So many "newbies"

[gidesa]

Recently I see many threads started by "newbies", often it's their first message in forum.
Is it only a my impression?
Or perhaps there is some pollution from AI-based bots? The thread answers  are gold as training data for LLM.

[DonAlfredo]

I was thinking the same !

[plaza1518]

Or another possibility: Freepascal/Lazarus have won new friends?

[gidesa]

Yes, many cyber-frAIends ... 

[plaza1518]

How do you determine that? I'm really interested! I've been following the forum for a long time via feed, and only today did I feel the need to post something in this forum (on a different topic) for the first time, but so far I haven't noticed any “frAInds.” I'm probably too inexperienced and naive when it comes to AI.

[gidesa]

For example, often a  new member start his first post asking a really complex question. But,  as written, maybe it's only my impression.
No doubt that forum administrators have precise statistics on new members, and can answer much better.
Of course, I would be very happy that Fpc\Lazarus has gained more interest.

[plaza1518]

Sorry for this lengthy answer:

Of course, my story is not representative, but I do have a few decades of programming experience under my belt. My first seriously used programming language was, of course (!), Pascal (TP). Then, like many others, I moved on to C, Java, .Net, etc., depending on what was needed.

Now, however, I'm back to Pascal for a new project. Theoretically, it would have been possible to implement it with Java, .Net, or something else, but the "complexity" and "dependencies" in development and distribution were immense in these environments. Among many other things, the "compactness/independence" is one of the great advantages of FreePascal/Lazarus.

Another important argument for me was platform independence. According to my research, FreePascal/Lazarus is the only way to write native desktop (and also mobile) applications quickly and easily, regardless of the platform. And, in my opinion, it does so with a "real" programming language (e.g., type system). There are many other pros that speak in favor of FreePascal/Lazarus, but that would go too far now.

I realize that Pascal is no longer widely used (thanks, Borland!), and that there are therefore very few programmers currently, and probably also in the future. However, I am not particularly concerned about this. Despite everything, Pascal has "survived" for decades (thanks to the great community!) and can be learned very quickly. Will other "new modern" programming languages even survive a decade?

I didn't decide on Pascal on a whim, but after extensive research. During this research, I noticed that Pascal has become more "popular" in recent years. Of course, not to the same extent as other "programming languages" such as Python. We'll see.

Perhaps others have had the same experience? And that's why the first questions are sometimes so "complex", because they go straight to the heart of the matter? Presumably, not all of them are programming beginners.

[LeP]

The increased interest may be related to AI, particularly vibe-coding.
Someone interested in Pascal might have started with AI and then moved on to the forum for some unresolved AI issue.

[gidesa]

Strengths sometimes are also weak points:  writing native desktop applications is no more a primary target, so the decline of Delphi (1) (2), and limited interest in Fpc/Lazarus.
Someone "sell" also Python and Javascript  as languages/tools to write portable desktop applications.
So I do not see a precise reason to increased interest in Pascal, sorry.
But I see a precise interest stimulating Pascal experts to write dozens of posts, that are food for AI training.

(1) Delphi today has the same qualities as Fpc/Lazarus: write very compact applications with no dependencies  for desktop and mobile
(2) Delphi first problem, in my opinion, is very high prices for professional; and the free community edition is too restricted compared for example to Visual Studio free edition

[n7800]

A forum newbie doesn't necessarily mean a programming newbie. There's a lot of information on the forum, so most problems are easily solved without asking questions, just by reading the existing thread. Therefore, I fully understand that "newbies" may have complex questions that are harder to solve.

In any case, we can't perform a "Turing test" to distinguish AI from humans ))

And I hope CAPTCHA don't appear on this forum...

[BrunoK]

A forum newbie doesn't necessarily mean a programming newbie.

I totally agree, in this I include you who showed, even If It was difficult at the beginning, many constructive propositions go the Lazarus  community.

[Curt Carpenter]

The AI's are, like children, being socialized now.  And like children, they learn much by example.  Pay heed to the examples you set.

[Joanna]

Recently I see many threads started by "newbies", often it's their first message in forum.
Is it only a my impression?
Or perhaps there is some pollution from AI-based bots? The thread answers  are gold as training data for LLM.

for years I have noticed query type behavior of asking questions just to test for activity or as you said take advantage of people why try to be helpful and answer questions.