Frapping Good Fun

Last updated: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:18:00 GMT

What do you do when you want to know who your users are, but you're not quite ready to engage in full-blown covert evilness?

Well, you ask them nicely to consent to your evil demands, of course. And in a passive way -- none of this "Would you like to register now?" bull. Hell, I click that "Never ask me again!" button every time, out of pique.

Those who know me well probably know that I make the occasional contribution to a couple of software projects being run by friends. I'm a long-time, full-time user of their stuff. Nothing beats being able to shape your own tools -- even if that shaping ends up being as much about adjusting perception of your own needs and practices, in the face of reasoned argument.

I use their Terminator terminal emulator, and their Evergreen IDE, on every desktop platform I use.

I'm interested in knowing where people are, who they are, what they're using. We tend to see a lot of traffic from Windows users, and a lot from users whose mother tongue is not English. What's not clear is why. It could be that, having decent UTF8 support means that we get a lot of non-English users. Maybe the fact that all of the major contributor are English (polyglots thought they are) means that some parts of the application aren't as well tested as others. I know that none of them uses an Urdu keyboard, for instance. Maybe we see more Windows questions because Windows is a harder platform to Get It Right on. A lot of work goes into the Windows installer. Or maybe we just get a lot of Windows users because Windows is short of good terminal emulators, (although I have to admit that PuTTY is pretty darned good.)

So, I've just knocked up a couple of Frappr maps. They're less intrusive, and considerably more fun than "registration." Plus, they smell a lot less like an edict from The Man.

A Frappr map for Terminator:

A Frappr map for Evergreen:

Of course, now, even if anyone takes the time to let us know, I'll be wondering what kind of skew "people who can be bothered clicking on a Frappr map" is going to produce in any results.