PHP Purpose (PHPP) -- largest thread ever

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.

It has the following purposes:

1. To bring together PHPers and programmers around the world to become
organized.

2. To dicuss purposes of programmers as relates to motives for
programming.

3. To dicuss purposes of PHP itself and related technologies.

4. To discuss programming in general and PHP in particular.

5. To become the largest and most used thread in the history of Usenet.
It is the intention of this thread to build a community of programmers who
get to know each other well (better than regular newsgroups), and so can
then be more efficient in programming and able to draw on each others
experience and ability with greater efficiency.

It isn't good enough to just have a newsgroup to go to -- to have your
questions answered from a stranger (or helping strangers all the time --
though everyone is happy you do.). Yes, it is good enough for some, and it
isn't always like that, sure. But this thread is for those that want to
get known, and who are serious about PHP.

Let's talk about why you are interested in PHP. Why are you programming?

I'll go first:

I am still fairly new to PHP, but I've decided that it's going to be my
main server-side language. I am going to use HTML, Javascript, MySQL and
PHP to build a Web site that I have in mind. I'm doing this all on my own
steam -- not for anybody else and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm going
to attempt to get my Web site to pay for itself once it is built.Â*Â*MyÂ*site
will feature political news and other things of interest to people.

What is your story?

Common people to this newsgroup who have been very helpful to many, like:

Chris Hope
Michael Austin
Malcolm Dew-Jones
laidbak
CJLlewellyn
Nikolai
Chung Leong
Justin Koivisto
Jon Grieve
Five Cats
Doug Hutcheson
Mark Parnell
michel
bonehead
Gordon Burditt
Tim Van Wassnhove
RootShell
Vesna
Garp
Margaret Mcdonald
Please lead the way...

If your name should be on that list, make yourself known.

Also, does anybody know what the longest thread has been in this current
newsgroup (comp.lang.php)?Â*Â*ThatÂ*wouldÂ*beÂ*theÂ*firstÂ*t argetÂ*toÂ*beat.Â*Then
maybe we can beat the others one by one.
---------History--------------
A little while ago I posted a thread in this newsgroup called "Any
girls?". It did surprisingly well in creating a lot of subsequent postings
to the thread. So I promoted that it should be the longest thread in a
newsgroup ever.

After that, I was well informed by people that asking for this would be
quite a task. That it would have to compete with threads that are
thousands of postings long and that have been going on for years. Well, I
am not interested in doing that with "Any girls?" in this newsgroup. I
don't think it would be good for PHP and the newsgroup to yank it off
topic like that. And I plan to have PHP support my living at one point.

But, at the same time, "Any girls?" is a great thread to have in a
programming newsgroup. So, I propose that we have the best of both worlds.
Let's make PHPP the center of our attention and our work, and make it the
longest and best thread ever. And when we need a break or some fun time,
go over to "Any girls?", and make it the largest Off Topic thread in
history.

Does anybody know about any really long Off Topic threads?

Let's do some good work and have fun!

Nick Mudge

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.

It has the following purposes:

1. To bring together PHPers and programmers around the world to become
organized.

2. To dicuss purposes of programmers as relates to motives for
programming.

3. To dicuss purposes of PHP itself and related technologies.

4. To discuss programming in general and PHP in particular.

5. To become the largest and most used thread in the history of Usenet.
It is the intention of this thread to build a community of programmers who
get to know each other well (better than regular newsgroups), and so can
then be more efficient in programming and able to draw on each others
experience and ability with greater efficiency.

It isn't good enough to just have a newsgroup to go to -- to have your
questions answered from a stranger (or helping strangers all the time --
though everyone is happy you do.). Yes, it is good enough for some, and it
isn't always like that, sure. But this thread is for those that want to
get known, and who are serious about PHP.

Let's talk about why you are interested in PHP. Why are you programming?

I'll go first:

I am still fairly new to PHP, but I've decided that it's going to be my
main server-side language. I am going to use HTML, Javascript, MySQL and
PHP to build a Web site that I have in mind. I'm doing this all on my own
steam -- not for anybody else and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm going
to attempt to get my Web site to pay for itself once it is built.Â*Â*MyÂ*site
will feature political news and other things of interest to people.

What is your story?

Common people to this newsgroup who have been very helpful to many, like:

Chris Hope
Michael Austin
Malcolm Dew-Jones
laidbak
CJLlewellyn
Nikolai
Chung Leong
Justin Koivisto
Jon Grieve
Five Cats
Doug Hutcheson
Mark Parnell
michel
bonehead
Gordon Burditt
Tim Van Wassnhove
RootShell
Vesna
Garp
Margaret Mcdonald
Please lead the way...

If your name should be on that list, make yourself known.

Also, does anybody know what the longest thread has been in this current
newsgroup (comp.lang.php)?Â*Â*ThatÂ*wouldÂ*beÂ*theÂ*firstÂ*t argetÂ*toÂ*beat.Â*Then
maybe we can beat the others one by one.
---------History--------------
A little while ago I posted a thread in this newsgroup called "Any
girls?". It did surprisingly well in creating a lot of subsequent postings
to the thread. So I promoted that it should be the longest thread in a
newsgroup ever.

After that, I was well informed by people that asking for this would be
quite a task. That it would have to compete with threads that are
thousands of postings long and that have been going on for years. Well, I
am not interested in doing that with "Any girls?" in this newsgroup. I
don't think it would be good for PHP and the newsgroup to yank it off
topic like that. And I plan to have PHP support my living at one point.

But, at the same time, "Any girls?" is a great thread to have in a
programming newsgroup. So, I propose that we have the best of both worlds.
Let's make PHPP the center of our attention and our work, and make it the
longest and best thread ever. And when we need a break or some fun time,
go over to "Any girls?", and make it the largest Off Topic thread in
history.

Does anybody know about any really long Off Topic threads?

Let's do some good work and have fun!

Nick Mudge

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.

It has the following purposes:

1. To bring together PHPers and programmers around the world to become
organized.

2. To dicuss purposes of programmers as relates to motives for programming.

3. To dicuss purposes of PHP itself and related technologies.

4. To discuss programming in general and PHP in particular.

5. To become the largest and most used thread in the history of Usenet.
The thing is that the largest / most used thread in the history of
Usenet is actually going to be pretty useless for points 2-4 above - a
bit like a large book without an index.

If you want to build a community IMHO you need a better vehicle than a
vast sprawling single thread. You could (for example) setup a Yahoo!
group where threads remain separate. But I do not believe this large
thread thing is the way.

If you want to see an example of a newsgroup which is more than just
discussion about the obvious on-topic subject, which does have a sense
of community, lurk here for a while:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=uk...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

BTW they are not easily impressed folks...

<snip>
I am still fairly new to PHP, but I've decided that it's going to be my main
server-side language. I am going to use HTML, Javascript, MySQL and PHP to
build a Web site that I have in mind. I'm doing this all on my own steam --
not for anybody else and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm going to attempt
to get my Web site to pay for itself once it is built.**My*site*will
feature political news and other things of interest to people.
Remember that in political sites, content is King. If you don't have
the content you will never get a site like that to pay for itself. How
are you on politics?

<snip>
Also, does anybody know what the longest thread has been in this current
newsgroup
(comp.lang.php)?**That*would*be*the*first*target* to*beat.*Then
maybe we can beat the others one by one.
If you really want to know the answer, Google might be your friend
again:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=co...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

But - I'm starting to think that the most useful thing for you would be
finding out more ways of finding information other than just asking
people e.g. start to look it up. Also, unless you get your critical
facilities in gear you will come unstuck sooner or later. You need to
know how to evaluate how good the information you are receiving is, and
part of this is being able to find critiques and alternative versions
for yourself.

This competitive thing is starting to hack me off. Communities are
about co-operation, not competition. Just because a thread is long
doesn't mean it's useful - probably just that it's entertaining. Of
course I'm not knocking entertainment (far from it), but I've given up
with all threads that have got large as it just gets too hard to follow
them. Like trying to listen to 20 conversations in the same room at the
same time.

