Re: A survey for Emacs users

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Skip Montanaro <skip.montanaro@gmail.com> [2020-10-31 17:31]:
> Thanks, Jean Louis. I've been using GNU Emacs since probably the mid
> to late 80s. I'm familiar with the couple mailing lists and the old
> comp.emacs* newsgroups. r/emacs was completely new to me, and I'm not
> a big fan of forums unless they are the only choice (they tend to be
> closed gardens, for example).

I do not prefer answering on Reddit as purpose of Reddit is different
than purpose of this mailing list. There is not even one official link
to GNU.ORG neither to official Emacs website under "Getting Started"
section.

There is no link to official GNU Emacs manual but there are links to
proprietary book Mastering Emacs and O'reilly book. Reddit is
advertising platform. There are no special set of principles.

It says that /r/emacs has 46000 users. Well how many of them are
really reporting bugs, do they know about it? I doubt somehow.

Additionally site is not usable with LibreJS or Javascript turned
off. 

> A couple specific points:
> 
> > Is the list discoverable? I do not think so. It is well hidden from
> > Emacs users.
> 
> This list? It's right there on the listinfo page of lists.gnu.org.
> Unfortunately, its name separates it from the other Emacs-related
> mailing lists. Seems a bit late for a name change at this point,
> however.

It is clear to me and you. I just gave you example above. Question is
rather how majority of people get Emacs? Do they get it like me
through "git pull" in days in a while? Or do they get it on their
system or on DVD as part of the OS.

Most probably it is part of the OS. How can such user discover
lists.gnu.org? It is unlikely. Feature should be in main stream Emacs
so that users can easily get into the list.

Then users who send emails will communicate quite differently than if
they are posting on /r/edit in anonymous mode.

> > Install the package Hyperbole and you may see how they implement that
> > users find the mailing list, it is straight in the menu. If user needs
> > help, one can click in the menu and write email. Great. And that is
> > for package users.
> 
> I installed Hyperbole and poked around a bit, but it escapes me how
> "users find the mailing list." I see links to Hyperbole-related lists,
> but nothing which would point a user to other Emacs resources. I must
> be missing something.

Hyperbole menu -> Mail list to Hyperbole users list

That is a model, sample, how Emacs could have it for users. In that
manner.