Re: fascinating article on postgresql mailing lists

On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Andrew Satori <dru(at)druware(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 11, 2013, at 2:17 PM, "Daniel Verite" <daniel(at)manitou-mail(dot)org> wrote:
>
>> Vincent Veyron wrote:
>>
>>> I find it strange that
>>>
>>> 'Probability that a new thread gets a response'
>>>
>>> sits below 60% for the 'general' list
>>
>> This seems indeed too low.
>>
>> I happen to collect these messages in a database since mid-2005. As a point
>> of comparison, the numbers I get until today for pgsql-general are 3348
>> messages that appear to be outside of any thread (no "In-Reply-To" field or
>> "References" field that points to it, and subject does not start with "Re:"),
>> the total number of messages being 110233, in 19855 distinct threads.
>>
>> So at least in this time period, I can't see how it could be said that
>> there's a 40% probability of not getting a reply. If we consider that there
>> are 3348 failed attempts at spawning a thread vs 19855 successful attempts,
>> the ratio would be about 6:1, or a 17% probability of getting no public
>> response.
>>
>
>
> 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.