The benefit from participating in an online programming forum
A lesson learned from an avid participator
Insert old man voice here
Back in my day forums used to be boring!
IRC chats were bare bones and the only real option you had was to use forum software like phpBB or vbulletin, which both might still be popular to this day but are still boring and stale and aren't necessarily something wroth talking about to non-tech savvy individuals.
That's why I was surprised and excited to find out that freeCodeCamp uses discourse, the discord of forum software. Just as discord managed to shake up live group discussion. discourse has found a way to make forums exciting again.
The benefit of using a programming forum is astounding.
- It expands your realm of possibility by looking at other people's code, suggestions, and shortcomings.
- It reminds you that you're not alone in this long journey we call programming, and that there's people out there right alongside you participating in that hustle.
- If solidifies your knowledge of learned concepts by actively helping and engaging with people learning material that you yourself have overcome.
Not only that, but a particular awesome feature of discourse is the ability to include code snippets into your post or comment, which highlights syntax and color codes your code based on the detected language you're using. How cool is that??
Even if you can't find the time to be an active participator, there are benefits of being a lurker. There's a whole category of the forums that learners use to rate and help improve completed projects by other learners. This can lead to some great inspiration on your next project or, even, ideas to improve your already existing project. Coding is like painting, and there's a thousand ways to complete the same project with the same exact instructions.
I hope this has convinced you to give forums a shot. More specifically, the freeCodeCamp forums. Where there's an abundance of activity and hundreds of great posts being created daily.
If you decide to be an active participator, there are plenty of incentives to return, such as profile badges, which are super fun to collect! Try to collect them all.
