Re: A survey for Emacs users

[Christopher Dimech]

The system is still too complex for many users.  I only got introduced to Gnu
because I met a guru who was using Gcc.  But that was about it.  People don't
realise how much there is to learn.  And many don't learn anything from 
educational
institutions that is as useful as our own work.  People learn informally, which
customarily leads on a rather torturous road.  It was for me anyway.

---------------------
Christopher Dimech
General Administrator - Naiad Informatics - GNU Project (Geocomputation)
- Geophysical Simulation
- Geological Subsurface Mapping
- Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation
- Natural Resource Exploration and Production
- Free Software Advocacy


> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 8:37 PM
> From: "Jean Louis" <bugs@gnu.support>
> To: "Corwin Brust" <corwin@bru.st>
> Cc: "Help Gnu Emacs mailing list" <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> Subject: Re: A survey for Emacs users
>
> * Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st> [2020-10-31 21:10]:
> > I'm not involved with this survey either (other than having completed
> > it); however, FWIW: I think this person will probably continue their
> > efforts until something else services users who don't engage with the
> > mailing lists.  That seems pretty reasonable to me, however small a
> > fraction of Emacs users that may be (or may eventually become) I
> > assume we should continue to be interested in why those remaining
> > don't raise their questions, etc., discuss here, on emacs-devel, etc.
> 
> I think people simply don't know it despite the existing pointers to
> it. It is in the manual, but how many actually read the manual? Survey
> for example does not even make that question.
> 
> That there is pointer in the manual, myself I did not know. I use
> manual in browsing mode myself. And discover always something new.
> 
> I think that number of people discovering to be able to send bug
> report is about same number of people discovering mailing lists.
> 
> Let's face it, it is 2020. People are more passive today in computing
> than 20 years ago.
> 
> We get more and more Emacs users but that is due to number of devices
> being cheaper or more accessible. Users are many and interactions with
> communities out there are growing. But not that they are discoverable
> same as before. At some years number of websites go down. Maybe due to
> social media influences. Who knows.
> 
> Reference: https://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-websites/ 
> 
> Before 20 years it was quite common to find businesses having their
> own domains and emails, they were competing to get it. Today many
> businesses rely on free email providers. Personal websites
> exponentially disappearing from Internet, at least from search
> engines. Even definiton of Internet is slowly changing.
> 
> I don't get less fascinated and occupied by time, it is never
> boring. Yet majority is doing something else. Population is guided by
> corporations. "Do what others are doing." is pretty much the motto.
> 
> 53 Contributing to Emacs Development
> ************************************
> 
> Emacs is a collaborative project and we encourage contributions from
> anyone and everyone.
> 
>    There are many ways to contribute to Emacs:
> 
>    • find and report bugs; *Note Bugs::.
> 
>    • answer questions on the Emacs user mailing list
>      <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnu-emacs>.
> 
>    • write documentation, either on the wiki
>      (https://www.emacswiki.org/), or in the Emacs source repository
>      (*note Sending Patches::).
> 
>    • check if existing bug reports are fixed in newer versions of Emacs
>      <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/pkgreport.cgi?which=pkg&data=emacs>.
> 
> 
>