PSDN Usage

Between 56% and 60% of Consultants interviewed answered (some) detailed questions about his/her participation on PSDN forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

As results show, there are a few forums where people visit consistently. Click on the image below to load the popup with the chart details.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks about PSDN:

• Fewer people watch PSDN than PEG. There’s less noise.
• I see everything; I ignore lots of it.
• Posting on PSDN would contribute to my visibility, but they’ve run out of interesting topics—haven’t been there in over a year. Do visit psdn.com monthly though.
• I actively recommend PSDN to my customer base (more than just forums), so my customers go there. For European clients, it’s the best place for visibility.
• I can’t answer your questions about the site and forums because I go so rarely. I can’t distinguish between them.
• I go to psdn.com now and again. Very rarely visit forum. Like PEG much better.
• I go to psdn.com frequently. I go to the forum infrequently. Non-English speakers have a barrier about using these resources. An outline in languages other than English would be helpful. I have seen some Spanish sites. Of course Microsoft has lots of Italian and German knowledge base and newsletters. There are blogs in Italian and German for C#, java, and hardware—but not Progress. Pity.

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PEG Usage

Between 60% and 64% of Consultants interviewed answered (some) detailed questions about his/her participation on PEG email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

As results show, there are a few forums where people visit consistently. Click on the image below to load the popup.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks about PEG:

• Greg never tells us anything, so this will be interesting to see.
• I don’t find PSDN as useful or user-friendly as PEG.
• If I have difficulty, I go to PEG. Not very often.
• I frequented PEG more when search engine was in place.
• I use http://www.tek-tips.com/ for Progress research because it has other languages.
• This is the only real place for Progress networking and marketing. I’m only an occasional poster because I’m trying to leave Progress.
• PEG is a much more viable resource than PSDN.

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ProgressTalk Usage

58% of Consultants interviewed answered (some) detailed questions about his/her participation on ProgressTalk forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

As results show, there are a few forums where people visit consistently, though less so that the other forums. Click on the image below to load the popup with the chart details.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks about ProgressTalk:

• I may have looked at the site long, long ago.
• I visit maybe three times per year.
• I have political issues with the site.
• Found it completely irrelevant when I visited, so I don't.
• There are some things which are only posted on ProgressTalk, so I go there.

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Frequency of Forum participation

Consultants answered questions about his/her participation in email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

Of Participating Consultants,
64% answered for a message posted on PSDN;
62% answered for a message posted on PEG;
56% answered for a message posted on ProgressTalk.

If a message is posted to a Forum once, how likely are you to see it?

Consultants are much more likely to see timely information on PEG than PSDN forums. Europeans have different reading frequencies than do North Americans. The sample from Africa is small, so those Consultants are not itemized in this report. Consultants from Asia have provided no detailed data. Click on the image of the chart to see the details of this section of the survey.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks:

• I’ll see it only if it’s posted to PEG’s OpenEdge forum.
• It depends upon how busy I am. Once upon a time I saw everything. For the past few months I’ve been invisible.
• If it’s in a forum I watch, I’ll see it—but not otherwise.

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Forum Reading Patterns

Consultants answered questions about his/her participation in email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

Of Participating Consultants,
65% of respondents answered about participation in PSDN;
67% of respondents answered about participation in PEG;
35% of respondents answered about participation in ProgressTalk.

Reading Patterns - PSDN

This chart shows how Consultants, domiciled in different continents, have divergent reading patterns of PSDN. Click on the chart to load the popup image.

These are the most interesting remarks about reading patterns on PSDN:

• I read only the one forum.
• Formerly went there, not currently.
• I visit psdn.com and the forum.
• I visit psdn.com rarely. Never go to the forum.
• However, I had one contract because a colleague noticed someone's posts and told me about him. It was a good trigger for me to get introduced to a new Partner. Got a big contract. Big success!
• I only go to the site when I’m looking for something.
• Long ago I subscribed. Now I visit periodically to read, but not too often.
• I get all postings on email, read more of them for some forums than used to.
• When I need something, I’ll hunt around forum. Never post.
• All participation at site is researching some issues I have; I don't get curious and hang around much.
• There are lots of discussions about stuff I'm vaguely interested in but don't work in.

Reading Patterns - PEG

This chart shows how Consultants, domiciled in different continents, have divergent reading patterns of PEG.Click on the image of the chart to see the details of this section of the survey.

