Python's popularity statistics

[Aaron K. Johnson]

In message <mailman.1040065886.12799.python-list at python.org>, Lulu wrote: 
>  - Visual Basic/C## are MS-proprietary technologies (close enough for
>    this point; I know about Mono, RealBASIC, etc) that have some
>    discussion areas run by MS.  When discussion is directed to places
>    other than Usenet the poster/user ratio on Usenet is lower.
> 
>  - A very new/experimental language will have almost all the users as
>    posters.  Something rough enough around the edges, or just
>    sufficiently academically sophisticated, will require a level of
>    involvement and expertise beyond "normal" languages.
> 
> And so on.  Now it MIGHT be the case that the ratios are fairly
> consistent between say, Java, C, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby.  None of those
> are "special" in the ways I listed.  But it is not obvious that smaller,
> but systematic, posting-ratio differences do not exist in this set.

Good points, some of which I haven't considered. Especially the MS one. I
wonder if open source languages get more usenet traffic in general, or even
though proprietary venues are offered, usenet traffic is still high for more
popular languages.

-Aaron.