future of php vs the packages

cretaceous

as a regular visitor to PHP Builder, is it just me, or is there less activity than there used to be?

..sure there has been a recent rush on start of term, college type questions,
but in general it seems quieter - and I don't believe there is any better php forum to go to

so my next question is.. do you think this is due to more people using a framework of one type or another - whether an all purpose wordpress/drupal/joomla thing or a symfony/cakePHP thing..
and add jquery and the other js libraries and it seems the all purpose packages are taking over

anyone have any thoughts on what's in the crystal ball?

dalecosp

I think it's certain there's less "community activity" here in the lounge. Not sure about the great mass of the forums. There's probably some indicators that PHP isn't as new and "hot" as it once was, if you read a good bit on the 'Net.

NogDog

It could also be a sign of increased forum traffic and membership. My experience on a number of successful forums is that there is a "sweet spot" in the number of active members. Below that number, the activity level is too low. Around that number there is a good amount of activity but a small enough number of participants that it feels like a family or group of friends. Then when it exceeds that sweet spot by a sufficient amount, the noise level gets too high: regular members start not reading every post due to not enough time and a lot of repeat posts, plus less of a sense of community, as there are so many new "strangers" posting every day. (No offense intended to any new users here, that's just the way it seems to happen everywhere.)

dalecosp

That might also be an explanation. If you're right, the sweet spot was prior to 2005.

dalecosp

Well, I'm not tryin' to pick on ya ....

There was a lot of camraderie in '03-'04. But everything is subject to Point Of View ... mine is that it's not the same as it was then ... which is true, of course, but I'm talking more subjectively. I don't hang out and chat with people anymore. Most of the people who are "mods" were a big part of the "social life" in the Echo Lounge in those days. It's certain that the EL isn't what it once was ... and that is, perhaps, indicative of the entire situation.

But I think that maybe the "Critical Mass" idea is a fairly decent explanation. That, and Elizabeth got famous, Piersk graduated and I started online gaming :-P

cretaceous

I guess it's just the natural rhythms of a forum.. as Nogdog says

there certainly did seem to be more general chat when I started

I bet a university graduate somewhere has written a paper on forum membership patterns over time (must be similar to how all web social networks behave)

Weedpacket

cretaceous wrote:
I bet a university graduate somewhere has written a paper on forum membership patterns over time (must be similar to how all web social networks behave)

I've just noticed that we'll probably hit 950,000 posts today - closing in on one million.

It would be interesting to see their distribution over each of the forums over time.

cretaceous

so what is the history of PHP Builder?
there must be a thread or some info - I think I read something once
can't see it though
number of posts per year ?? or is that confidential?

bpat1434

We could tell you... but we'd have to kill you 😉

I would be willing to bet that because of the traffic and load on the site that stats either are only calculated manually, or are completely disabled.

Double checks join date... Woo hoo!! I was a part of the sweet spot!! and... 10 years and still going!

dalecosp

Well, "sweet spot" is probably a little bit on the subjective side, but I don't think we'd get much argument that the EL isn't used as much as it used to be, and that people who apparently met on this site and became writers of (at least) one book by Wrox (or was it Wiley?) moved on to some sort of fame & fortune (OK, OK, probably not much fortune in it).

And social groups always change ... I note that there are some smart, personable personalities that are posting here frequently, have moved up in the "standings" (like that's something meaningful, but, hey, why tax the database for $count if no one cares, right?) and I'd really like to tip my hat to.

So, there's plenty of subjective stuff to analyze 🙂