My personal problems on coding forums

EddiesTech — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 11:55:07 +0000

OK, so I use coding forums and sometimes people get on my nerves and sometimes it feels as if they want you to leave (no, literally)
I use the Glitch Support Forum the most, but I also use Reddit and occasionally, StackOverflow.
Really, I love forums like these, just some things really annoy me, read this post for why I like them:

What I love about coding forums

EddiesTech ・ Aug 8 ・ 2 min read

#discuss

1. Flagging

This is annoying. Most forums give any user the option to 'flag' a post to either have it removed or looked over by a moderator (the people who are given permissions to edit or remove posts, etc.). Sometimes they flag for seemingly a stupid or no idea. Like that time I got banned from asking questions on StackOverflow, because of trivial things like signing posts with my name 'Eddie', like this:

All answers appreciated in advance
Eddie

And because I included this trivial inconvenience on every post I made, my account was banned from making any posts, which means I can't ask any questions on the most used coding forum. Cheers, whoever you are with your mass of reputation. I like Reddit better now anyways.

Posts that add to the conversation are often flagged as 'off-topic' and on Discourse forums, like the Glitch Support Forum, they can even get hidden, especially if whoever flagged is a Regular. So now, your perfectly fine posts are hidden from view and will most likely be removed by a moderator. I even start to think the moderator doesn't look at the posts that are flagged and remove them anyway, but really it isn't their fault, but the person who flagged in the first place.

2. Miscommunication

Sometimes this is my fault. Sometimes I am the only one misunderstanding the post. But, hey, it's still a problem with these forums. There a few things you can misunderstand about a post on a forum:

The post's content
The post's context
The post's intention
The post's overall meaning

Here's an example of one where I misunderstood the post's intention. On the Glitch Support Forum a user was arguing that Glitch Boosted Plan users should have more priority over free ones. Yes, obviously they should. I wasn't arguing about that, but instead the fact that he told another forum 'Regular' that because they were a regular they should be a boosted plan member... What? So I disagreed and I convinced him that we shouldn't have to be paying users to be a regular of the community Glitch has created, but, his reply was questionable at least, or so I thought. It included overenthusiastic ideas like that regulars, or even anyone on the forum at this point of time using a UNIX timestamp and there should be a hidden setting or command to have free Boosted Apps! To me, that sounded like a sarcastic jab at me for suggesting that we shouldn't have to be paying users so I told him to 'cut the sarcasm'. And soon after, you guessed it, I got a reply saying that there was no sarcasm intended 😬 Yikes!
There can be simpler misunderstandings, for example answering a different question instead of what the person asked, etc.

No means to do it, but it can be awkward when it happens and sometimes a tad annoying (I imagine people were annoyed at me that time! I mean I was!)

3. A few trivial inconveniences

Stuff that's just a tad annoying and doesn't need a full section

Bumping - Unless there's a good reason, don't do it (examples of good reasons: it's the only relevant place for the post and doesn't warrant a new topic, examples of bad reasons: I want so and so to see my post, the mods need to see it to remove it (no they don't, just flag), etc.)
Spamming - just, why????????????????
Advertising - unless it's something really cool, like sharing projects on the Glitch Support Forum, I don't care.

4. Contributing/Collaborating

Helping people with their projects is great - collaborating with creators of and contributing to projects is great. But, sometimes people go too far.
You will lose control of your project if you have contributors
The problem usually lies in overenthusiastic children
Now, don't get me wrong, I am OK with them being enthusiastic about coding and I am 14-years-old myself, but until they start to hit puberty or maturity, you will have a nightmare every night, thinking about how your code or project will be ruined next. They don't ruin it on purpose, but instead, you have the problem of having them trying to take over the project and having to supervise their every move on the project - that's not my job when they wanted to help in the first place.
It's not their fault, they just want to help. I probably would have been the same when I was younger and yourself, but save yourself the hassle and tell them to wait until their around 13 years of age and you'll let them help.
Top Tip: you can tell from their first message to you about it. Look out for wanting the invite link now and immediate replies.

5. People wanting my code and open-source

This can also be linked to the above section as some contributors will just take your code, that they didn't help write and use it for their own projects.
BEWARE: People, or at least in my head, will take every opportunity to take your code and use it for their own projects!
They will ask you for it, ask if it's open-source, become a project contributor or anything to try and get the code. If you write easy to understand code, they'll just take it, without learning how it works. This is why I hardly open-source any of my projects. Look at my GitHub and my Glitch profiles and see they are almost blank, even though I make loads of projects. I would rather people learn how to write the code themselves, like I did, instead of just using other people's code. You'll become their personal mailbox for problems with code they stole from you and you and they will always just take people's code and never learn how to do it themselves.

What I love about coding forums

EddiesTech — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 17:41:57 +0000

I was gonna start with my problems with them, but I do love and I don't want people to think I despise them!

I use the Glitch Support Forum the most, but I also use Reddit and occasionally, StackOverflow.

1. Asking Questions

No matter what question about coding you have, you'll most likely be able to find an answer on some sort of forum. Whether on one specifically for that language or type of coding, similar to Reddit's 'subreddits', or one for coding in general, like the Glitch Support Forum. People asking questions is great and asking questions yourself is great, since it can end with a simple resolution or solution, rather than hours of troubleshooting to find northing!

2. Answering Questions

I don't know why, but I get joy from spending my time answering people's coding questions, if I have the knowledge to do so. If people aren't asking correctly, just send them to StackOverflow's How to Ask or something similar, like your own version on the forum. Simple as that. Help people and get more abilities in the forum is how Discourse works and the Glitch Support Forum uses that, so you can become, for example, a 'Regular' member where you get special moderation perks like editing titles, recategorisation, adding tags, more powerful flags, etc. So now you have a motive for answering questions, if you need one.

3. Community

Most forums, especially the Glitch Support Forum, where Glitch built a forum for the vast community it has created, have a really happy, cool, close-knit and sometimes very large community. This means you can collaborate, contribute, chat, etc. and enjoy the forum as one happy coding family. Some people take advantage of this family, creating spam, etc. but don't worry about that, just be happy about the people you have touched when creating messages on the forum and answering their questions.

What do you love about coding forums?

Join the discussion by commenting below 👇

About Me

My name is Eddie Coldrick or Eddie's Tech and I am a Regular on the Glitch Support Forum. I code in Javascript, PHP, HTML, etc. and love webdev and Glitch.

DEV Community: EddiesTech

My personal problems on coding forums

What I love about coding forums

EddiesTech ・ Aug 8 ・ 2 min read

1. Flagging

2. Miscommunication

3. A few trivial inconveniences

4. Contributing/Collaborating

5. People wanting my code and open-source

What I love about coding forums

1. Asking Questions

2. Answering Questions

3. Community

What do you love about coding forums?

About Me