Tag Archives: mailing list

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Postgres mailing list traffic over time

Code vs. Docs

Graph by Magnus Hagander

Spurred on by Bruce’s recent blog post, I spotted a fun thread on pgsql-general:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2008-11/msg01026.php

A few core contributors have been examining their archives and speculating why it is that some feel that they can’t keep up with mailing list traffic as well as they used to.

Reasons tossed around included:

  • More people involved
  • More patches
  • Contributors are just getting older
  • More in-depth questions. Tom said: “Fewer, How do you pronounce Postgres? and more, Explain the various isolation levels for transactions and how does that affect my particular situation?”

Out came the graphs! Tom Lane kicked things off initially with a plot of mailing list messages since 1998:

Tom Lane

I shared one of Magnus’ graphs about Code vs. Documentation at the top. There are several more graphs shared in that thread that are worth checking out, along with pointers to resources like MarkMail, graphs from Ron Mayer, and Ohloh. Enjoy!