People are involved in open source projects according to their
interests and available time. Clearly, there haven't been enough
people with the time and interest to adequately maintain the forums.
There's no point anyone getting annoyed about this. You can influence
other people, but you can only change your own behaviour. If you feel
strongly about the forums, make them work.

If it was me, this is what I'd do.

* Regularly check the forums, and encourage others to do so, in a positive way.
* When there's a question, find the information on the wiki, and point
the questioner to it.
* If there's nothing on the wiki, try to get people who are likely to
be able to answer the question to document it on the wiki.
* If you can't get people to write the appropriate documentation, try
to get them to answer the specific question on the forum. Extract
stuff from their answer and put it on the wiki, if appropriate.
* If you can't get people to answer the question on the forums, try to
get them to tell you the answer in some other way, for example on IRC,
and post the answer on the forums yourself. Extract stuff from their
answer and put it on the wiki, if appropriate.

Putting links to specific questions in front of the people who might
be able to answer them might be a way to encourage participation on
the forums.

You might think different tactics could work to reinvigorate the
forums, but telling other people what they should do is guaranteed not
to work.

cheers, Michael

-- 
Michael C. Harris, School of CS&IT, RMIT University
http://twofishcreative.com/michael/blog
IRC: michaeltwofish #habari

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