<snip>
Nick Mudge

In message <BI6Cc.78191$Hg2.30110@attbi_s04>, Mudge
<ma******@hotmail.com> writes

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.

It has the following purposes:

1. To bring together PHPers and programmers around the world to become
organized.

2. To dicuss purposes of programmers as relates to motives for
programming.

3. To dicuss purposes of PHP itself and related technologies.

4. To discuss programming in general and PHP in particular.

5. To become the largest and most used thread in the history of Usenet.

The thing is that the largest / most used thread in the history of
Usenet is actually going to be pretty useless for points 2-4 above - a
bit like a large book without an index.

If you want to build a community IMHO you need a better vehicle than a
vast sprawling single thread. You could (for example) setup a Yahoo!
group where threads remain separate. But I do not believe this large
thread thing is the way.

If you want to see an example of a newsgroup which is more than just
discussion about the obvious on-topic subject, which does have a sense
of community, lurk here for a while:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=uk...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

BTW they are not easily impressed folks...

<snip>

I am still fairly new to PHP, but I've decided that it's going to be my
main server-side language. I am going to use HTML, Javascript, MySQL and
PHP to build a Web site that I have in mind. I'm doing this all on my own
steam -- not for anybody else and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm going
to attempt to get my Web site to pay for itself once it is built.Â*Â*MyÂ*site
will feature political news and other things of interest to people.

Remember that in political sites, content is King. If you don't have
the content you will never get a site like that to pay for itself. How
are you on politics?

<snip>

Also, does anybody know what the longest thread has been in this current
newsgroup
(comp.lang.php)?Â*Â*ThatÂ*wouldÂ*beÂ*theÂ*first *targetÂ*toÂ*beat.Â*Then
maybe we can beat the others one by one.

If you really want to know the answer, Google might be your friend
again:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=co...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

But - I'm starting to think that the most useful thing for you would be
finding out more ways of finding information other than just asking
people e.g. start to look it up. Also, unless you get your critical
facilities in gear you will come unstuck sooner or later. You need to
know how to evaluate how good the information you are receiving is, and
part of this is being able to find critiques and alternative versions
for yourself.

This competitive thing is starting to hack me off. Communities are
about co-operation, not competition. Just because a thread is long
doesn't mean it's useful - probably just that it's entertaining. Of
course I'm not knocking entertainment (far from it), but I've given up
with all threads that have got large as it just gets too hard to follow
them. Like trying to listen to 20 conversations in the same room at the
same time.

<snip>

Nick Mudge

I'm intrigued that your email addy suggests your name is 'Mark' but you
are 'Nick'.

In message <BI6Cc.78191$Hg2.30110@attbi_s04>, Mudge
<ma******@hotmail.com> writes

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.

It has the following purposes:

1. To bring together PHPers and programmers around the world to become
organized.

2. To dicuss purposes of programmers as relates to motives for
programming.

3. To dicuss purposes of PHP itself and related technologies.

4. To discuss programming in general and PHP in particular.

5. To become the largest and most used thread in the history of Usenet.

The thing is that the largest / most used thread in the history of
Usenet is actually going to be pretty useless for points 2-4 above - a
bit like a large book without an index.

If you want to build a community IMHO you need a better vehicle than a
vast sprawling single thread. You could (for example) setup a Yahoo!
group where threads remain separate. But I do not believe this large
thread thing is the way.

If you want to see an example of a newsgroup which is more than just
discussion about the obvious on-topic subject, which does have a sense
of community, lurk here for a while:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=uk...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

BTW they are not easily impressed folks...

<snip>

I am still fairly new to PHP, but I've decided that it's going to be my
main server-side language. I am going to use HTML, Javascript, MySQL and
PHP to build a Web site that I have in mind. I'm doing this all on my own
steam -- not for anybody else and I'm not getting paid for it. I'm going
to attempt to get my Web site to pay for itself once it is built.Â*Â*MyÂ*site
will feature political news and other things of interest to people.

Remember that in political sites, content is King. If you don't have
the content you will never get a site like that to pay for itself. How
are you on politics?

