How to poll the users

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

[[[ 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. ]]]

  > Also note that we don't really have the ability to poll even our 
  > existing users,

We have done it many times.  Here's the method I developed for polls
in the past:

* Make a file for the replies to go into.

* Make a mailing address which drops all mail into the file.

* Mail to info-gnu-emacs and help-gnu-emacs, and any other suitable
place, presenting the proposed change in sufficient detail that people
can judge it, and where to email the response, as well as what kind of
information we seek.

What we seek is not "votes", but understanding.  If you are for the
change, please explain why.  Would it help you directly?  If so, in
what scenario, and what would the benefit be?  And how important?

Or is it that you think it will help Emacs development by helping
others?  Please distinguish between what you know and what you guess.

Likewise, if you are against the change, please explain why.  Would it
inconvenience you directly?  If so, in what scenario, and what would
the inconvenience be?  And how important?

Or is it that you think it will harm Emacs development by
inconveniencing others?

We invite you also to propose changes in the proposal that would
improve it, for you -- saying in what scenario, and how.

* We state a deadline some weeks in the future, but since there is no
hurry, we wait some extra time before we look at the responses.

* Ultimately, we do not restrict ourselves to choosing between "make
the change" and "don't make it".  The best outcome is that the
feedback enables us to design a way to please almost everyone.




-- 
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)