Language is a fantastic tool for communication, it's very important to achieve what we want or need.
The original title/opening of the thread goes around "what to change", now the latest post mentions "it's in there". There is a big difference if we mix the intention for practical purposes.
It's in there yes, but we lack people, we lack interactions, the forum lacks the amounts of traffic that make every project stay alive and grow. So, to many of us, the knowledge is there, yes, we know it, most of us already read it, and certainly... some are actually the authors.
A book?, true, a forum is not a book, yet, if the info is there and new people don't read it, then it matches that old book that stays in the drawer, it needs traffic, new readers, and a presentation that fits the times or the audience.
Is it really in there? I know the wisdom and knowledge is there, it's here, but new people may not know it, let's be fair: new people DON'T know it, and to be more precise... new people may not believe it's there. They come, it looks... way different to what they expect, or can't find the interaction they expect, and then leave.
Modern times I remember an old thread about Linux and Python, I wrote things on purpose there mocking the usual conversation in good fun!, but turns out I hit the nail. Let me explain. Sometimes I need to do something and I ask on forums, due to the nature of the task... I didn't write that here, and turns out sometimes it's difficult to get the right answers, not everyone knows the languages at the needed depth... Then, there he comes, the answer I don't want to read "you can do that with Python", yes, I know, but perhaps there is a reason why I posted "I don't want to use Python". Long story short, around the web some of us joke on how Python appears everywhere, even when nobody is calling it. But this paragraph is not about me, it's about the audience, for diverse reasons lots of people today are searching ways to achieve something, and they are not interested on reading "Python", or "Perl", yes, it's possible, but it may be due to personal preference, or technical reasons... they don't want that.
New conversations, long ago I tried to move things around regarding mobile development, but it never took off. My interest was bigger than my knowledge, and not finding anyone here talking about it, I had to fly somewhere else for research. Other forums are actively talking about other languages, apps, webapps, etc.
Audience, at the end of the day, I like it here, yes, but I'm not the main audience, new audience is needed, and we all know the difference between a personal private website versus a hobby website, the first one is for our eyes only, nobody reads anything but us, in fact most people in the world don't even know the site exists. The hobby site on the other hand... tries to build bonds with people, and to do so it considers the format, the presentation.
Everyone has diff opinions, just consider having a talk with a young person learning development, share links and see their reactions. They will value wisdom, information, yes. But they will also value presentation, being able to discuss with other fresh blood FAST, new topics, and the old stuff may appear to them as boring, outdated, and perhaps bringing words out like WT...f? I told 2 times how people asked me on the web "where is that place you mention where you learned X?", and after giving them the link, they react but not favorably, in fact, they question me because to them, the knowledge (mine) vs the source, mean noise, they can't understand it, and not once a single person told me "yeah, I know read that place, I just opened my account there! what's your nick there?", no, they are gone.