These are the most interesting remarks about reading patterns on PEG:

• The signal to noise ratio is too low. People get buttonholed into one aspect of a problem and don't look at the whole problem. Then 87 people answer, many in a very similar way. Some of the answers may even be correct. I usually respond when a PEG email is forwarded to me by someone I know well, because the post's something I know about. Then I try to respond to all the issues in one post.
• I read the DBA forum once every 2 weeks from the archive only.
• PEG used to come up on web searches (maybe still does).
• Depends upon whether I’m really busy on a project. If I have time, I visit.
• I download data every 2 or 3 months and then look through it. Depends upon how busy I am.
• I'm a lurker, not a poster. There are 4-6 heavy posters, at least one of whom will respond to 95% of every posting. I can't imagine the amount of time these guys spend writing replies—I don't see how they can get any work done ;)
• I used to read 10%, am now reading 50%.
• I’m a PEG subscriber, but don't check it often. Spot read now. In the past I was a heavy PEG user but since PSDN has come around, I get most of what I need from there.
• Depends on the list. I subscribe to peg with a gmail account, so it's already grouped by argument. Currently have 3000 unread messages. A message being read depends largely on the title.

Reading Patterns - Progress Talk

This chart shows how Consultants, domiciled in different continents, have divergent reading patterns of ProgressTalk forum. Click on the chart to load the popup image.

These are the most interesting remarks about reading patterns on ProgressTalk:

• I go to ProgressTalk only once or twice per year, only when I’m looking for information.
• Recently I've been visiting every couple of days. Previously I *never* used to come here. Am coming mostly to keep myself busy, not because I think the resource has improved.
• I don’t actually think it is much of a resource (for me at least)
• Go to ProgressTalk maybe 5 times per year. Some stuff is posted there which is no where else.

Combined Reading Patterns

Here are the average reading patterns of PSDN, PEG and ProgressTalk forums compared together. Click on the chart to load the popup image.

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Forums as an Educational Resource

Consultants answered questions about his/her participation in email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

Are forums a reliable educational resource?

Of Participating Consultants,
62% of respondents answered how educational he/she found PSDN;
60% of respondents answered how educational he/she found PEG;
58% of respondents answered how educational he/she found ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants find somewhat more educational value from PEG than PSDN forums. Europeans generally find more educational value from forums than do Europeans. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks:

• Once PEG was very educational, now it’s a slugfest.
• I’ve never visited PSDN forums, my remarks are about the whole "communities" site.

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Forum participation for Customers and Prospects

Consultants answered questions about his/her participation in email and forums. For a breakdown of Consultants participating in this section of the Progress Consultants survey, refer to Participating Consultants.

Do Consultants’ customers’ IT employees subscribe to forums?

Of the Participating Consultants,
38% of respondents answered customers’ usage of PSDN;
53% of respondents answered customers’ usage of PEG;
20% of respondents answered customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are more confident of their customers’ participation with PEG than PSDN forums. Europeans have higher participation in PSDN than PEG. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

These are the most interesting remarks about customers’ IT employees subscribing to various forums:

• It’s hard to tell, they don’t post.
• People are aware of it; none is active.
• Less than none, because the posts are all in English.
• None of my customers has an IT department.
• 10 years ago 100% of my customers subscribed to PEG, now I’ve no idea.
• Probably zero—they wouldn’t understand what they see; wouldn’t see value of them.
• I’ve always encouraged them as a source to go to for help with the small stuff, so they don’t call me.

Do Consultants’ prospects’ IT employees subscribe to forums?

Of the Participating Consultants,
31% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PSDN;
45% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PEG;
18% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are also more confident of their prospective customers’ participation with PEG than PSDN forums. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

These are the most interesting remarks about prospective customers’ IT employees subscribing to various forums:

• I hope that lots do, but I don’t know really.
• 10 years ago 80% of my prospective customers subscribed to PEG, now I’ve no idea.
• I’m likely to hear about it more with new customers; they'll say that they've read a lot of my posts.
• No idea, I’ve never been to that site.

How many forum viewers are your potential customer?

Of the Participating Consultants,
35% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PSDN;
45% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of PEG;
20% of respondents answered prospective customers’ usage of ProgressTalk.
Consultants responded from three continents. So far the detailed African sample is very low, so they are not itemized in the analyses.

Consultants are more confident that forums are filled with potential customers. Click on the image of the chart to see a popup link with the details of this section of the survey.

Of the responses, these are the most interesting remarks about forums as a venue for potential customers:

• No idea. How many subscribers are there?
• Very many because of our toolset. There’s a huge potential in the Progress community for our tools. Marketing is of course abusing the protocol of the PEG, but if a question is asked, one can give a solution that includes making remarks about our tools, and people who are interested will see it.
• Many could be, but it’s unlikely. There are lots of low end developers and consultants who aren't likely to ask for help. The interaction is nice though.
• Prospective customers would be higher on PSDN than PEG, for sure.
• Slightly more than none, but certainly not very many.
• Only Greg knows; he’s worse than PSC for hiding information from the community.
• I don't know, I’ve never thought about PEG in a marketing aspect. I met another PEG contributor who's local and developed a relationship, but that's only once. I suppose that maybe 20% of PEG subscribers might have jobs which I could do. No data has ever been released on the subscribers, more's the pity.
• Only those in my country. Since Greg has never disclosed anything about membership, it's hard to guess.
• Sure there are some, but that’s not why I go to PEG..

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