That's correct.
People are just not bold to face any criticism here. They are afraid of being let down. The golden rule is not to claim yourself an expert until you are very very triply sure you are one.
I have learnt a lot from my Masters education in Australia, that one needs to be very outspoken, provided he/she has a very firm grasp on the subject matter.
However, I have a feeling that many people are willing to talk/write here. It is just that...
- They, as FireDancer mentioned, now have to take care of their new families. Meaning no time at all for other things. I do have some time because I have not contributed to the alarming population explosion yet.
- We have really freakishly long working hours and merciless managers/supervisors (who say that office hours are just a guideline???). That leaves like zero nanoseconds to do virtually anything else as we would be so dead tired by the time we end the day. For me, I need to spend time with parents. They are the ones who brought you this far, so one has to honour them.
- There is this silly bug in this forum, uhm, Web application, should I say, in ASP dot net speak. I have been trying to reply to several posts, only to be met with a "You have been banned as of <today>. The reason is Other".
- Okay, some others have also started their own companies and are working tonnes hard to establish it. I am getting on that path too as a nice hobby, and wow it is tough, especially with that silly business plan part. But I'm lovin' it (oh sorry Mackers).
- Probably they were warned by their managements not to, like, participate in these communities for some odd unreasonable reason.
I still recall the good ol' days of MIND back in 2002. When that Microsoft Tech Evangelist was part of the committee. I remembered the gatherings were almost always full house. Dot net was something huge then too. It seems to have revolutionized programming forever. The community message boards were great. Comparable to the Linux/open source ones I frequent.
Now, it is a far cry from those days. I don't see much code help here anymore. My attention has also shifted to Web development using the existing CMS platforms out there. Also, those communities get you so involved. Ask a question, they help. One (Swiss guy) even went the mile to send me the amended file with something I needed, even though I said it was okay if I just copy and paste! He said "just FTP and overwrite". How nice!
Up to now, I still have not the faintest idea what a "stored proc" is (ok, I know it is something to do with stored procedure, from my undergraduate PASCAL days). Neither "dot net remote-ing" too (it has something to do with XML and SOAP, but that's all I am aware of).
Sincerely,
~
Salocin.TEN ~