Asp Forum - ruby-misc (was Re: where have all the experienced users gone?

Gerardo Santana Gómez Garrido

12/23/2006 6:36:00 PM

2006/12/23, Tom Pollard <tomp@earthlink.net>:
>
> On Dec 23, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Devin Mullins wrote:
> > Well, the half-solution that was proposed awhile back... the
> > listserv adds a sig to every mail with one or two FAQ links.
>
> Whether or not a new list is created, this is a good idea. It would
> be very helpful and minimally intrusive. It would almost make it
> clear where the "official" FAQ was, and (I think) encourage
> experienced users to flesh it out.
>
> TomP
>
>

Nothing personal Tom, it just happened that yours is the last message
I've received from this thread.

Just look at you guys. Talking and talking. It's the 74th message I
receive from this thread.

And it happens all the time.

I used to read this list. Well, I still do, but less frequently,
because of these long and most of the time unproductive chats.

I used to come here frequently to learn, and was willing to help too.
But there are too many "e-mail chats" I'm not interested on, mixed
with relevant and very insightful ones.

Nowadays I pick some messages here and there to read, looking for gems
in this large pool of irrelevant stuff. Attending ruby-talk is not
pleasant any more.

I agree with being nice, but we can send someone to read the fine
manual in a nice way too, instead of doing his/her homework everytime.

It would help also avoiding messages that most of the time are useless
like "+1" or ":)", you get the idea.

Or probably I'm misunderstanding the purpose of ruby-TALK. Maybe
ruby-TALK is a kind of offline IRC, or a social network like MSN
Spaces.

In that case, I apologize, and kindly ask for a real mailing list.

Please.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
--
Gerardo Santana

5 Answers

James Britt

12/23/2006 6:43:00 PM

Gerardo Santana Gómez Garrido wrote:

>
> I used to come here frequently to learn, and was willing to help too.
> But there are too many "e-mail chats" I'm not interested on, mixed
> with relevant and very insightful ones.

The social aspect is essential. It's what forms the list culture.

If the list were not so chatty, if it were just a human-powered
answerbot, I'd not have stuck around to learn Ruby.

--
James Britt

"Inside every large system there's a small system trying to get out".
- Chet Hendrickson

Trans

12/23/2006 6:55:00 PM

Gerardo Santana Gómez Garrido wrote:

> Nothing personal Tom, it just happened that yours is the last message
> I've received from this thread.
>
> Just look at you guys. Talking and talking. It's the 74th message I
> receive from this thread.
>
> And it happens all the time.
>
> I used to read this list. Well, I still do, but less frequently,
> because of these long and most of the time unproductive chats.
>
> I used to come here frequently to learn, and was willing to help too.
> But there are too many "e-mail chats" I'm not interested on, mixed
> with relevant and very insightful ones.
>
> Nowadays I pick some messages here and there to read, looking for gems
> in this large pool of irrelevant stuff. Attending ruby-talk is not
> pleasant any more.
>
> I agree with being nice, but we can send someone to read the fine
> manual in a nice way too, instead of doing his/her homework everytime.
>
> It would help also avoiding messages that most of the time are useless
> like "+1" or ":)", you get the idea.
>
> Or probably I'm misunderstanding the purpose of ruby-TALK. Maybe
> ruby-TALK is a kind of offline IRC, or a social network like MSN
> Spaces.
>
> In that case, I apologize, and kindly ask for a real mailing list.
>
> Please.

That doesn't make any sense. You are contradicting yourself. On the one
had you are validating the point of the original thread, on the other
you condeming the thread as pointless. And I dare say you aren't
productively adding to the conversaion either.

Relevancy is relative. The hope is that we can better sort concerns and
reduce duplicity. Will this thread, or any thread for that matter,
prove productive? Who knows?! Only time can tell. I for one am glad
when there is 74+ posts of interest on a topic.

T.

Jeremy McAnally

12/23/2006 7:05:00 PM

>
> Just look at you guys. Talking and talking. It's the 74th message I
> receive from this thread.
>

Hm. Imagine that! TALKING on ruby-TALK! ;)

I kid, I kid, but seriously, isn't this what the list is for at least
partially? I think maybe you and I view the list differently, and
perhaps Tom and I do, too. Either that's part of the list culture or
they should make a list for you and a list for me so you can do
whatever it is that you would do on a list where you didn't talk, and
we can get on with our nice chats... :p

--Jeremy

Jason Dusek

12/23/2006 7:19:00 PM

On 12/23/06, Gerardo Santana Gómez Garrido <gerardo.santana@gmail.com> wrote:> I used to read this list. Well, I still do, but less frequently,> because of these long and most of the time unproductive chats.>> I used to come here frequently to learn, and was willing to help too.> But there are too many "e-mail chats" I'm not interested on, mixed> with relevant and very insightful ones.>> Nowadays I pick some messages here and there to read, looking for gems> in this large pool of irrelevant stuff. Attending ruby-talk is not> pleasant any more.You know, I feel the same way. I take a look at ruby-talk once a week-- to 'select all' and delete 200+ messages. IRC chat in the Rubycommunity is no more discursive than the mailing list -- and it'ssupposed to be!-- _jsn

Eric Hodel

12/23/2006 10:04:00 PM

On Dec 23, 2006, at 11:05, Jeremy McAnally wrote:
>> Just look at you guys. Talking and talking. It's the 74th message I
>> receive from this thread.
>
> Hm. Imagine that! TALKING on ruby-TALK! ;)
>
> I kid, I kid, but seriously, isn't this what the list is for at least
> partially? I think maybe you and I view the list differently, and
> perhaps Tom and I do, too. Either that's part of the list culture or
> they should make a list for you and a list for me so you can do
> whatever it is that you would do on a list where you didn't talk, and
> we can get on with our nice chats... :p

To be honest, the list culture has changed quite a bit since I first
started reading the list. (It seems that my first post was [ruby-
talk:44580] back in July 2002.)

[ruby-talk:1] came 43 months prior (Dec 1998)
[ruby-talk:50000] came just under 2 months later (Sep 2002)
[ruby-talk:100000] came 22 months later (May 2004)
[ruby-talk:150000] came 36 month slater (July 2005)
[ruby-talk:200000] came 48 months later (July 2006)

Between [ruby-talk:50000] and [ruby-talk:100000] there wasn't nearly
as many threads like this one or the thread that spawned this one.
When there were, they certainly didn't carry on like they do today.

If there was a long thread back then, it was almost always some
technical discussion.

After or around [ruby-talk:100000] the chattiness of the list
increased drastically. I'd go look for when I first posted about
this many years ago, but I don't really care.

--
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://blog.se...

I LIT YOUR GEM ON FIRE!

comp.lang.ruby