Actually you’d be surprised how small the team is - a few developers, a few documenters and a few QA folk (some have double roles and all are part-time volunteers).
However - decsions are still not easy to take and can take quite a while to talk through 
But having said that, you are working hard and well to convince (at least some of the team) of a possible need for a change re. this topic.
WC
If you include the worldwide user base then yes it’s huge - many millions.
Thinking about this more I’ve changed my mind a bit.
In my work-flow for overdub recording I check that the latency correction is set up accurately for the hardware and sample rate that I’m using before I start recording. This may not be everyone’s work-flow.
If a user is recording in Audacity with the intention of exporting all tracks and mixing on a real-time DAW then they may not bother to set up latency correction accurately, with the intention of doing that manually in the real-time DAW. In such a case they will probably want to export the entire track including any “before zero” audio.
I therefore think that including (or not) before zero audio needs to be an option that is available in the Export Multiple dialogue.
A third kind of reaction - accept the “problem” as “just the way that Audacity works”, find a workaround and get on with the job without reporting the issue. I’ve certainly done this.
Yes, of course.
But it’s a long and dangerous workaround:
1: Save the current project.
2:
Ctrl+A
J
Shift+K
Ctrl+T
3:
Center all pans, set the volumes to 0db.
4:
Delete muted tracks.
5:
Export multiple
6:
Close the project withut saving.
Aren’t computers done to simplify our lives? 
Regards,
Pfeuh
The other approach (which I often use) is to export each track in WAV format immediately after recording it using Export Selection. This also serves as a backup.
At this stage the pan is centre and gain is 0. Then I only have the relatively minor inconvenience that I will need to manually adjust for latency in the other DAW.
I’m not sure to understand because I’m not native english speaker. You mean if somebody create a track begining at the middle of the project instead of time 0.0, exportation should fill with zeros before? It seems logical. Perhaps a list of tracks with checkers? An other way could be to put a special offset information chunk in the wave, invisible for all but recognized by Audacity and save it like it is. I’ve noticed that Audacity already adds it’s own chunk.
Anyway, the workaround is enough for me, I will continue to use Audacity, I think it’s simply the best application to record and edit audio, the most intuitive… But it’s in human nature, always asking for more!
Regards,
Pfeuh
It is not possible for me, I work alone and want to stay concentrated on music. I generally just use ‘record’, ‘play’ and ‘Ctrl-Z’ during recording sessions. I record/delete tracks until i feel that the interpretation is good enough. Then, I do a ‘save project’ and I concentrate myself on the next track. At the end of the session, I clean all the tracks, there are always unwanted noises, breathes and so on. After, I generally do an ‘export multiple’ to mix on something else.
Regards,
Pfeuh
Indeed
You could label the track and export the label track.
If you are then going to import the track into a new Audacity project, you can then import both the audio track and the label track, then align the audio track with the label track (see: Audacity Manual )
OK that is normal (the actual recording is slightly longer than the selected area).
The workaround for losing the last note of your overdub recording is easy - either hover over the end of the selected track and drag the selection another 130 ms to right (or whatever distance the latency is), or click underneath the tracks to remove the selection then stop the recording manually.
You do have “Overdub” set to “on” (ticked); “Overdub” is called “Doublage” in French. So if you have a selection made in Audacity and you record with “Overdub” enabled, Audacity records for a fraction more than the length of the selection, then stops.
You can change language in the “Interface” Preferences:
Audacity Manual .
Recordings will always be laid down after playback, so if the recording starts at time zero it must be pushed behind zero in order to synchronise (sync) with the other tracks.
The issue you have correctly identified is that if tracks are synced when some tracks are behind zero and some starting at zero, then to keep all tracks synced, the audio behind zero should not be exported.
That is another issue again, as I already remarked. As all export methods are now, the white space between zero and the start of the audio will be disregarded. If you want that space preserved in the export, you must select from the start of the recording to time zero and generate silence. There are already eight votes for there to be a global preference for all types of export to export the space before the start of a track as leading silence.
Two votes have already been added to Feature Requests for that. But I’m thinking this is a potential problem with straight export too, so if a global export preference is too “undiscoverable”, the standard export dialogue would need the same checkbox (greyed out if exporting the selection).
Gale
It works fine.
