As you've said, without more data, any comments are speculation. Two possible scenarios (completely speculative):

Bad karma: Java and .Net start taking over the world. Former Monks have to take jobs using these technologies (or start selling hot dogs) so they can't hang around the Monastary as much. So there are less votes and less response to nodes. The new people coming to the Monastary are the kids out of school who now maintain a few Perl scripts sitting around and come in just long enough to get an answer to their question. They post poor nodes and never get hooked or start voting themselves.

Good karma: Perl experiences an uptick in interest, so more new people come to the Monastary looking for help. Since they are new, they post more new nodes without looking around first. These nodes get less attention and possible down votes, but if they really want to learn they eventually find their way around and get their answers. So short-term $NORM is down, but if some of these users stick around and contribute, it trends back up and Perl stays popular.

Reality? Who knows. You'd need all the voting data, plus data on server traffic over time. And it would still be speculation.

In reply to Re: $NORM is dropping! Should we care? by cbrandtbuffalo
in thread $NORM is dropping! Should we care? by husker

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