Re: [Boost-users] The Boost Community

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-04 03:09:37

I'll just respond in general to the thread.  It's great to see some enthusiasm
from the boost user community.  I'm afraid to say, however, that I'm a bit of
a skeptic.  Having started the Boost Wiki in 2001 after a burst of similar
discussion and the initial creation of the Boost-user mailing list, I consider
the wiki to be basically a failed experiment.  That's not to say that the
Boost_User Wiki hasn't been very useful to many people (especially Boost
developers). But I'd say that there has never been sustained "user" support to
help grow the Wiki and make it more useful for Boost users.  The initial
vision was that users would contribute 'tutorial' and other useful
information.  It's been sparse at best.

So my thought is that before we go and grow another technological solution and
diluting our resources even more, we need to really think about what the
'users' want to achieve and why the current site doesn't meet those needs. Why
don't more "users" contribute to the current Wiki?  What is it that users
really want to contribute to Boost?  Why not build on some of the good things
on the current wiki (like the 'effective xyz' pages?  Why not band together
and help work on the current Wiki? If it's additions to docs there are
certainly many ways that can be done currently and is done all the time by a
variety of users.  It's alot of work to do it well I believe -- more than I
can do.  And if we want to augment with other technologies we can -- I'm fully
open to expanding the hosting I already provide.

As for the wiki spam problem, I believe it to be a non-issue at this point. 
The problem really started to take off in mid-2004, but a series of measures
have been implemented to reduce and resolve the problem. Yes, spam still
appears from time to time, but it is quickly and completely reversed.  The
spammers that get thru initially get blocked out because the new content
filter stops them from posting links to spammer sites after an admin update. 
 The more organized and dangerous spammers seem to have moved on to easier
targets.  And at this point, any open content system is going to have to face
this problem -- so be prepared.

Jeff