I think Neil got it here.

The whole mailing list concept is kind of old at stodgy, a little like
IRC. Both are wonderful tools and in many ways, far better than the
flashier things that have replaced them.

But as time moves on, the older members either learn more and so have
less to ask, or move on to more administrative tasks.  Meanwhile, the
newer folks are younger, don't relate to the old standards, and instead
go looking for answers on Facebook, Twitter, whatever.  Even web based
forums are probably a little more respectable to the younger crowd.  And
Microchip's forums are pretty decent.

--McD

On Tue, 2014-12-09 at 13:17 -0500, Neil wrote:
> I find it hard to believe that the decline of a list could be due to one=
=20
> person, just a few people.  Personally, my participation dropped off=20
> because as I got to know PICs more and more, developed my business more=20
> and more, and hence became more administrative.  Still using PICs, and=20
> even more so now, but some of the development has been pushed off to=20
> others.  As I learned more, I obviously asked less questions.  There are=
=20
> always people coming and going on lists, and I feel that the ones=20
> expected to come in haven't been doing so, as it seems from my robotics=20
> activities and other clubs that the Arduino has become the noob platform=
=20
> of choice.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> On 12/9/2014 8:27 AM, RussellMc wrote:
> >>
> >>>> Well, I never saw the message Russell is quoting here
> >>> Me neither
> >>
> >> http://meta.electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/3997/how-can-we-im=
prove-the-manner-in-which-poor-questions-are-dealt-with
> >>
> >> The comment has probably been removed.
> >>
> >> It's still there.
> > It's a comment on Nick's question starting "One week is too long ..."
> >
> > FWIW, it's a matter of fact and record that most people commenting
> > 'against' my suggestions re how to treat beginners have no clue and no
> > experience of what process the new poster experiences, how it appears t=
o
> > them and the difficulty they have overcoming a "closed" question.
> >
> > I have worked offlist with several new posters on that 'list' to help t=
hem
> > overcome the bad reactions to their first questions and so have a good =
idea
> > of how it can appear 'from the other side'.
> > In many cases the OP does not use English as their first language.
> > A major problem, invisible to those who have it, is that some
> >
> > people (who may be highly "intelligent" and capable in their sphere of
> > expertise) *seem to have *an extremely low ability to understand anythi=
ng
> > not written in a manner which they are highly familiar with. A question=
 can
> > make good sense, be logical, be a good question in its own right and be
> > worded in unusual but entirely acceptable English, but meet with opprob=
rium
> > and incomprehension by the linguistically strait-jacketed ones. As many=
 of
> > these also have question closing power the result is predictable. If I =
was
> > not giving such people the strong benefit of the doubt I'd suspect that
> > more than a few are not quite as incapable as they pretend to be but ha=
ve
> > "racist leanings".
> >
> >
> >
> >          Russell
>=20


--=20
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