Hi Bryce,

No worries. There's nothing to say you're sorry. You guys are right. You guys are more in the control of the project and far more involved in the daily routines than I am. It's good to here some lucid and sincere opinions. Thanks for that.

I thought it would be of great use get to know more the community and it's users. But I guess I'm the one that doesn't know much about the users.

I really try to help the project here and there but I didn't find, yet, ONE thing I could stick to it. Like the wiki to document procedures to compile Inkscape on Windows platform.

I'm still going to be around the community for some more time to see if I can get involved.

Thanks for clarifying your opinions on a survey like the one I assembled. :-)



--Victor Westmann

2016-11-22 12:50 GMT-08:00 Bryce Harrington <bryce@...961...>:
On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 07:33:58PM -0700, Brynn wrote:
> Since part of your stated purpose is to learn "how much are they involved
> with the project (software and community)", I wonder if you might want to
> ask which part or parts of the community they're involved with - mailing
> list, forum, IRC, Launchpad, other, or none?  Perhaps ask how much time they
> spend with each part?  And maybe ask if they are primarily asking for
> support or offering support?  Maybe ask to self-rate their knowledge of
> Inkscape - beginner, intermediate, advanced?
>
> Also, don't forget to offer this survey to forum users ;-)
>
> What do you think you might use the results for?  That might inform other
> questions.  Although having said that, probably the shorter the survey is,
> the better.

This last question is in my mind the most important - what are the goals
of the survey and how will the data be put to use.  One lesson that bug
trackers teach us is it's relatively easy to collect more data than you
can effectively digest.  E.g. "what do you think should be changed
about..."  type questions will generate a LOT of suggestions that
someone will need to parse down and summarize into something usable.
The "what is the worst feature" might as well.  So having a plan for
processing the feedback into _actionable_ tasks is important.

Also, asking questions about interest in some feature or change might
get interpreted as a proposal for actually doing that feature or change,
particularly if the feedback is strongly positive.  Unless we actually
*do* have the manpower and interest in doing that task, the survey could
be felt to be a bit misleading.  The question on line 24 about blockers
is going to hit this.


Sorry for the blunt critiquing above.  I have seen so many terrible
surveys that I have a visceral reaction even just hearing the word.  :-)
A lot are just thinly veiled fundraising or mailing list builder
campaigns.  (Fundraising and outreach are indeed important to the
project but I think we should be honest and direct when we do it.)
However, it looks like your intent is good here, and what you're doing
may turn out to be very powerfully useful for the project.

Thinking about the data processing from the other end, we do have some
efforts ongoing that from my vantage point might benefit from getting
wider feedback such as from a survey:

 * We're working on setting up a storefront for Inkscape merchandise.
   We have a bunch of questions about what types of products people
   would be interested in buying and so on.

 * We're always in need of volunteers for a wide variety of efforts,
   from outreach to Django development to fundraiser organizing to bug
   fixing to event planning to actual development.  Anything to help us
   attract and retain more volunteers would be a huge boon.

 * Better understanding of the use cases people are finding Inkscape
   useful for would be very helpful.  The questions on lines 6, 9, and
   12 are good along these lines.  However it would be more helpful if
   those could go into more specific detail.  Also, be aware that many
   people probably use Inkscape for a variety of tasks.

   You might consider making a table with different use cases down the
   left, and then columns with checkboxes for "professional",
   "personal", "not usable", "never tried", or whatnot.

And Brynn's definitely right - the shorter and more to the point the
survey is, the easier it'll be for people to respond and the easier
it'll be for you to process all the incoming data.  :-)

Bryce

> All best,
> brynn
> ____________________________________________________________
>
> From: Victor Westmann
> Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2016 11:46 PM
> To: Inkscape-Devel
> Subject: [Inkscape-devel] Survey
>
>
> Hi Guys,
>
>
> I was just wondering if we could run a simple and quick survey to our users
> to get to know them better and to know what they know about the software and
> how much are they involved with the project (software and community),
>
>
> This is just a draft so improvements and thoughts are more than welcome:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CcV6rEYq5iIzZKkx_qPU6G5rp0O5DUM0EfQ3hD_Gt4o/edit?usp=sharing
>
>
> What do you guys think?
>
>
> This initiative took place inspired in the "State of JS" survey:
> http://stateofjs.com/2016/introduction/
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
>
>
> --Victor Westmann
>
>
>
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