[wp-hackers] Lack of code savvy volunteers vs wp-hackers

[Robert Deaton]

Here's my take on a few reasons why the code savvy currently avoid the
forums, and why a message like this probably won't have much of an
impact.

First off, there is the obvious, the noise ratio. If hackers are going
to be bothered to answer questions, they want a question that is going
to pose a challenge, not be a look it up in the codex type answer. The
amount of headaches that the coding community gets from seeing threads
like http://wordpress.org/support/topic/55854 makes it simply not
worth the while. Figure out a way to filter the good questions from
the questions that anyone with a brain and google can answer, and you
might start attracting more coding volunteers.

Secondly, the fact that any contributions to the forums are these days
pretty much one-time things. Let's face it, the search sucks. People
repost questions because in searching they find nothing useful, never
have, and until something drastically changes, they never will. This
is a problem with all forum software, and though I find it interesting
that we use a forum so that the history can be searched, I personally
think in its current form it is completely useless and stupid and you
might as well have a WordPress Support mailing list.

Sure, the other volunteers don't mind re-answering the same repetitive
questions day after day, but that quality is not one that is
widespread, especially in the typical programmer community.

break;

I need to give my brain a rest for the night with some sleep, and so
I'll let this thread go on for a bit while I sleep. I look forward to
everyone's responses in the morning.

-- 
--Robert Deaton
http://lushlab.com