Fluctuations d'activité des sites communautaires

[DoOmnimaga]

We run calc sites because it's fun, we program calculators because it's fun. We also cover and play calculator games because it's fun.

Most of us find school, education and studies boring. Why expand our websites to something we don't like? We will just lose interest even faster. I tried to force myself to cover more educational stuff in the past and this is what almost happened. Not to mention nowadays it would be even worse considering in real life I've been looking into ways to remove as many things or people as possible where I am forced to do things I don't like (other than my job, of course).

It's ok to do it if you enjoy doing it, but CodeWalrus is an entertainment site and most of us never really found any interest in programming educational programs. Also, the fact we are international rather than just American or French would make it incredibly difficult to keep up when it comes to educational news.

[critor]

-Graphing calculators are banned in Germany hi schools since late 2015 or so. The replacement is scientific and basic calcs.

No, you're wrong.
They're banned in only 2 regions in the south of Germany.

Weird, DarkestEx told me the graphing calcs were banned nationwide. I guess he was wrong then. But why a ban in Southern regions in particular?

Yes, he's wrong. I went to Didacta in Germany this year, for the 1st public event with the fx-CG50.
Germany is a federal state. So each region has its own rules/laws regarding education.
It's only 2 southern regions, Bayern and Baden-Würtemberg, who did ban graphing calculators

-In the Netherlands they're stuck with the crappy TI-84 Plus-T, which lacks ASM/Axe/xLIB/DCS support. Not a good incentive to get into advanced programming

Not exactly.
They've got the 84+CE-T too, and also the fx-CG50, both *very* interesting.

And I didn't know the CE-T was available in the Netherlands. Also I don't find the CG50 very interesting. Its BASIC language is still atrociously slow from what I've heard and that's the language most novice programmers start with.

It's the Classpad/CP400 Basic which is atrociously slow.
Graphics operations with the fx-CG50 Basic aren't fast for a 116MHz cpu, but you know what ? They're still significantly faster than the 84+CE.

[DoOmnimaga]

I didn't know CG50 graphics operations were faster than the CE. From what you described on CW a few weeks ago, it seemed like the entire BASIC language speed was twice faster than the CG10/20, which would have meant that graphical drawing operation would have been the same speed as the ClassPad 400 (yes, that's how bad it was on the CG10/20)

[critor]

We run calc sites because it's fun, we program calculators because it's fun. We also cover and play calculator games because it's fun.

Most of us find school, education and studies boring. Why expand our websites to something we don't like? We will just lose interest even faster. It's ok to do it if you enjoy doing it, but CodeWalrus is an entertainment site and most of us never really found any interest in programming educational programs. Also, the fact we are international rather than just American or French would make it incredibly difficult to keep up when it comes to educational news.

School can be fun, or can be made fun.

Since calculators are mainly used for education, I think it's normal to address it too.
It's not like I'm posting mostly about this during non-exams months either.

Calculator users may download less and less color calculator games in the next years, it's possible, although it's not the case for now.
But they're still going to come for school things, either to download, either to ask how to do it.
Although graphing calculators may disappear before 2030, I'm not worried at all for the next years.

[critor]

When I saw CW activity decrease last June, I estimated that CW activity will drop by about 25-30% every year.

Well, exams and summer months (May to August) aren't really reliable, as there are many interfering things...
I prefer to compare the increase/decrease on normal months (September-April).

I didn't know CG50 graphics operations were faster than the CE. From what you described on CW a few weeks ago, it seemed like the entire BASIC language speed was twice faster than the CG10/20, which would have meant that graphical drawing operation would have been the same speed as the ClassPad 400 (yes, that's how bad it was on the CG10/20)

I didn't test Basic graphic instructions then.

But I've worked on the same graphic Basic program on both the CE and the CG50 this week-end.
The CE is very slow.
The CG50 is significantly faster, although I would have expected much more from it seeing the CPU difference.

[Adriweb]

- for now, calculators are still the only technology approved for exams
- even in countries who already moved to tablets, students still use calculators for exams (Swiss, Belgium), and thus the manufacturer calculator app in class (in order to be trained for the exams)
- Germany is big fan of the TI-Nspire - it's the reference calculator, the CE just being a tinyminority
- France and Netherlands made manufacturers invest into developping new models - it's probably not to drop them in some years

I know all that. The "end" as I was saying will probably not be happening in a few days, but on a longer timespan. The 2018 comment I made about France is, as we all know it, because people won't bother trying to program on their calculator since programs won't be allowed at the Bac, and it's getting scrapped off the official curriculum anyway, for graphing calculators.
It's simply impossible that there will be as many users interested in calc programming as before.

We have an increasing activity not only for the exam months/weeks, but for all the 'normal' months of the year..

Yes, year-to-year since September, we indeed have more and more visits, like since the beginning of TI-Planet in 2011, even though the second derivative isn't as nice as it used to be (but, it's actually better if we include sites like ToutMonExam !)
An "interesting" fact, however: around 20% of our visits are only for GX. It could be a site of its own!
Also interesting, and maybe this could provide some relief to DJ: less than 0.1% of visits are TI-Planet members (ie logged in users).

So there aren't any valid reason for the english community activity decrease.

You're probably right, but yet it does decrease. As you've said it yourself multiple times, especially over the years regarding the Nspire native programming activity, and more recently with the CE, where there aren't as much content being created for the platform as 2 years ago.

The community just needs to adapt itself like we already did several times on TI-Planet : talking not only about games/tools, but also maths, exams... and german.

