[RFC v3] Git User's Survey 2008

This is third (and hopefully last) revision of proposed questions and announcement for Git User's Survey 2008.

First, it was decided that it would be web based survey. I would use Survs.com (new, in beta); it is unlikely to change as all questions are entered there already and moving it would require quite a bit of work. It was recommended here on the list (I have received courtesy invitation; thanks a lot); I have chosen it over survey.net.nz, used for preceding 2006 (by Paolo Ciarrocchi) and 2007 (by me) surveys, because it has some nice features, and allows export of results to CSV format for further analysis.

Note that new features like "matrix" questions and ability to have 'other' selection for single choice and multiple choice questions affect a bit form of this survey. This also affect chance to move survey to different web survey site.

There are good news and bad news about choosing Survs.com. Good news is that there would be no problem of free Survs beta account expiring during running survey, or during analysis. Bad news is that submitting survey currently requires having JavaScript enabled, which was pointed out by Stephan Beyer; they are working on it, but I don't know if this issue would be corrected in time for planned duration of Git User's Survey 2008.

Second, what possible answers in the case of single answer and multiple answer questions should be? You can view current version of survey at provided survey link (see below), currently test one only. Please point typos, mistakes and errors; I am not native English speaker.

Third, where to send survey to / where to publish information about the survey? Last year the announcement was send to git mailing list, to LKML (Linux kernel mailing list), and mailing list for git projects found on GitProjects page on GIT wiki. Now that the number of projects using Git as version control system has grown, I don't think it would be good idea to "spam" all those mailing list; and if we don't send notice to all other projects I'm not sure if we should include LKML.

Last year survey announcement was put on Git Homepage (thanks Pasky), and on front page of Git Wiki; info about survey was also put on two git hosting sites: kernel.org and repo.or.cz. It would be nice if it was possible to put announcement about Git User's Survey 2008 at front pages of other Git hosting sites, like GitHub (one of most popular, I think), Gitorious, Freedesktop.org. If you know some other popular Git hosting sites, and even better if you know who to contact about putting survey announcement, please write. Is there some channel that I have forgot about? Should info/announcement about Git User's Survey 2008 be sent also to one of on-line magazines like LinuxToday or LWN, or asked to put on some blog? I'll add it as journal entry for #git on Ohloh, and try to make it so it would appear in "News" section for Ohloh project page for Git: http://www.ohloh.net/projects/git.

Survs.com has nice feature of "channels", which allow to count responses sent via different means separately; I am using it to publish URL for 'test' channel - answers from this channel won't be counted AT ALL!!!

I am thinking about asking to put annoncement about Git User's
Survey 2008 at the following places (in parenthesis there are people who 
I think can ask to put announcement about survey):
 * git.or.cz, Git Homepage (Petr 'Pasky' Baudis)
 * git-scm.com, alternate Git Homepage (Scott Chacon)
 * http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/FrontPage (it is wiki, after all)
 * #git channel subject (one of channel admins, but who?)
 * git.kernel.org (John 'Warthog9' Hawley)
 * repo.or.cz (Petr 'Pasky' Baudis)
 * gitorious.org (???)
 * github.com (???)
 * ...
What are other git hosting sites, or blogs, or other sites where to ask 
to put announcement about this survey?

Fourth, how long should the survey last? When sending announcement we should say where notice about Git User's Survey 2008 should be taken down. Last year the survey was meant to take three weeks, but was up longer. I'm thinking about having it last a month, or a month and a half, starting from September 1.

Below there is second version of announcement email (I should probably come up also with boilerplate announcement for web pages). I haven't put third version of this year round of questions, because text of survey at Survs.com and what I had written diverged, I'm sorry...

---- Hello all,

We would like to ask you a few questions about your use of the Git version control system. This survey is mainly to understand who is using Git, how and why.

The results will be published to the Git wiki and discussed on the git mailing list.

We'll close the survey in 1 month starting from today, 1 September.

Please devote a few minutes of your time to fill this simple questionnaire, it will help a lot the git community to understand your needs, what you like of git, and of course what you don't like of it.

The survey can be found here:
  http://www.survs.com/survey?id=M3PIVU72&channel=9XYYGHJ77G

(this is temporary channel URL; responses to this URL would be, I guess, discarded). ----

You can view survey results (only summary, not individual responses) at http://www.survs.com/shareResults?survey=M3PIVU72&rndm=OKJQ45LAG8