From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: Proposal for an Emacs User Survey Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 09:33:46 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <6f9c688f-7010-4873-acd4-897ab9056f5a@default> References: <(message> <09> <2020> <23:56:00> <-0400)> <87imbia0dq.fsf@posteo.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="16191"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: abrochard@gmx.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Philip K." , rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Sat Oct 10 18:37:06 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 1kRHrl-00047U-8R for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; 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envelope-from=drew.adams@oracle.com; helo=aserp2130.oracle.com X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: First seen = 2020/10/10 12:11:34 X-ACL-Warn: Detected OS = Linux 3.1-3.10 [fuzzy] X-Spam_score_int: -27 X-Spam_score: -2.8 X-Spam_bar: -- X-Spam_report: (-2.8 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, DKIMWL_WL_HIGH=-0.001, DKIM_SIGNED=0.1, DKIM_VALID=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_AU=-0.1, DKIM_VALID_EF=-0.1, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-0.7, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3=0.001, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL=0.001, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action 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:257330 Archived-At: > > If we want to learn what users think, we should not limit their > > responses to a small set of 'valid" possible answers. The plan > > I designed for inquiries asks users to answer in their own words. >=20 > But wouldn't that make it needlessly hard to analyse the results, Ease in handling the results shouldn't be a major consideration. Quality of the feedback and quality of its analysis is more important that speed or ease. > especially if the question should be numerically quantified? Quantification of bad-quality information doesn't help. Better to get a high-quality understanding, and if some quantification _then_ helps then do it. > I get the value of plain text responses, but recognizing that the answer = to the > question "how long have you been using emacs", could result in: >=20 > - "Since 1996" > - "24 Years" > - "January 1996" > - "Around the second time Clinton got sworn into office" > - "1896" (but actually a typo) A very specific question like that can be asked in specific terms: how many years. But even that is likely to be misleading, if kept apart from considerations of kind and degree of use. Getting a good picture of Emacs users and uses is not easy, nor should it be. And again, users _reasons_ for actions, preferences, etc. are important.