Surveys, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the silent majority

[Felipe Contreras]

On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 10:56 PM, Casey Ho <pidgin at caseyho.com> wrote:
> Given how many users Pidgin has, I'm sure you're all aware how utterly
> impossible/horrible it is to try and get feedback from just a few of
> them- or to even figure out what percentage of them actually care
> about an issue vs how many are complaining about it.
>
> So to help get a feel for this, I created a user survey that takes
> just a few minutes to fill out.   A link is posted on the front page
> of www.pidgin.im.  The questions are mostly broad and non-specific,
> but based on the initial responses are already some interesting
> trends.

A survey is a great idea, however, the usefulness of it depends
completely on how well defined the questions are. That's why it's a
good practice to have different revisions of the questions and ask for
feedback before publishing it.

Here's my feedback:

* What operating system(s) do you use Pidgin on?
There are more than 3 operating system, at least an option for 'other'
should be there.

* How many accounts do you have in Pidgin?
Should be 'usually have' since different installations might have
different number of accounts (different machines).

The third page however was dead on.

The results would be very interesting. Thanks.

-- 
Felipe Contreras