From: Austin Ziegler Date: 2006-05-16T05:06:13+09:00 Subject: Re: Ruby community website / forum On 5/15/06, John Gabriele wrote: > On 5/15/06, Austin Ziegler wrote: >> I'm not going to speak for anyone else, but I suspect that a *lot* of >> people are like me on this: I don't have time. I barely have time to >> read the Ruby blogs and keep up with ruby-talk in any case. > Me too. >> Without guaranteeing a high level of participation from active >> high-knowledge members of the community, including the Japanese >> community, a PerlMonks-alike is doomed to failure. Not that I think >> that PerlMonks is even remotely worth emulating. The postings on the >> first page as I look now are spectacularly uninteresting and don't >> offer anything that hasn't been asked and answered elsewhere better. >> [snip] > Austin -- I've used PerlMonks in the past, and it's actually more than > a forum. It's got a ranking system (both posters and posts are ranked) > that turns out to make the site very useful. There's an interesting > dynamic going on over there -- when someone posts a very basic > question, they don't usually get a normal "here's how you do it" > answer. Instead, they often get a, "here's where you can look in the > docs for your answer" type of answer. Great. Just what we need. Karma whores. Colour me even *less* interested now. > I think that, when you have a ranking system like they have (i.e. if > their posts are up-voted, they get more xp), folks tend to want to > live up to their on-site standing. You know what I mean? It's like, > they build (visible, via their xp points) a rep (and "title") over > time. Folks start looking at their home node (which only the user can > edit -- unlike a wiki) as a useful reference to other good nodes. That interest level meter? It just dropped again (yeah, just over the course of one paragraph). I can't think of anything that is less useful than karma whores. Okay, maybe trolls, but I've got no interest or time in ranking or being ranked by others. People know my work and make their own judgements. > Anyhow, I agree with you that another Ruby forum is not needed. But PM > is much more than a forum -- it's got extra magic sprinkled on top. ;) It sounds much less than a forum. It sounds like high school dodgeball with geekitude on top. Colour me opposed, not just not interested. -austin -- Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca