HN user

joe_developer

72 karma
Posts4
Comments12
View on HN

I think the factors that make, or break, an online community are: The number of active users, the visibility of posters (so reputation is at stake), and the ability for the community to self-moderate.

There seems to be a magic threshold when the user base size crosses it and suddenly people are more disruptive. Based on my observation of a few online groups I've participated in.

If Java was released today, it would still be valuable. Java is a small, well defined language (without many surprises). Java runs on an open source platform, OpenJDK. The JSR's are incredibly well designed -- Web programming (Servlet, JSP, JSF), Message Driven Beans, JMS, JPA, and JAXB.

If you look at benchmarks of web applications/frameworks, Java-based ones are blazing fast.