The problem is that you might be the only one willing to adapt, especially if we consider english communities (who are basically not open to any other language than English, contrary to TI-Planet where French+English coexist)
I personally don't care much if a lot less people are visiting TI-Planet and "only" active members remain (once again, quality over quantity), just because we stay focused on the same things that gather enthusiasts instead of trying at all costs to gather more people that have nothing to do with the original site, like exams, other languages etc.
But anyway, to each his own [opinion]... There isn't really any "right" or "wrong" in all this.

[critor]

The community just needs to adapt itself like we already did several times on TI-Planet : talking not only about games/tools, but also maths, exams... and german.

The problem is that you might be the only one willing to adapt, especially if we consider english communities (who are basically not open to any other language than English, contrary to TI-Planet where French+English coexist)
I personally don't care much if a lot less people are visiting TI-Planet and "only" active members remain (once again, quality over quantity), just because we stay focused on the same things that gather enthusiasts instead of trying at all costs to gather more people that have nothing to do with the original site, like exams, other languages etc.

I'm not trying at all costs - it just seems natural to me to also address math/science programs and exams, since it's the context in which calculators are used.
And it's an adaptation we started years ago.

More an more, people will only be playing on their calculator when they have no access to their better tablets/phones gaming platforms (during class, but this is becoming less and less true in many coutries), or when the game is especially good (Oiram CE) and easy/quick to install.

So school/exam use is the main remaining use.
It's not that I want to adapt, it's just that we have to.

And since I go on addressing gaming, development/hacking and class/exams, it's far from being impossible to interest some users to a topic completely different than the one they originally came for.
Up to now, this adaptation has proven itself successful.

[Lionel Debroux]

I even have problems this year finding featurable projects for ticalc.org,

While there are probably fewer featurable projects on ticalc.org this year than last year, the backlog isn't quite empty yet. And you know you need to spend slightly more time writing ticalc.org features

Regarding Cemetech, to be honest, I think Kerm likes to be first in everything, and it's impossible to be first ahead of Cesium. So as a result, I am fairly sure that a CE version of jsTIfied became very low in his priorities.

Agreed. Cesium, CEmu and the toolchain(s, now) provide the appropriate functionality, and what's more, they're FLOSS. For old reasons which are not universally regarded as good, Kerm usually hates making his own programs FLOSS.

It's clear that the stupid exam regulation changes in France will hurt TI-Planet's activity, but we all know that the general mood about the severely overpriced and underpowered platforms that calculators are is concurrently growing as well.

[DoOmnimaga]

Petite précision Adriweb: CodeWalrus est ouvert aux autres langues que l'anglais aussi. Les news sont unilingues anglophones afin de ne pas devoir tout traduire dans 8 langues différentes mais sur le site tout le monde peut poster en Hébreu (non-romanisé), Allemand, Néerlandais, Français et Anglais (en gros, tous les langages connus par au moins un membre de l'équipe. Il suffit juste de rajouter une balise (FR) ou (French) par exemple au début du titre du topic).

Pour les visites de CW, j'ignore le nombre de visites uniques car les seules données disponibles sont les pages vues du site principal (environ 20000 par jour, soit le double de l'an passé), mais environ 99% des comptes créés sur le forums c'était des bots tentant (sans succès) de spammer de la pub sur le forum. Nous avons changé d'anti-spam et maintenant plus aucun bot ne peut s'inscrire, donc c'est pour ça que les inscriptions ont diminuées quasi-instantanément il y a un mois ou deux.


Pour l'accessibilité des tablettes en classe, c'est discutable. Oui, c'est la technologie de l'heure, mais tant et aussi longtemps que les tablettes n'auront pas de mode examen ou parental pouvant désactiver le 3G, 4G ou wi-fi pendant une certaine période de temps, ainsi que certaines applications, certaines écoles hésiteront avant de faire le saut. De plus, il faut aussi tenir compte des quartiers défavorisés, où non-seulement les parents n'ont pas les moyens de payer une tablette à $300 à leur enfant, mais qui abrite aussi de nombreux enfans ayant des troubles de comportements en classe. Donc certaines institutions risquent plutôt de bannir les tablettes et smartphones des classes afin que ces étudiants ne dérangent pas l'enseignant ou les autres élèves comme ce fut le cas avec les walkmans et flip phones à mon époque (les calculatrices c'était toléré, car elles ne produisent aucun son).

[critor]

It's clear that the stupid exam regulation changes in France will hurt TI-Planet's activity

J'ai déjà fait depuis 2015 mon deuil de l'activité des mois d'examens - pour ça que pour connaître l'évolution du site je ne compare plus que des mois 'normaux', excluant ainsi les valeurs aberrantes.
Et après tout tant mieux, on aura peut-être le temps de lire/penser/respirer désormais sur le chat.

Pour l'accessibilité des tablettes en classe, c'est discutable. Oui, c'est la technologie de l'heure, mais tant et aussi longtemps que les tablettes n'auront pas de mode examen ou parental pouvant désactiver le 3G, 4G ou wi-fi pendant une certaine période de temps, ainsi que certaines applications, certaines écoles hésiteront avant de faire le saut. De plus, il faut aussi tenir compte des quartiers défavorisés, où non-seulement les parents n'ont pas les moyens de payer une tablette à $300 à leur enfant, mais qui abrite aussi de nombreux enfans ayant des troubles de comportements en classe.

Ce dernier point n'est (hélas?) pas problématique en France.
Pour l'enseignement public, les tablettes seront très probablement ou payées par l'Etat ou payées par les régions, et distribuées gratuitement ou alors pour un prix vraiment ridicule (dans le cas d'un équipement par les régions - peut-être certaines demanderont une participation de 1€).
Pour l'enseignement privé catholique, déjà que les familles paient des frais de scolarité, je n'imagine pas que l'on rajoute une tablette à la liste de fournitures. De même, elle seront probablement négociées par l'établissement puis distribuées sans frais supplémentaires aux élèves.