Le sam. 07 janv. 2012 14:08:44 CET, Andrea Pescetti <[email protected]> a
écrit :
Since the situation is already confusing enough, I would spell out that ASF is "Apache
Software Foundation", so that readers can connect it immediately with the new name
"Apache OpenOffice". And also, as Andrew suggested, insert the full URL to the Forum:
http://user.services.openoffice.org
Some history first. ... So the forum is really managed by a group of
users helping other users (for free, on their spare time).
As others wrote, I would also be for removing the history paragraph. But its
last sentence, the one I quote above, is interesting and should be kept
somewhere.
Here is a new version. I've removed the paragraph about history and propose to make
another blog entry in a while based on that. Content would be more oriented to the
"advertising" of the forum then. I agree that this has been also mentioned in
the previous blog entry (I took part in its redaction) but in a private mail, someone
proposed to put this kind of information. So maybe it's worth another blog entry.
I will proceed soon to the creation of the blog account and send this new
version.
Hagar
_____________________________________________
The Community Forum: New Year Status
After 4 years of existence, the Community Forum
(http://user.services.openoffice.org/) has moved on the Apache Software Foundation
(ASF) servers end of October 2011 (see
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OOOUSERS/Changes+integrate+the+forums+into+the+AOOo+project).
Here are some figures about how we are doing on the English forum. I will try to
make this kind of report on a monthly basis in the forum
(http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=46497) and
perhaps quarterly on the blog.
Please remember that the forum is managed by a group of users helping other
users for free and on their spare time.
Some basics:
- The number of posts, members and topics is taken from the phpBB information
bottom of main index page
- Solved topics are counted in all the forums except admin and archives
sections (not visible to standard users)
Note that the ratio solved topics vs. total topics is slightly biased since the
topics in the archives and admin sections are counted (in phpBB statistics) but
not the solved ones (custom search). However, there are less than 550 topics
there (in more than a 40,000 grand total, so less than 1.5%). These last
figures shouldn't change very much since the private sections are not very
active.
Here it is (since the solved topics is a new metric, there is only one point
for the moment).
[img]http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/download/file.php?id=13066&mode=view[/img]
The blue line (number of posts) is not that important, it just shows that the
trend is consistent with the other metrics.
The most interesting statistics are the red lines for the members and the
topics (with triangles, giving the time when the figures have been recorded).
Note that the ratio topics vs. members is 0.9 for the English forum and above
1.5 for the French and Japanese forums. We tend not to be too harsh for the
rules on the English section and topics are not often split when different
users ask questions (still related of course) in the same thread.
Activity has a slightly higher slope during the first 2 years. It may be linked
to the building of the knowledge database. Once the main issues and common
questions have been discussed, users find their answers more and more easily
with a mere search, hence less topics needed.
Neither the release of LibreOffice (Oct 2010), nor the move to the ASF servers
(Oct 2011) have changed anything for the activity.
The decrease in the number of members (end of 2011) is linked to the cleaning of banned
users. They had just been banned until now but to keep only the "real users",
their account has been deleted (nearly 1800). This was the first cleaning ever done from
the launch of this forum 4 years ago. 1550 of them had been identified as spammers
because of their post(s). 250 were passive spam (link in signature or interest field of
the profile, without any post).
The ratio of the solved topics is rather good: 14,000 solved (green triangle)
in 41,000 (red triangles), that makes more than 1 in 3 (all users don't bother
to tag their topic as solved).
For the record, last quarter has been in line with the rest: 2100 new users
from Oct 1st to end of this year, meaning 1800 new topics.
As for the spam, we have had 1800 users in 1500 days, it makes 1.21 spammer a
day, still rather low, thanks to the registration process (hard to cheat for
bots).
Last figures: 2011 has shown an increase in the max number of online users
along the months. Peak reached 232 beginning of October. The counter has been
reset on Jan 1st 2012 and is already at 214, proving the audience is still
there.
Some words about the team. Let's not forget Terry Ellison who was the main
maintainer of the forum until the move to Apache Software Foundation servers.
His huge involvement has made it possible for both a clean running of the forum
during 4 years, making it a great place for those needing/providing help, and
contributing to the transfer of the forum to the ASF servers with a minimal
impact for the users.
As for the Volunteers, 4 new users have been promoted in December 2011 (the
last approval was in April). Total is nearly 100 now.
To conclude, the constant dedication of the Volunteers shows that they are
still eager to help users through the forum. We are now waiting for the next
release of Apache OpenOffice for a new bunch of questions and users...
Hagar Delest,
On the behalf of the Forum Volunteers
