RE: [Boost-users] The Boost Community

From: Foster, Gareth (gareth.foster_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-04 04:10:06

I might be wrong here, but I think the gist of the discussion was that
coming up with something bigger than just a documentation Wiki was the way
forward.

I am new to boost, I had no idea there was a Wiki. A site with documentation
as well as blogs and news on C++ and Boost would pull more traffic than a
Wiki alone, in doing so it would hopefully become established, this would in
turn drive the expansion of the Wiki, leading to a general trend towards the
resource being indispensible for C++ developers. Ideally, you want the
situation where C++ student of one year, A, upon being asked by C++ student
of 1 month, B, where he can find std::cout documentation on line, will
instantly point to one place, as he would with PHP etc.

I'll admit, as soon as I saw the word "skeptic", the enormity of the task
dawned on me, maybe it is more than a little pie in the sky, then again, it
would be great if successful.

The anoying part of this is surely that all the tools to build a great
community site are always there, its just the theming and pooling of the
technologies that is tough.

Gaz

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Garland [mailto:jeff_at_[hidden]] 
> Sent: 04 May 2005 09:10
> To: boost-users_at_[hidden]
> Subject: Re: [Boost-users] The Boost Community
> 
> 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 
> 
>  
> 
> 
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