Python Forum

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Thu, 2010-06-03 at 03:16 -0700, Pierre Quentel wrote:
> I agree that it's not efficient to split the community by creating
> another forum. But we can't ignore the fact that c.l.p's activity has
> been decreasing in the last years :
> 2000    42971
> 2001    55265
> 2002    56774
> 2003    64521
> 2004    55929
> 2005    58864
> 2006    59664
> 2007    49105
> 2008    48722
> 2009    44111
> which certainly doesn't match the popularity of the language itself

I'm not sure that means what you imply it does.  I'm involved in several
projects and technical groups.  List traffic is down across-the-board.
I remember [physical] UG [of various flavors] meetings of 30+ people,
now you average ~10.  I see two factors: [a] much better documentation,
more traditional training, and simply that many of the hard nuts have
been cracked.  It is much easier to develop [regardless of language] or
sys-admin than it was ~5 years ago.  [b] The "cool" has moved onto
something else.  Don't dismiss this factor, it was certainly visible in
the UG space.  "The Internet" and "IT" were the *it* thing, Open Source
and the web were a intriguing and mysterious novelties.  Now they are
mainstream, ho hum.  Coolness seekers have moved on to graze in other
fields [SEM and SM mostly].

In reference to [a] there are several very good Python texts available
and the online documentation is fair to decent.

> So the OP's initiative should be an incentive to think on the format
> of the interaction between all the range of Python users, from newbees
> to gurus. We are in the 2.0 era, with social networks all over the
> place using a pleasant interface, 

I suppose that is a matter of taste;  I hear no shortage of complaints
that Facebook et al are complicated and hard to use.
-- 
Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam at whitemice.org> LPIC-1, Novell CLA
<http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com>
OpenGroupware, Cyrus IMAPd, Postfix, OpenLDAP, Samba