Regards,
Pfeuh
It’s not only that in preferences is too “undiscoverable”, but that user’s may need to frequently change the option depending on the job.
It is appropriate for options that are essentially “set once” to be in preferences - for example I almost always want the “import faster” option.
On the other hand, it is far more convenient for options that are likely to change frequently (such as export format) to be within the relevant GUI element rather than “buried” in preferences.
I generally prefer to export the entire track when making an initial (straight after recording) back-up WAV file, but when working with multi-track projects, any subsequent track export needs to be without “before zero” audio so as to avoid losing track sync.
Specifically, you must generate “some” silence starting at time zero. It does not need to go all the way up to the start of the recording. As long as there is some audio (that may be silence) at time zero, then any white space within the audio track will be rendered as silence.
I think this is another feature that “sometimes you want it, sometimes you don’t”, so would be better located in the export screen than in the global preferences.
Perhaps the export screens could have a “selection options” button (or some such name) that opens a dialogue for setting exactly what gets exported (the options discussed in this forum topic).
An alternative approach would be an easy way to pad/trim tracks so that they start at time zero, though I think that this approach would be less flexible.
Yes, depending on the assessment of how often users would want to toggle a feature off and on. The Export Multiple dialogue is already fairly complex and we seem to be considering two new checkboxes here (one for “export behind zero” and one for “export leading white space”). Do we agree that the default for both these should be “off” (as straight export is now)?
Yes, a good point - that’s an easier task for keyboard users (though a bit more complex to explain why it works).
Or at least, a separate static box. The main Export dialogue already has a problem with the (format) “Options” button not being seen, though I assume that is mainly a problem of its position.
If we had a button to another dialogue, we could even choose what tracks to export there, irrespective of Solo/Mute status 
I’m a bit less enthused with that Idea than I was, due to sync changes and possible confusion with the “Align” commands.
Gale
I agree that the Export Multiple dialogue is quite complex already, which is why I would favour “advanced options” to be in a secondary dialogue (I’m not sure what a “static box” is) rather than as additional check boxes.
Would it help if the current “Options” button was labelled as “File Format Options” or some such?
It is a box with a title and faint border containing the checkboxes or other controls, like “Split files based on” in Export Multiple.
That would probably be deemed “too long”, but a rename and moving the button (on Windows) underneath the two dropdown boxes would likely help.
Gale
If you mean, in the “Export Audio” dialogue, moving the Options button under the “Save as Type:” drop down menu, then there’s plenty of room there (on Windows) for it to be labelled as “File Options”, “Format Options”, “File Format Options” or similar. (I’m +1 for move and rename).
In the Export Multiple dialogue it would probably need to be a little shorter than “File Format Options”, but could occupy the same amount of room as the two buttons below (“Choose” and “Create”).
I meant the main export dialogue (Export FIle) as in the original text. I’ll gather together the feature request votes to make the “Options” more findable, including both our votes.
There is “room” in the Export File dialogue at the moment for a longish label, but developers don’t like buttons with long label text, and to be unambiguous I think whatever the wording is should be the same in the Export File and Export Multiple dialogues. Moreover that current room could be used for text giving the properties that the options are set to (which would be considerably better than having to click “Options” to see what it is actually set to). If we want that idea, the Export Multiple dialogue would have to accommodate it too.
Another solution for Export File would be to follow the same idea as in Export Multiple - move the “Save” and “Cancel” buttons down (“Save” to left of “Cancel”) which lets “Options” be positioned to right of the “Save as type” dropdown. I think I like that idea best, on reflection. It’s more “standard”, and still leaves space for text underneath “Save as type” giving the current options.
Gale
You can also add my vote for making Options more discoverable - many folk do soom to miss it.
Can I please further request that we make Signed 32-bit PCM WAV one of the “standard” selections available from the Save as type: dropdown rather tha hiding it away in the options.
I ask this as we often recommend making a 32-bit WAV as a security backup copy (after capture for example) - and it’s not always easy for folk to find how to do that.
Also I have a personal use case: I export a post capture of an LP as 32-bit WAV to pass through ClickRepair. Because there is no visual cue as to what actual format has been selected in the Specify Uncompressed Options dialog box - I usually find myself clicking the Options button just to ensure I have the correct output format selected. If it were one of the “standard” options it would display clearly in the Save as type: display.
Thanks,
Peter
Me too.