[development] #drupal and #drupal-contribute split (Was: Re: Proposal: Move all dev support off this list to new StackExchange site)

[Chris Johnson]

I agree with Angie and Earl, at the same time.  I think both are correct to
the greatest simultaneous extent possible.  We don't want knowledgeable
developers to stop mingling with the newcomers (if I can restate Angie's
points in such words), but at the same time we don't want those developers
burning out on information glut and support requests.

A significant part of the problem is just the ever increasing size of the
community.  I've seen this happen before in other communities.  I've been
among those who dropped out when the signal to noise ratio dropped because
of the huge influx of newcomers.

Earl suffers a particular problem in that he's written a group of modules
that are at once both among the most popular and most difficult to use.  As
such, he is probably the #1 target for support requests when he shows his
face publicly.  He's too well known, and too many people depend on his code.

Developers in general don't like interruptions or any friction in their
developing efforts -- understandably when the complexity of creating new
code requires the kind of focus sometimes called "flow".  But if everyone,
not just developers, were solely selfish and only interested in scratching
their own itches, there might be nearly zero community.

As the community grows -- and this kind of "too much information" problem
grows -- maybe the idea of what constitutes contribution to the community
needs to change.

I'm suggesting an intentional, conscious decision on the part of the most
knowledgeable developers who ARE interested in preserving community to
slightly alter their worldview on what constitutes contribution to include
more involvement (e.g. #drupal) with newcomers.  If you are not interested
in preserving the community Angie talks about, then I've got no argument for
you.
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