I've always been skeptical of "weblog communities" like diaryland and weblogs.com. But I've found myself drawn into the lives (or at least, the opinions) of my friends and not a few strangers through the use.perl.org journals. And, if you're reading this, chances are that you have been too.
I like keeping in touch, and I really do feel like we're forming a little weblog community. I felt I recognised myself in chaoticset's description of himself as a journal junkie.
There's a lot more happening at use.perl.org than most folks see on the front page, and it's all in the journals and comments. The journals are a much better reflecting of the activity and vitality of the Perl community than the major stories.
Pudge, do you have any figures on the growth of journals? I'd love to get more people journalling. Not that you're all boring or anything, but I'm only spending a half-hour a day reading and writing journals. I have many more hours in the day to procrastinate away!
--Nat
I keep the recent journals slashbox at the very top. In addition to showing you recent journals, there is a link to the top journal posters by time, number of entries, number of friends, etc.
BTW, for anyone who doesn't know, you can set your messaging to let you know at the top of use Perl; whenever someone replies to one of your journal entries.
Re:Recent Journals Slashbox
Matts on 2002-01-08T20:22:42
journals.pl?op=top should really have the most recent journals at the top, not the bottom. I've been meaning to tell pudge that for a while now. I always end up using that page because it's refreshed more often than the slashboxes, and the continuous scrolling down to the recent items can be a pain...Re:Recent Journals Slashbox
pudge on 2002-01-08T20:31:58
Several people have mentioned it. I have had better things to do.:-) I'll look into it now. Re:Recent Journals Slashbox
pudge on 2002-01-08T20:36:54
Done.Re:Recent Journals Slashbox
ct on 2002-01-08T22:03:28
Heh, I just went to the =top page, did my normal scroll to the bottom, and got really really confused as to why the most recent wasnt there. I guess this is why. Fantastic, much better.:)
Re:Stats
gnat on 2002-01-08T18:38:43
Cool! Those stats tell some great stories, like the way everyone was burnt out after TPC and Aug and Sep were quiet months. I love that it's steadily growing.Would it be considered uncool to suggest on a few mailing lists (I'm itching to get more mod_perl people involved) that people read for a while and then start their own journal?
--nat
Re:Stats
pudge on 2002-01-08T18:45:50
I don't see what would be wrong with it. Then again, I am not necessarily in tune with how to foster good communities.:-)
Early last year, as I was struggling to read some sense into my life, I decided to install a blogger for my own personal use, to simply use as a personal diary. Searching freshmeat (And finding nothing I wanted to use) I happened across Monaural Jerk. Clicking to the example, I found myself at debris.com, a weblog I found fascinating, thus shattering my "All bloggers are idiots" beliefs.
Then I found this place. I'm continually amazed at what I read here. And it's becoming a knee jerk reaction. I'm now checking journals more often than I check, say, CNN or slashdot.
When I started writing here, I doubted I'd stick with it. I'd tried journalling before, but never stuck with it, because I knew nobody read it. Now that I know people read it, it's really changed the way I think about it. I walk down the street, see something interesting, and think "I need to put that in my journal."
While I don't know that I'd send out a call to arms to p5p, probably a smaller more focused list like modperl or mason would be a good idea.
Re:Guilty Pleasure.
ask on 2002-01-08T21:27:44
ha, there's at least 3 times as many people on the modperl list as on p5p.
- ask (list dad on both)Re:Guilty Pleasure.
chromatic on 2002-01-09T06:48:37
Does that count people (like me) who much prefer the NNTP interface? How would one count that, anyhow?Re:Guilty Pleasure.
ask on 2002-01-10T05:48:32
the nntp server does write logs; but I am not looking too closely at them (and there are still 2345234 uncertainty factors).
I don't think the number of subscribers to p5p dropped much if at all when I made the nntp thing; and otherwise the number has been fairly constant. (And the mod_perl list has always[1] been larger).
- ask
[1] Okay, the last few years anyway.Re:Guilty Pleasure.
pudge on 2002-01-10T13:10:28
I dropped most of the @perl.org lists I was subscribed too after nntp.perl.org went live, including p5p. I stayed with a few macperl lists, plus modules@.
I wonder what that stat curve looks like...
