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)