# Is mailinglist/discourse activity a good indicator of the health of an open source project?

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-mailinglist-discourse-activity-a-good-indicator-of-the-health-of-an-open-source-project/105697
**Category:** Offtopic
**Created:** [November 2, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-mailinglist-discourse-activity-a-good-indicator-of-the-health-of-an-open-source-project/105697 "2023-11-02T12:42:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![frylock](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/frylock/32/50213_2.png) [@frylock](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/frylock)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2023, 12:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-mailinglist-discourse-activity-a-good-indicator-of-the-health-of-an-open-source-project/105697/1 "2023-11-02T12:42:30Z")

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This question is not about Julia. The discourse site here is great, one of the biggest draws for me to Julia (other than the language itself).

I’m evaluating another well-known and old project for use at work that has lots of tutorial pages, etc., but the mailinglist is _dead_. It isn’t that my questions aren’t being answered, but that _nobody_’s questions are being answered.

**I’m inclined to disqualify that software for use based on that alone. Is that fair of me? Or have I been spoiled by the richness of the community here?**

I’m also aware of the thankless hours of free work that goes into open source projects, etc., and support _is_ something we’d consider paying for, were it available.