Less messages to FreeBSD.org lists

[Andrew Boothman]

Matthew Seaman wrote:

>>>Now - I'm not trying to start a "BSD is dying!" thread, there's no
>>>question that there's more than enough development going on in all the
>>>BSDs to counter that - but I would expect the total number of mailing
>>>list posts to vary approximately to the OSs installed base. Or is that
>>>too simplistic a view and I'm just worrying unnecessarily?
>>>
>>>I've been thinking for a while that -questions "feels" quieter. Or
>>>perhaps I'm just getting used to the message flow...
>>
>>Perhaps the "New installing base" is shrinking as most of the people
>>willing to do it have done it already, which means there are less novice
>>questions asked?
> 
> 
> Yeah, things have slacked off a bit.  I don't think there's anything
> sinister about that.  I think it's mostly just natural variation --
> these things go in waves: suddenly some particular subject is flavour
> of the moment, and you get a run of questions about it.  For instance,
> there seems to have been quite a few questions recently about people
> having trouble installing 5.2, but fewer about other perennial
> favourites like sendmail config or how to cope with an ABI version
> bump in a shared library.

Agreed, but it would seem surprising to me that FreeBSD's installed base 
is growing and mailing list traffic isn't. We have no method for 
estimating the number of installed FreeBSD boxes, but I would have 
thought that mailing list traffic was quite a good indicator.

Perhaps we're just so good and documenting now, that nobody needs to ask 
a question? ;)

> Possibly some of those essay-length answers (and I'm as guilty as
> anyone at going on at great length...) have helped because people can
> solve their problems by Googling, and don't actually have to ask on
> the list.

I'm not complaining about long emails - sometimes they are excellent 
reading. I just found it amusing that there are less emails, but 
together they take up more space.

> Then there's the Slashdot effect.  I've noticed that there seem to be
> fewer *BSD stories recently, but that those stories are attracting a
> lot more discussion.  Much of it is quite reasonable and not just the
> Linux frat-boys beating their chests and repeating the same old
> trolls.  And there does often seem to be a bit of a surge on
> questions at ... for a few days after a big FreeBSD story.

Perhaps all we're missing are indignant arguments on -chat or -hackers 
and all the programming and users are going on in the exactly the same 
as they always have.

I know it's difficult (and probably inaccurate) to infer things about 
the project from one statistic alone. Download statistics over the years 
might be more enlightening...

Andrew