@joyously
Demographic data can be extremely useful.
It generally correlates with the technology adoption cycle too.
But there are some people who do not want to answer with personally identifiable info and it should be clear that that is perfectly acceptable.
So, let’s say, just for example, that I think people outside of the U.S. are more likely to adopt CP because of a number of social and economic factors.
I would include “where are you from?” so that I can test that hypothesis.
They way you word it is very important. My opinion on a feature is entirely separate from whether I would contribute code to it.
I do not like GB, but I contributed to making it less offensive.
The location question is not required. The age and gender are. I think that puts people into boxes unnecessarily. I know I think very differently from most women my age.
Something more on demographic data.
Let’s say I have a hypothesis (founded or unfounded, it does not matter) that male contributors are more likely to contribute to the core and female contributors are more likely to contribute to themes.
I would want to test whether that is really true or not.
In such a small sample size, one needs to be EXTREMELY careful of drawing any conclusions at all, but once sample sizes are larger, correlations may be found.
If you are an outlier, that is perfectly valid and fine. I think most of us are outliers here in some form or another, but this changes once you start getting to the “early majority” in the technology adoption cycle.
(Same thing for age, by the way.)
You may find that for “innovators” or “early adopters” there are no correlations with gender at all. And that is something that is very good to know.
Just for the record, this does not mean that I think they should be COMPULSORY questions.
Just explaining why those questions are asked in the first place.
I chose “prefer not to say” by the way…
I’m saying that your demographic questions are what would cause me to skip answering the whole thing. That’s the demographic that you are dealing with here. By requiring it, you only get those that go along, and the data is skewed.
The real purpose of this questionnaire is not to gather information. For us this information is pretty useless, IMHO.
The main purpose - to attract attention of devs, that there are another way and to show where CP is headed.
The secondary purpose - to prepare a press release. Generally, data, polls is the information media are looking for. So, aggregated results is a good starting point to start writing a press release. If well written it, can be productive.
Edit: when you are in marketing for 25+ years, everything looks like a (nail) marketing opportunity.
For devs, show all the questions on one page. They will answer if they see value.
I am going to perfect the poll as per your suggestions, demographic are used to build a common ground for evaluation.
I am going however to make demographic optional as many have requested.
This is not our primary goal though.
We would prefer short “interviews” but devs are busy and more likely to contribute to a short survey than have an extended discussion.
Unless we have those on Slack with private messaging.
Our primary purpose for the survey is to build the dev marketing persona.
We will use this as a starting point to map user experience journeys.
Those will be used to develop intuitive user documentation.
And ultimately to consider which are the most likely ways to monetize profitably.
Of course, these can be useful for others to contact news outlets, etc. and we should consider those needs carefully to see how to best incorporate them.
But collecting this information is NOT useless.
It is the starting point for crafting a competitive value proposition.
There will be separate polls for a semi-corporate business user and for a smaller business user (someone like @Simone).
Those may be more suited for what you have in mind than the contact with existing devs.
Absolutely. KISS, or keep it simple, ------!
Your questions above are the perfect short questionnaire to attract attention. I agree, that this should be short, but to the point questionnaire. Maybe, very different from the @ElisabettaCarrara questionnaire.
Elisabetta is drafting the marketing personas for us, Linas.
So, it is has always been the primary intended purpose of the poll. 
The poll was our solution to gathering data for them.
Realistically, existing devs are not going to answer multiple polls for us. They have other important things to do. It is very important that we get it done in one shot.
In the poll I feel a lack about what you like/dislike: there is no place for what I like to see. I think that core plugins are a great opportunity to make the difference with new features, not just cutting off code.
Example 1 (for attracting users/webmasters): having a look at top-200 wp.org plugins, with a total of 1.000.000.000 downloads, 16% are seo-related. What if a core plugin will deal with this?
Example 2 (for attracting theme developers): reading some themes code, how many times they reinvent the wheel for picking up a color or an image?
I amended the poll and added couple questions.
I feel the scope of the poll is not going into much detail about coding issues, but to collect a broader sentiment.
That said what @Simone says it’s correct, we needed to ask also couple questions to encourage devs to make active suggestions.
This poll however in not meant for interaction and feedback from devs, but to understand devs’ expectations and potential issues they may face that CP is able to solve.
I also changed the ratings from 1-10 to 1-5. Maybe we are going to loose nuance but we need not to scare people.
Also I made demographic questions optional and added to them N/A option, so people are free to skip them entirely.
As per @james suggestion I am going to collect data anonymously to encourage people who fill the form to be honest and straightforward.
Thanks everybody for your feedback.
