Re: fascinating article on postgresql mailing lists

On 02/11/2013 03:02 PM, Scott Marlowe wrote:

>>
>>
>> Welcome to the perception of the outsider. I am in infrequent poster here, but in my 6 years of doing PostgreSQL for Mac, I get 3-4 emails a week asking for help on PostgreSQL issues that contain some variation of the phrase 'I posted to a PostgreSQL <forum/mailinglist/channel> and got no response'. Considering that I monitor many of those same venues, I can honestly say that I have almost never seen the original posts, even upon further looking.
>>
>> I suspect there are many reasons. Anecdotal evidence hints to me that in many cases, that phrase so oft repeated is just a cover. They didn't post, for fear of ridicule, and are going private to avoid public embarrassment. Articles like this do much the same, and serve only to create more fear that the mailing lists are useless.
>>
>> Given that, while it is good to be aware of things like this article, I would not put too much faith in either the numbers or the conclusions. In my time around the community, there is no more welcoming community surrounding an active, healthy Open Source Software project out there.
>
> Agreed. Note that if someone posts asking a question but fails to give
> any useful context I can use to help I'll often ignore the post. OTOH
> posts where the user has obvious tried a variety of things and
> presents a good explanation of the problem I'll often reply if it's an
> area I know about.

And then there are those that post to the list without subscribing and
are held up in the moderator queue.

>
>

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)gmail(dot)com