Although many software development projects have moved their developer discussion forums to generic platforms such as Stack Overflow, Eclipse has been steadfast in hosting their self-supported community forums. While recent studies show forums share similarities to generic communication channels, it is unknown how project-specific forums are utilized. In this paper, we analyze 832,058 forum threads and their linkages to four systems with 2,170 connected contributors to understand the participation, content and sentiment. Results show that Seniors are the most active participants to respond bug and non-bug-related threads in the forums (i.e., 66.1% and 45.5%), and sentiment among developers are inconsistent while knowledge sharing within Eclipse. We recommend the users to identify appropriate topics and ask in a positive procedural way when joining forums. For developers, preparing project-specific forums could be an option to bridge the communication between members. Irrespective of the popularity of Stack Overflow, we argue the benefits of using project-specific forum initiatives, such as GitHub Discussions, are needed to cultivate a community and its ecosystem.
翻译:虽然许多软件开发项目已经将其开发者讨论论坛转移到了Stack overflow等通用平台,但Eclipse一直坚定地主办其自我支持的社区论坛。虽然最近的研究表明论坛与通用通信渠道有相似之处,但不清楚如何利用具体项目论坛。在本文中,我们分析了832,058个论坛线索及其与4个系统的联系,与2,170个连接的参与者有2,170个联系,以了解参与、内容和情绪。结果显示,老年人是最积极的参与者,在论坛中应对错误和与非错误有关的线索(即66.1%和45.5%),开发者之间的情绪不一致,而在Eclipse内部分享知识。我们建议用户在加入论坛时确定适当的专题,以积极的程序询问。对于开发者来说,筹备具体项目论坛可以成为连接成员之间沟通的一种选择。不管Stack Overplow的受欢迎程度如何,我们主张,使用项目特定论坛倡议,例如Github讨论,对于培育社区及其生态系统来说,我们都可以获益。