[ericholscher]

I've been working in this space for a long time, where I'm one of the co-founders of Write the Docs: https://www.writethedocs.org/ -- we focus more on software docs.

The view from the industry is basically that STC was a bit behind the times, and was slowly dwindling in terms of reach and value. They still had some active chapters, magazine, and academic journal that provided value for folks, but membership wasn't as valuable as it had been.

They have been around a long time, and had a wider purview that WTD, focusing on many different types of technical writing. They had members in industries like Automotive, Engineering, and Aerospace, as well as Software.

The best way to think about them is something like the ACM in the software industry. They have been taken over by more current community approaches in various areas (eg. Pycon), but also still doing some more traditional stuff that adds value but isn't as relevant to day-to-day practitioners.

[mintplant]

I don't know if the ACM is comparable. They run so many academic conferences that the list gets its own Wikipedia page [0]. Many are heavy hitters in their respective fields, like SIGGRAPH (graphics), SOSP (systems), and PLDI (programming languages). I think of them more as an academic publisher and organizer than as a professional association.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Association_for_Compu...

[starkparker]

I think the point was more to contrast STC as a certifying and publishing body, versus WTD as more of a peer/user group.