[Foundation-l] Analysis of lists statistics: community in decline

[Brion Vibber]

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Nathan wrote:
> This is perhaps simplistic and applies mostly to this particular list, but
> volume has been actively discouraged in various ways over the last year or
> more by complaints and discussions on ways to decrease volume. Most often
> cited reason for complaining about posts was the quality of posts made by
> high volume posters - many who complained about that phenomena also
> mentioned that they were unsubscribing, or no longer actively reading the
> list as a result.

Indeed, volume alone isn't inherently a positive thing. A reduction in
volume may signal a loss of interest in participation, or a change in
signal-to-noise ratio, or a shift in participation to other forums, or a
combination of all of these things.

The common wisdom is that mailing lists in general have been falling out
of favor on the net for a while. Outside the wiki itself I see lots of
Wikimedia-related activity on blogs, chat, and microblogging services
like identi.ca, communication channels which some may find easier to
mentally filter than a high-traffic mailing list.

A danger with these sorts of shifts is fragmentation of the discourse --
it used to be that everybody who was anybody had their Serious
Discussions on wikipedia-l (later split into wikipedia-l, wikitech-l,
wikien-l, intlwiki-l, foundation-l, .....)  Bloggy-chatty things at
least tend to link around among themselves, so perhaps splitting isn't
too dangerous there, but I don't have a good feel for how much *actual
productive planning* gets done on these channels.

Of course, many people seem to feel that *actual productive planning*
doesn't tend to happen on the lists anymore -- conversations just go
'round and 'round and never end.

Let's not forget this is a wiki world -- be bold! Actions speak louder
than posts... ;)

- -- brion
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