Who, and how many, of these hundreds is/are still active and/or interested in the project today?
As a user and non-technical contributor I'd be interested to see who is, today, still actively working on which things. It will also help to clarify the gaps and to make clear where new capacity is needed. How about going back to the mailing list and polling who is still active and what type of communication they want? In combination with the regular newsletter for summaries to users which I proposed above?
There's also the aspect: what do new contributors prefer? It's important for this project to attract new technical contributors. Are mailing lists still the medium where the new generation of coders feel most confident?
I think you have raised two valid points here @Sandra, which I was able to confirm through my user and contributor interviews in 2023.
Firstly, most people are uncomfortable asking questions on a public forum and seek 1:1 with an expert.
Secondly, most user support takes place within their community, as this is where they received their training, usually exchange with knowledgeable people (so they don't need to use another channel), and their questions may require domain-specific knowledge which we may not have on this forum, or at least which is easier to share with people from their community. From my interviews, I have realized that the forum mostly serves level 2 support when experts within those communities need help.
Some trainers have requested some level of update on current technical development. This is a feedback that I am taking into account as I attend the CSCCE Community Playbooks Workshop.
