This is a draft of a survey that will be foisted upon our community, with much nagging and reminding. Upon conclusion of the survey, we'll both know a little bit more about who in our community takes surveys, and whether or not we should axe Slack.
Please help improve this survey by adding questions you'd like to see answered by our community, or improving the questions that are already here. In particular, I'd love to see additional questions to help us learn interesting things in aggregate about the FoC work people are doing.
Thank you!
Roughly how often do you post to the FoC Slack?
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- I just lurk / read, and don't post.
- I didn't know there was a Slack!
Do you subscribe to the newsletter?
- Yes
- No
- I didn't know there was a newsletter!
Do you listen to the podcast?
- Yes
- No
- I didn't know there was a podcast!
Do you read/use the podcast transcripts?
- Yes
- No
- I didn't know there were transcripts!
If the podcast / community had a Patreon, would you potentially back it, and if so for how much?
- Yes, for less than $10/month
- Yes, for more than $10/month
- Yes, for exactly $771/month
- No, and what's more your attempt to inject jokes into matters of money has not enticed me
Are you or your company interested in sponsoring the podcast / community?
- Yes, and I will DM you to get the ball rolling
- Not right now, but possibly in the future
- No
Where in the world is... the person answering this question?
- [Country Select]
How comfortable are you with English?
- I'm comfortable with spoken and written English
- I'm only comfortable with spoken English
- I'm only comfortable with written English
- I'm not comfortable with spoken or written English
Where else do you interact with folks from this community? [multi-select]
- HN
- Lobsters
- Other (fill-in)
Litmus test — thoughts on Bret Victor?
- Hero
- Villain
- It's complicated
- I don't know who that is
Are you currently working on any FoC projects yourself? [multi-select]
- Yes, at work
- Yes, in academia
- Yes, independently
- No, but I used to
- No, but I want to
- No
What FoC topics interest you most? [multi-select]
- Visual Programming
- Structural / Projectional Editors
- Type-Assisted Editors (a la Hazel)
- Spreadsheet-like Editors
- Type Systems & Formal Methods
- Programming Language Theory
- HCI / Interaction Design
- Data Visualization
- Distributed Programming (a la Unison, Dark)
- Debuggers
- Live Programming
- Other [fill-in]
Thoughts on Slack?
- It holds me back from participating in the community
- I tolerate it but would prefer something else
- Neutral
- It's flawed but is better than the alternatives
- If we move away from it I will probably leave the community
Zulip is a chat service similar to Slack. It has better support for permalinks, threaded discussions, search, and more, with basically all the features of Slack (including desktop, mobile, and web apps). It's actively developed and is growing in popularity. In the conversations leading up to this survey, Zulip was the most popularly recommended alternative to Slack. So, what if we moved the community to Zulip?
- I prefer switching to Zulip
- I prefer staying with Slack
- Neutral — Slack or Zulip, the amount I participate will be the same
Discourse is like a traditional message board, but features a modern visual design and a fair bit of JavaScript-powered dynamism. It is actively developed and is already quite popular. In the conversations leading up to this survey, it was the second most popularly recommended alternative to Slack. Unlike Slack and Zulip, it is a message board rather than a chat service, which will change the tone, length, and frequency of posts to the community. So, what if we moved the community to Discourse?
- I prefer switching to Discourse
- I prefer staying with Slack
- Neutral — Slack or Discourse, the amount I participate will be the same
The third option is a traditional server-driven message board / forum, something like phpBB. This option is appealing if you prefer a message board to chat (with all the changes to tone, length, and frequency of posts it'll bring), but do not like the modern design or JavaScript features of Discourse (which sometimes get in the way more than they help). So, what if we moved the community to a traditional message board / forum?
- I prefer switching to a forum
- I prefer staying with Slack
- Neutral — Slack or forum, the amount I participate will be the same
Now that you've seen the options, what is your #1 pick?
- Slack
- Zulip
- Discourse
- Forum
- Anything, I'm easy
- Other (fill-in)
What would you like to see the community do more of?
[fill-in]
Aside from "release more episodes", what would you like to see happen with the Podcast? Any guests or topics you'd love to see featured?
[fill-in]