Maiden speech from an old man

[Richard Gaskin]

hh wrote:

 > This is my first "speech" here

Very glad to see you here.  I figured you'd wind up here sooner or later. :)


 > Let's find a way to come closer in the community, to come together,
 > right now. Why not make an "Insider's corner" in the forum?

I'm not opposed, but given that newcomers become old-timers in the 
natural course of time, what distinguishes an "Insider"?

I think the majority of active participants in this list are also active 
participants in the forums.

This seems natural enough given the history of the community:

Originally the primary watering hole was the MetaCard List.

Shortly after the turn of the century when LiveCode (then "Revolution") 
was born, the main place was the use-rev list (now "use-livecode").

When web forums became the most commonly preferred form of online 
community discussion, the LiveCode forums became the main hangout.

Both of the earlier venues still exist, and many other new venues have 
sprung up as well, including a forum at LiveCodeJournal.com focused on 
interoperability, a Dutch forum at de.runrev.info, a Spanish forum at 
livecodela.com, and others, including a G+ Community, two Facebook 
groups, and a LinkedIn group with more than a thousand members.

As LiveCode continues to grow, we can expect the number and variety of 
venues for discussing it to grow along with it.

And given that each has its own unique attributes, I see this as a 
reflection of the natural, organic ways communities evolve, and how 
individual preferences can be addressed through diversity.  Like McLuhan 
said, "The medium is the message"; each venue has different attributes, 
useful to those who prefer each for different reasons.

Both the forums and the mailing lists are linked to from LiveCode.com's 
Community page, and as your new subscription here demonstrates, those 
who prefer a list can find this one easily enough.

As much as I originally preferred mailing lists as a venue, I've come to 
appreciate what web forums bring to the table:  with the "New Posts" 
link at the top of the main page I get the primary benefit of a list in 
quickly seeing what's new, but then I also have a categorized taxonomy 
for browsing discussions that no mailing list archive system has ever 
matched.

Indeed, it's that taxonomy that's made the forums a natural fit to serve 
as the discussion area for working groups participating in community 
initiatives, like the User Guide update and translation projects, 
RevOnline triage, and others.

That said, there is a certain charm to this list borne of its historical 
circumstances that keeps me active here as well.

Vive la différence.   Like so much in the open source world, through 
proliferating diversity everyone can have exactly what they prefer.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  LiveCode Community Manager
  richard at livecode.org