Do you primary develop for:
This should be “primarily”.
Not required?
Rate your coding skills:
Can we please add a rating scale?
0 - I have never used this language;
1 - I tried to learn this language, but gave up;
2 - I can read it, but I can’t write it;
3 - I can adapt existing code to suit my needs;
4 - I can create custom code from scratch;
5 - I create poetry!
How do you feel about the following features being kept in core as opposed to core plugins? (0 being the worst and 5 the best)
@joyously and any others feel free to chime in, but this rating scale is not clear to me.
To make the analysis useful, I recommend:
0 - This is a useful function. It should be enabled by default in the Core.
1 - This is a useful function, but it should be disabled by default in the Core.
2 - This is a useful function, but it should be moved to a Core plugin.
3 - I disapprove of this function, but I would work with it to make it less objectionable as a Core plugin.
4 - I disapprove of this function and although I believe it should be optional as a Core plugin, I would not personally contribute to it.
5 - No CP resources should be committed to this function. It should use a third-party plugin.
Are there any other coding languages you are skilled in?
Please move this to after the question about skill
What made you dislike WordPress environment at the extent of looking out for alternatives?
“… to the extent that you are considering alternatives?”
How did you hear about ClassicPress?
Too similar to “What was your first contact with ClassicPress?”
Thanks for feedback @anon71742606. I am going to amend the poll tomorrow morning first thing. (Evening is usually family time for me).
I appreciate you taking the time to help me on this.
How long have you being developing?
“How long have you written code for WP?” Needs a zero choice also.
As a plugins/themes developer, what are some features…
As a core developer, what would motivate you …
These are required? both?
Change “JavaScript/JQuery/AJAX” to JavaScript.
What made you dislike WordPress environment at the extent of looking out for alternatives?
This one is biased. People can try out all sorts of things before settling. It doesn’t mean they dislike the other options.
I’d offer to make all questions optional. This is a good practice, decreases noisy data. For example: I’ve never heard about “Phoning home” before, but I MUST give it a scoring checkmark. That brings invalid feedback and distorts the results. It’s a typical problem of strict poll: it collects maximum data, but the data is trashy. So it’s a kinda paradox: the only way to get more information, is to let people hold it and pass by.
BTW, they say, decreasing datasheets is the most complicated problem of data science. Excessive data noise leads to machine overlearning and devalues discovered regularities. By analogy, this means that if you try to fit questions to concrete persons, you get very specific personalized results that won’t work on wider audience.
There is also a nice trick to encrease polls quality. Remove or paraphrse all questions that already contain the answers or intending to certain point of view. Those are the most common source of distortion. For example a question: “What made you dislike WordPress environment…” would give a “statistcs” that 100% of participants dislike WP environment and look for alternatives. But they might install CP just for fun, or by personal recommendation. When question is marked as “required”, people often have to lie or tell you “half-truth”. That type of questions is dangerous, because it shows what we want to see/hear, but not the real picture.
P.S. Please, don’t take that as criticising. I’m trying to share some experience, but it’s very hard for me to express thoughts in English. Hope my comment doesn’t look toxic. I really appreciate your initiative!
EDIT: @anon71742606 and @joyously are faster than me. So I’d better spectate)
Personally, I am interested in all combined experience, not just WP.
Yes, CP is a hard fork of WP and comparisons are inevitable.
But when crafting a Unique Selling Proposition, I don’t think that a “price-taker” philosophy is the right one for CP. It can’t stay in WP’s shadow forever and eventually, there will be direct-comparison implications for advertising i.t.o. legislation. Like, Pepsi can’t directly mention Coca Cola in their ads.
Agreed on the zero, although I SHOULD add that there will be different surveys for non-developers.
Agreed. I considered that too, but I would just add N/A under one. Touche though.
Specifically interested in how keen developers feel about Admin-Ajax.
I use some plugins where I feel it is highly over-used and I would value better site performance.
So this question is more of a link to the surveys for the non-devs that will come out later.
Agreed that that is not entirely clear from the question though, so point taken.
Agreed that the phrasing can be improved. Don’t agree that it is biased.
The question is intended to find out what needs CP can meet for the user.
So, basically, “What would clinch the deal for you in CP’s favour?”
@norske I am not an expert in polling. I have a certain knowledge in marketing and a basic understanding about statistics.
I consider your feedback very valuable for you are pointing out some very delicate spots explaining the why.
I think people here are very helpful in giving ideas and sharing experience with me to make this poll right.
The language barrier is real (I am Italian, as far as I am versed in English I must admit it’s not my mother tongue) but I feel that it’s possible to understand one another if we maintain a positive attitude.