During the 2020 survey, a lot of questions were raised. + Based on them, here's a preemptive FAQ for the 2022 survey.
+ ++ +
What is the point of the survey?
+ +By the nature of the Emacs and its community, the only way + developers tend to get feedback on how Emacs or an Emacs package is + when somebody raises an issue with their experience or requests that + a feature be added. This provides a poor understanding of the + community's general experience and thoughts.
+ +This survey essentially aims to bridge that gap, and in doing so + provide more information that Emacs maintainers and package + developers can use to guide their decisions.
+ +Who are you?
+ +Hi 👋, I'm Timothy, and + I've been the driving force behind the 2022 Emacs User Survey. + Adrien did a fantastic + job with the 2020 survey, and I've worked with him to refine the + 2020 questions and re-use the emacssurvey.org domain.
+ +How is the survey being conducted?
+ +To provide a smooth survey experience that satisfies the ethical and + technical requirements of a survey on a free/libre and open source + project, I ended up building + my own survey framework. + It requires no JS, and does no tracking, beyond simply recording an + encrypted, xor'd form of respondant's IP addresses to enable the + detection of duplicate and/or suspicious responses. + You can see the set of questions used in the survey + here.
+ +This survey framework has been deployed on a simple Debian 11 VM, + with the entire set up done by one short script, documented + here.
+ +What happens with the data?
+ +The data collected in the first fortnight will be analysed and + presented at EmacsConf 2022. + An analysis on the complete results will be made available online at + a later date (check back here after the survey closes).
+ +The raw results themselves are available live, and can be + found on the results page. In addition to a + basic web view the results can also be downloaded in several formats, + though the JLD2 data + will be the most detailed.
+ +How were the questions chosen?
+ +The 2020 questions were taken as a starting point, and then a + process of iterative refinement started. This involved a chat + between myself and Adrien, a + thread on emacs-devel, + and the feedback of a lovely group of beta-testers (thanks everyone!).
+ +It is safe to expect that the 2023 survey questions will undergo a + similar process.
+ +Why didn't you ask about…
+ +In this survey I am specifically trying to maximise the value + provided by the results for the amount of respondents time taken up + by the survey. As such, while there are hundreds of potentially + interesting questions, this survey tries to focus on the most + impactive ones.
+ +That said, there are likely some very good questions that haven't + been considered. If you think you have a good idea, don't hesitate + to get in touch 🙂.
+ +How about an Emacs package to respond?
+ +That's a fun idea! This year the focus has been on making the + web-experience better. In future a survey API could well be added, + on top of which an Emacs Survey package could be built.
+ +Feel free to attempt this yourself if I take too long to get around + to it.
+ +How can I help out?
+ +There are three primary ways you can help out with this survey: +
-
+
- Sharing the survey with other Emacs users you know +
- Helping refine the question set +
- Improving the survey framework (or writing that Emacs package) +
Where can I report an issue or make a suggestion?
+ +You can always send me an email (see the address listed on my + GitHub profile).
+