Hello fellow nixers,
Let's discuss this self-assessment.

The community has existed since 2011 and the forums started existing in
2012. It went under the name of unixhub and then of nixers.

It has went through two drama-schisms since its birth.

Regardless of all that it's still alive and slowly maturing.

In 2014 when the previous forums administrator gave up, lost hope, and
wanted to flush everything down I, asked him if it was possible to host
it. I didn't have neither internet/debit/credit card or anything. And
so it ran on a time-bomb of the free $100 coupon from the Digital Ocean
student pack.

But it was running at least!

I never thought I would truly be "administering" the community, I just
wanted to keep in contact with all the great persons that I've met through
this mean of communication and sharing. And that's how I still see it,
I'm just keeping the servers running, not imposing power (unlike what
happened throughout the community's history). It's a shame so many left
through the first schism, but it's understandable that no one would want
to deal with flamewars.


...We're now three years later. The ambiance around the community has
morphed quite a bit thanks to everyone who participate in what we're
doing.

Let me say that straight away, I love you guys, it's fun being part of
something with you!


The last few week I've been thinking of doing a refreshment of thoughts:

Asking the same sort of questions I've asked once I restarted the forums,
asking about what we
stood for.

Quote:What are our ideals, what do we stand and strive for, what do we fulfil, how
do we differ, as the Nixers community.

We are a small, respectful community where everyone can have a place.
We are not overwhelmed by the size of our own community, unlike forums like
unix.com.
We strive for friendship, extremely good and interesting contents on the forums,
and casual technological or friendly offtopic conversations on irc.
Most of us are young enthusiasts that like to discover new things.
But most of all we have a deep bound.

Before starting the survey I had the impression that the community was
slowly but surely stagnating that it was in *need* of something to make
it move.

I'm glad to say that there was something else going around, that many
already had it in mind and that it truly shows through the survey results.

Here are a bunch of statistics and extrapolation taken from the forums:






Now let's go through the survey.
You can find the results here.

We had 26 persons took the survey, not a big number but big enough
considering the size of the community.


How did you get into *nix and what motivates you to keep using it?


The answers are all very unique.
This clearly shows that we all come from different backgrounds and may
have different interests but still find ourselves at the same place.

I had already attacked this in a previous discussion thread entitled
Why are we here now.


How did you hear about nixers?

11 out of 26 found out about nixers through /r/unixporn, the others are
through the members websites and projects.

This shows that /r/unixporn is a mean of entry for many, be it because
our users like to post screenshots of their setup while leaving the IRC
channel or forums open for everyone to gaze at or be it because we don't
have anything else.

But are we truly a reflection of /r/unixporn, just an extension? Obviously
not but that still bring some discomfort to many of the early members
and others who've joined for other reasons.


What year did you join nixers?

The large majority of the persons who've answered have joined in 2016
and 2015.

It might be that members that joined in the past have been lost through
the schisms or that they've simply lost the interest to participate.

It also means that the community mindset that those new members take on
is the one shown today instead of a rosy retrospection.


What is your general overview of the community?


This question had mixed answers. The older the members the more "negative"
(let's say) general overview they had.

Most other members find something that resonates with them, summed up as:

• Tight, small, but friendly, community
  
• A bit intellectual/elite but welcoming
  
• A place to share the love of Unix
  

How would you describe nixers in one sentence?

Again, this had even more mixed answers. Maybe it too redundant with
the previous question.

One thing is sure is that there's a lot of ironic replies.


The IRC

70% of the members are on IRC however 63% post "rarely" or "not a
lot". Only a small minority posts "often" or "everyday".

Around 65% are satisfied with the discussion we're having on IRC. However
some issues with it. Let's say it has its ups and downs.

The main concern and what everyone wants to see more is actual discussion
about things going on, be it a community project or any other topic.

Remember that you can't get what you want if you don't get involved in it.

Start a discussion if you want to see any!

The Forums

Around 77% of the members participate on the forums but again 71% post
"rarely" or "not often". That means, yet again, that it's a minority
contributing to the creation of content that other consumes.

It might be because of the high standards we have, or do we? We do
like quality posts. It shows through the replies to another question:
an unanimity of 100% agree that they are satisfied with the quality of
the forums posts. (though posts that are created by that minority)

On the other side, 70% are satisfied with the quantity of posts/threads.

Lately the content has been flowing better which is great.

80% of the members are satisfied with the forums theme (remember that
you can still set that up in your user control panel).

Now for the real deal: Nixers members want to see more of what others
are working on, more programming discussion and challenges, more software
criticism, etc..

This all resonates with the term "community project".

Community Events

The participation rate in activities is low but everyone enjoys them.

The highest participation is related to the scavenger hunt and podcast
discussion.

Regarding the newsletter, again unanimity, everyone seems to enjoy it.

(PS: yes, the newsletter is sent in both HTML and plain, you can choose
with your mail reader)

Though it would be nicer to start pushing it forward and add weekly
sections created by the members.

xero is currently adding his "ricing section" and rocx contributed with
one comic in one of the edition.

We need more of those.

Same for the podcast, everyone is enjoying the discussion that it brings
around it (be it because of blunts and mistakes made during the research
;) or just because of interest in the subject). But the community is
asking for more guests and more arguments and involvement.

Let's get this straight: This is a community that is very relax, if you
want to take on a project or help with any you can, you don't have to
hold back. It's nice to wish for more but you have to give too.

As for the
services/activities
that everyone enjoys the most they are:

• Forums
  
• IRC
  

And the services that we would wish to have next are also related to
projects, we were hoping for a platform to share/collaborate and now we
have one: http://git.nixers.net

Management

In what direction do you see the community going?

...It was a mistake to ask this question, we've only got troll answers.

How do you propose the community management should be?
How do you propose community issues should be handled?

The replies are vague but there's one thing that stands out: transparency.
Whatever is going to be the management we want to be involved.

Currently, this is what is happening. Whoever wants to contribute with
a service or help manage can.

Extras

It seems like the most popular OS is Arch (deal with it) and that we're
fan of Linus, Theo de Raadt, and Dennis Ritchie.

More importantly, we're all doing our things and working on a personal
project.


-----


So now what?

If you've been reading between the lines it's obvious what stands out,
it's something that's on the tip of everyone tongue and that is already
in the process of happening.

We brought up the nixers
git and we're going to use it for the
community packaging
initiative and other projects.

However this won't work by being a bystander, if you're one of the persons
who participate only "not often" or "rarely" maybe try to raise the bar
a bit.

Someone replied to what they would like to see more on the forums that...

Quote:The forum is good, yet there are some projects, like the networking course that would be nice to continue. I think there are other posts with on-going activities that just halted.

And it's true, so raise them back from the dead in this thread about
happy hunting.


I hope you're enjoying this journey.

Bump this thread with opinions about the survey and about the direction
you see nixers is going to take.

Cheers!