<snip>

Also, does anybody know what the longest thread has been in this current
newsgroup
(comp.lang.php)?Â*Â*ThatÂ*wouldÂ*beÂ*theÂ*first *targetÂ*toÂ*beat.Â*Then
maybe we can beat the others one by one.

If you really want to know the answer, Google might be your friend
again:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=co...ie=UTF-8&hl=en

But - I'm starting to think that the most useful thing for you would be
finding out more ways of finding information other than just asking
people e.g. start to look it up. Also, unless you get your critical
facilities in gear you will come unstuck sooner or later. You need to
know how to evaluate how good the information you are receiving is, and
part of this is being able to find critiques and alternative versions
for yourself.

This competitive thing is starting to hack me off. Communities are
about co-operation, not competition. Just because a thread is long
doesn't mean it's useful - probably just that it's entertaining. Of
course I'm not knocking entertainment (far from it), but I've given up
with all threads that have got large as it just gets too hard to follow
them. Like trying to listen to 20 conversations in the same room at the
same time.

<snip>

Nick Mudge

I'm intrigued that your email addy suggests your name is 'Mark' but you
are 'Nick'.

vast sprawling single thread.

bit like a large book without an index.

What about you Cats, what do you do?
As little as I can get away with... ;-)

and what does programming have to do
with you? It pays the bills and gives me excuses to meet interesting people called
clients.

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.
[...]
It is the intention of this thread to build a community of programmers who
get to know each other well (better than regular newsgroups), and so can
then be more efficient in programming and able to draw on each others
experience and ability with greater efficiency.

"Mudge" <ma******@hotmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:BI6Cc.78191$Hg2.30110@attbi_s04...

This thread is hereby dubbed PHP Purpose, or PHPP.
[...]

It is the intention of this thread to build a community of programmers who
get to know each other well (better than regular newsgroups), and so can
then be more efficient in programming and able to draw on each others
experience and ability with greater efficiency.

[...]

I think you are on the wrong track for what you are looking for. I suggest
you the following (some of what I do myself):
- Attend PHP and other webprogramming related workshops.
- After the lessons go for a beer or whatever with the people you like.
- Establish a local PHP forum or techie chat or whatever on the web, and
iniciate regular meetings of interested people.

Ah - the old fashioned approach - get out of the house and actually meet
people face-to-face! It has a lot to recommend it. ;-)

I am sure that the people (and even techie girls) you would like to meet are
living just round the corner. A newsgroup will remain a newsgroup, and I am
sure that if it would have the potential for what you want, that would have
been established years ago (even before the www took over the internet). I
don't think you can re-invent it.
Some newsgroups *do* attain some of what the OP wants, but I suspect
only when in a narrower geographical context than this one is.
HTH
Markus

Are you all European or UK or whatever programmers? I'm from the United
States. Does anybody else from the U.S. ever post in here?

Damn it people. Post stuff in here.

As for how I am on politics: I am a news editor for the Web site
www.govtech.net (number one Web site for state and local IT news in the
U.S.)

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 07:05:57 GMT, Mudge <ma******@hotmail.com> wrote:

Damn it people. Post stuff in here.

Look, here's the charter:

comp.lang.php is an unmoderated newsgroup which passed its vote for
creation by 177:11 as reported in news.announce.newgroups on 1 Jul
2002.

For your newsgroups file:
comp.lang.php PHP, server side scripting.

The charter, culled from the vote result announcement:

comp.lang.php is intended to be a global forum for the discussion of
issues involving PHP. The ultimate goal is to create a relaxed yet
helpful environment in which people can seek answers to general
questions about PHP, specific questions regarding specific PHP
functions or code snippets, or topical questions.

The posting of binaries is generally frowned upon. When posting a
specific question about a piece of code or a function that you are
having a problem with, please include in your post a section of code
as small as possible that illustrates the problem you are having.

A group alt.php.sql also currently exists, but is less frequently
used than alt.php. Since database connectivity is a large part of
PHP, it will be considered topical in comp.lang.php. A
comp.lang.php.sql is not deemed necessary at the current point in
time, however may be proposed at a later point should the need
arise.
Ask questions, get answers. How hard is that?