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 <ttmrichter@gmail.com> (GoogleTalk: ttmrichter@gmail.com)
A well-designed and humane interface does not need to be split into beginner and expert subsystems. (Jef Raskin)