Peer,
Ok, the numbers I got were from Thom's original posting. But even if everyone did an average of 10 installs, it's still a huge number for 5 people to support.
I didn't say you had written it, I said you were responsible for it.
My other comments stand though. You guys work hard, we know that. You guys feel under-valued, well so would I. BUT you guys (whether you like it or not) don't make it easy for people to join you. There shouldn't be a "rite of passage" for new devs. Even if we assume my 10 average installs, that's still 11200 users, and 5 devs. I simply don't believe that only 1 in 2240 users can become a useful developer.
We're knocking on the door offering help, but you aren't letting us in 
Look its not about 'paying your dues' or needing new Devs to do a 'rite of passage'. We need experienced developers who can dig into the code and get up and running under their own steam. That is totally not to say that a new Dev wont get help and assistance from all of us...but we dont have the time to 'train people' to be Devs. We need people who are further down the road than that I'm afraid...its not a criticism of anyone its just a practical fact.
Andrew
Brief consideration:
Like most of the guys around here I don't have the required level of competences in order to be considered helpful.
As it seems that no spoons are allowed, it looks like I have to dive into the code, bang my head by myself, and find my way around.
Assuming that for a guy like Thom (that was starting surely from a competence level much higher than mine) it took a couple of years to study the code and become a full blown LMCE Dev, I think that for me it should be wise to double such timeframe.
So if I start now, maybe in 4 years I will be suitable to LMCE Project needs. Say in 3 years, because I'm an optimistic guy.
If you're fine with this, so this thread can stop right here.
If not (and I guess you're
not fine with this), we
have to find a compromise.
We all know that the project needs very skilled, experienced, creative, smart developers to jump in exactly like every other huge project on this earth.
Unfortunately this is not happening to LMCE, and considering the estimated time to climb the learning curve it looks like it won't happen soon.
It sounds like anyone that is asking for training is considered too lazy, while the point is that if you let people to learn by themselves they will reach a good skill when probably the project has died already.
So what are we going to do? Wait for a miracle to happen, keep on giving sarcastic answers to anyone that at least shows some good will to be helpful, or try a different approach?
Thx
Marco