As a programmer, I’m constantly required to learn new things. Whether it’s a new programming language, a library or new solutions to old problems. Learning new things isn’t always easy.
Like many programmers, I owe much of my knowledge to those great folks who have openly shared their knowledge on the Internet. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
There are many places where great folks hang out online and share their wisdom. On somedays I visit these sites frequently to learn new things or find solutions to problems I may be tackling.
More often than not, I consume more knowledge than sharing my knowledge.
When I became aware of this, I wanted to change my habits and help others solve the problems that they were running into. So I began contributing as much as I could to the sites I was visiting. I answered questions, I posted things I was learning for others to see, I asked for feedback and made suggestions.
After a while of trying to be helpful I noticed patterns that would restrict me from helping others and restrict folks from getting the help they are seeking.
Some of these patterns are:
- 1337 trolls don’t like how you’ve phrased your questions so they’ll give it a negative score. Discouraging you from asking any more questions.
- The focus of the site is to be a portfolio and folks will favorite your work but aren’t willing to provide feedback.
- You’re a newb without an authoritative voice or score so you won’t get any help.
These sites are really great resources and I continue to contribute to and visit these sites. But I wanted a place where I, as programmer — who is constantly learning new things — could go to ask questions and get helpful feedback and help others gain new skills.
For this reason, my partner, Christopher and I built CodeHive.
I once heard the quote:
The expert in anything was once a beginner.
As a programmer, this is a truth we face all the time. Although I may have been in the programming game for a long time, there will always be new languages, libraries, frameworks and techniques. Meaning I will be a newb over and over again in something.
CodeHive is a place where programmers of all skill sets can come to ask questions and share a problem that they are currently facing.
To do this, we’ve made asking questions and providing feedback the main focus of CodeHive.
Do you have a programming question you’ve been trying to find a solution for? Head on over to CodeHive and ask it.
Or perhaps you’ve got the answer to this problem I’m trying to figure out. Head on over and see if you can provide any feedback.
We would love to get any feedback by leaving a comment below or hit us up at hello@codehive.io.
By the way, share the Boards you create in the comments below or on Twitter with the hashtag #codehive so I and others can provide feedback :)