On Fri, 2007-13-07 at 20:39 +0200, Andrea Rossato wrote:
http://headrush.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/buildingausercommunity.jpg
Now, I'm telling this because I believe that the expert ones are in part responsible for the gap the picture shows.
In many ways the experts in any such community (not just the Haskell
one!) are, in fact, to blame for that gap, yes. The problem is that
they, being the experts, can most quickly and effectively answer the
questions. And for a while they do (at least subconsciously, but
sometimes overtly) bask in the attention they get as the "go-to guy".
The problem with this is twofold:
1. As you so ably pointed out, they do a disservice to the
intermediates who are sharpening their skills both technical and
pedagogical. The intermediates shut up and wait for the experts
to answer thus leaving observers of the community thinking
there's really only two or three who "really understand" the
topic in question.
2. The experts wear out. Eventually the attention isn't something
to bask in. It's to be avoided. The result is the experts
avoiding places where they're likely to be prevailed upon to
answer questions and, because of the training from #1, nobody is
left behind to fill the resulting gap.
I've seen this pattern so often in communities. I've also seen it in
management (the supervisor/manager who can do the job better than his
underlings -- so he does) or in teaching (the popular teacher gets a
heavier courseload, in effect being punished for being good) or in a
myriad of other social enterprises.
--
Michael T. Richter