On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Andrew Satori <d...@druware.com> wrote: > > On Feb 11, 2013, at 2:17 PM, "Daniel Verite" <dan...@manitou-mail.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. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
