Re: browser interface to forums please?

On Wed, Apr 5, 2017 at 7:22 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>
wrote:

> On 03/24/2017 11:45 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
>
>> John R Pierce <pierce(at)hogranch(dot)com> writes:
>>
>>> On 3/24/2017 9:49 PM, Yuri Budilov wrote:
>>>
>>
> They are uniformly unfriendly when viewed from this end of the
>> relationship. nabble for instance reposts stuff into the mailing lists
>> that is missing critical portions. stackoverflow doesn't seem to think
>> they have any responsibility to give back at all.
>>
>
> Stackoverflow gives back by providing an interface people want to use. It
> is free (as in beer) and is hugely popular.
>

I think one of the greatest things that Stackoverflow brins isn't actually
the interface (I for one can't stand it, but I'm clearly not the target
group here), but it's the fact that they have the *userbase* of people. We
have a userbase of "people already using postgres and many of them having
done so for some time because there's a threshold to get over to join this
mailinglist thing". Stackoverflow has a userbase that is orders of
magnitude higher, because they provide a venue for people to ask questions
about *anything* -- so they can use the same venue to ask about their
programming language, their framework-du-jour, their database, their
operating system etc etc.

This is one reason why I don't think having PostgreSQL dedicated web forums
would actually be very interesting today. Those people who prefer to use
the web as their media are more likely to already be using other platforms
which bring them *more value* than a PostgreSQL dedicated forum ever would.
And they don't have to sing up for Yet Another Account. And they can work
on whatever credit-style-kickback their favorite platform does.

> We need to be embracing these external communities because it is where our
> growth is. I run into people every single week that absolutely refuse to
> join these lists. They want nothing to do with email and they have good
> reason.
>

Fully agreed. And I think we're better off doing that than to try to
rebuild our own version of those communities.

Personally, I couldn't stand going through StackOverflow on a regular basis
trying to check if Postgres related questions are answered or not etc.
Luckily, we have other community members who *are* willing to do that, and
they make that platform work. So I'm very grateful for those people doing
it, even better that it's not me.

And also, if somebody wants to take another stab at trying to make web
forums for PostgreSQL, I say let them try. I don't think it would work, but
I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/