I created @ThePracticalDev and dev.to, ask me anything!

Ask away, I'd love to share! ❤️

Comments

[Jamie Gaskins]

Who designed the sweet logo?

[Ben Halpern]

I did, and thanks!

I really like 70s computer aesthetic

So the design is sort of an homage to that. Sometimes we get busy just doing stuff, and don't have time and energy to stick to the the original vision for some stuff. @jess does a great job of keeping track of the vision in subtle ways we can lose track of when we're busy.

[Mac Siri]

Do you plan to a release a "dev.to" font pack?

[Vaidehi Joshi]

After reading so much content over the year (since dev.to was created), what, in your opinion, makes for a good technical blog post? What are the characteristics of strong technical writing? Are there any patterns or themes that you've seen emerge in the blog posts that you've enjoyed the most or learn a lot from?

[Ben Halpern]

Firstly, I think variety in styles and goals is ideal, so characteristics can vary, but here are a few thoughts:

• Good posts let the author's personality come through. I love reading @_theycallmetoni posts like this one, which are far from generic. Sometimes in the technical part developers can forget how much us humans relate to one another in human ways. Let your personality shine through.
• Good posts aren't usually trying to come up with wholly original ideas. It's fine if it works out that way, but if you try to come up with something nobody's ever said before, you run the risk of spewing esoteric bullshit. There's no shame in putting your own spin on a subject that's been touched on by others.
• Good posts have the right title. This is where you express your value proposition to the reader. It's hard to do, but I see a lot of overly cryptic titles. (But yours are good 😁)
• Good posts don't bury the lede all the way at the end.
• Good posts get published! This is the hardest part for many people, but it's worth publishing your stuff, even if it's not perfect. On dev.to, we work hard to maintain an environment where you're not going to be ripped apart for not being perfect, so hopefully that helps.

I'm really not sure I expressed everything perfectly here, but that's what comes to mind. Thanks for the great question.

[Mark Bussell Jr]

I see Dev.to mostly publishing technical posts (frameworks, concepts, techniques, etc.), but I've also seen a few of the "Programmer Life" type posts (burnout, mentoring, etc.).

Is there a particular mix of the two you're looking for? Do you want the submissions to be heavier on the technical or is it more dependent on what the community is offering?

I ask as a not entirely disinterested party - if it's the sort of thing you'd like to see, I'd like to submit a more tightly written summation of a blog series I recently started.

[Ben Halpern]

Think of the audience as programmers (as opposed to "tech" like startups and venture capitalists and that sort of thing) but otherwise posts do not really have to be technical at all as long as they might help someone. I wrote a post about fitness which really didn't have anything to do with code, but was directed at programmers and the things we deal with in our careers/life.

So I'd say the technical/non-tech isn't as important as knowing the audience. If you are an experienced programmer with a story to tell, it's definitely appropriate. Just use titles that express the value of the post.

[Cassidy Williams]

What are your goals for dev.to?

[Daniel J. Summers]

What motivated you to start this site?

[Ben Halpern]

The motivations of the site became more concrete over time. Early on it really was "I want to make something I'd be happy to work on even if it took ten years". As certain things worked, it became clear I could solve problems more fundamental to my own life as a developer and the problems the community faces as a whole. I wouldn't say we've even scratched the service on providing a true solution, but that's certainly what motivates me every day.

[Cassidy Williams]

What are your dev tools of choice? What does your desk look like?

[Ben Halpern]

I don't use a lot of personal dev tools. I have my editor, VS Code, and that's about it on personal tools really. I use and like git standup and as a team we rely on some collab tools and monitoring tools.

dev.to stack

I want to find more good tools, but my brain can't handle too many different things, so I'm a very slow adopter of tools. Usually I have to see someone using something for a while before trying it myself, just because I won't have the patience to learn the ins and outs on my own unless it's critical.

As for my desktop:

[Cassidy Williams]

bro you gotta get a mechanical keyboard 🤓

[Ben Halpern]

🙃

[Andy Zhao (he/him)]

How'd you get into programming?

[Ben Halpern]

My first experience with programming was my friend Mike Wright making a website on Geocities for his band when we were in junior high. I didn't have a useful computer at the time so I came to his house to work on websites, like, every day.

After that, it was a windy path in and out of computering before I got into it for good after graduating college with a marketing degree.

[Andy Zhao (he/him)]

Anything you miss in particular about Canada?

[HawiCaesar]

Biggest achievement so far?

[Anthony Lombardi]

Whats the roadmap for Dev.to? What features you are looking to implement and bugs or things that should change?

[Ben Halpern]

We're working hard on polishing our moderation features under the hood and a hiring tag, which will help keep the lights on 💸💸💸

Otherwise we're working to get the platform open source, where the bugs and features can be dealt with more in the open. We have a long list of things to do, but we're going to take care of it in the open.

[Kyle Stephens]

Hi Ben, dev.to has a massive community (127K on twitter!) - congrats.

How did you generate the initial following and start to build a network? What was the seed that got it all growing and what has been your most successful growth tactic to date?

[Ben Halpern]

My main key was to allow the project to take forever to grow. I said I'd be okay if it took 10 years and worked on it very gradually. I observed what worked and what did not and put myself into it.

Huge growth moments were the jokes and working hard to be myself. I'm a real weirdo and before I got into software, I thought I wanted to get into sitcom writing. I knew I had an interesting on a lot of things in this industry, so I didn't hold back!

These days, since I love writing code, I've been putting most of my effort into writing features that can augment the voices of the rest of the community, especially underrepresented groups.