Feedback on New Q&A column on OpenSource.com

I’m launching a new Q&A column on Opensource.com and I’m fine-tuning what topics I’ll cover. Anything Linux, Open Source and community-related are fair game. What do you wish you’d known about Linux before you started using it? What questions do you have about building and maintaining communities? What would you like to know about contributing to an Open Source project? If I use your question in the column, you will get full attribution (and I’m certainly interested in hearing general feedback about the column itself).

–jeremy

LinuxQuestions.org Turns Fifteen

WOW. Fifteen years ago today I made the first post ever at LQ, introducing it to the world. 15 Years. I know I’ve said it before, but 5,354,618 posts later the site and community have exceeded my wildest expectations in every way. The community that has formed around LQ is simply amazing. The dedication that the members and mod team has shown is both inspiring and truly humbling. I’d like to once again thank each and every LQ member for their participation and feedback. While there is always room for improvement, that LQ has remained a friendly and welcoming place for new Linux members despite its size is a testament to the community. Reaching this milestone has served to energize and refocus my efforts on making sure the next fifteen years are even better than the first fifteen. Visit this thread for more on how we plan to do that. We can’t do it without you.

–jeremy

Happy New Year & Browser and OS stats for 2012

I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year on behalf of the entire LQ team. 2012 has been another great year for LQ and we have quite a few exciting developments in store for 2013, including a major code update that we originally had planned for late 2012.

Unfortunately, 2012 has been another quiet year from a blogging perspective, but I do regularly post to the LQ twitter account. Posting more lengthy commentary here is something I’ll try to be more cognizant of this year.

As has become tradition, here are the browser and OS statistics for the main LQ site for all of 2012 (2011 stats for comparison).

Firefox usage at LQ continues to decline and now represents less than half of all pageviews, while Chrome usage continues to increase and now represents more than a third of all pageviews. Note that Konqueror completely fell out of the top 10, representing just 0.09% of all pageviews.

Windows and Macintosh usage increased for the second straight year, while Linux usage is once again down slightly. Android usage almost hit one full percent.

I’d also like to take this time to thank each and every LQ member. You are what make the site great; without you, we simply wouldn’t exist. I’d like to once again thank the LQ mod team, whose continued dedication ensures that things run as smoothly as they do. Don’t forget to vote in the 2012 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards, which recently opened.

–jeremy

LinuxQuestions.org Turns Twelve

I’m extremely proud to announce that exactly twelve years ago yesterday I made my very first post at LinuxQuestions.org. As has become tradition, here’s a quick post looking back on the past year and ahead to the next. 4,693,050 posts and 469,470 registered members (659,324 members have actually registered, but we have a very active pruning policy for members who have never posted) does not even begin to tell the story. The community that has grown and flourished at LQ is both astounding and humbling. I’d like to once again thank each and every LQ member for their participation, dedication and feedback. I’d also like to thank the dedicated mod team, whose level-headed decisions have been a cornerstone of the site’s success.

To say that feedback has been absolutely critical to our success is an understatement. It would be impossible to enumerate the features we’ve added or changes we’ve made as a direct result of member feedback. With that in mind, I’d like to use this thread to collect as much feedback as possible about LQ. What are we doing well and where can we improve? What should we be doing differently? As part of our birthday celebration, we’ll be giving away Contributing Member updates, LQ Merchandise and even a gratis pass to OSCON 2012 in Portland. Stay tuned for more details.

You may be wondering what’s next for LQ. I’m happy to say that after twelve years, our mission remains as unequivocally unchanged now as it was when I started the site; to be the absolute best resource we can be for the Linux and Open Source community. We have a large code upgrade coming to LQ in the near future, which will bring it in line with the other Questions Network site, AndroidQuestions.org. The new code will bring many long awaiting features, including a much improved search. It will also allow us to iterate faster and add functionality that will improve usability for members and mods alike. After we’re sure the new release is stable, we’ll look at whether or not it makes sense to add any new sections to the site. We’ll also explore the possibility of adding new sites to The Questions Network. Feedback on both, including possible topics for the additional site(s), is very much encouraged.

–jeremy