That would be a problem if the Emacs project needed to attract new users that aren't "the kind of person to invest time in" their editor.

I'm not sure it does. Emacs has a healthy user base of people like you and I and appears to receive stable funding from the FSF. I don't see that changing any time soon. Emacs can be Emacs and be just fine the way it is.

I will keep suggesting new users should aim to get as close to vanilla as they have patience for, because that will teach them more about the powerful virtual machine running their text editor, and the ways it can be bent to do their bidding.

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jr_isidore 7 hours ago | parent [-]

appears to receive stable funding from the FSF

No, about ten underemployed or semi-retired graybeards on the emacs.devel mailing list burn most of their waking hours futzing with emacs. That's not an exaggeration. They receive no remuneration.

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kqr 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's sad. Is there a way I can fund them without going through FSF? I tried looking into it before but it seemed like FSF was the only alternative, so I assumed it was well-managed.

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sachac 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

https://github.com/tarsius/elisp-maintainers and https://github.com/freetonik/support-emacs-community-devs list quite a few people, so you can support them directly.

	▲	kqr 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Ah, thanks. At least one of them is apparently already receiving recurring donations from me!

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jr_isidore 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Bro, the FSF is an unchecked post office box somewhere in Kendall Square, and besides, do you really think $10 per month makes a difference? I don't know what these guys feed off of, but it's not food or anything else that money buys.

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beepbooptheory 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The emacs devel mailing list is way more active than that.. although you do see some regulars there for sure.

	▲	jr_isidore 34 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You misunderstand. Every mailing list has their healthy share of drive-by contributions, but emacs.devel contains a handful of dudes for whom all they do is emacs. We're talking nights, weekends, holidays. If they were indeed working a job, the inordinate time spent on the mailing list would constitute defrauding their employer.