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I am new to DEV.to, really new a few days only. I have commented a few times in posts that I truly admire, cause there is really good material in here.
I am new to programming, I want to become a Data Analyst, either freelancing or employed, and I need some Python get going on, so I try to learn.
What I think is a bit hard for me - is to find within DEV.to, commenting or posting material that is understandable for people that are just starting, like me.
To be honest, I do not have a clue what MCP is, what Notion is, and many many other things are almost unknown to me, I may have read a name or heard a name of those, but I don't have a clue.
This post was a lovely one. Thank you.
You made me Google it. Seriously, even I didn't know about MCP and Notion because I've never needed to use them.
That's great to hear Ilias! Looks like you are having a great start on Dev.to!
Terminology will come and no need to know everything. If you don't know what Notion is, that's ok! This community is helpful and non-judgemental and I hope you are feeling that way here as well.
Nevertheless, hope your journey continues to do well! Thanks for reading!!
Woah. This is really helpful! I got a few great ideas myself out of reading, thanks for sharing! 🙏
Hey hey Swift! Thanks for reading and appreciate the comment!! Glad you got great ideas from this. Hope you are doing well! :D
so cool to see that someone is still checking out "12 things you didn't know you could do with DEV". wrote it a year ago when I was still new to this community
From what I have seen, just add personal touch and don't write using AI, I'm sure people will check out your posts..
if you learn something new, write about it (in a way you want to learn)
if you hacked something over the weekend, write about it (in a way others can do it)
welcome to the community, hope you like it here :)
Great points! I believe it was the right choice for me to mention your post about things we do not know about Dev.to. I could write it out here, but the goal is to make it short and sweet and it feels wrong to write it when someone already has it lol.
I do agree. Having the more human element in your writing than using AI to write everything makes one stand out. I don't use AI in my writing since I want to learn to improve my writing and speaking skills.
Appreciate the welcome! Hope you are well :)
This is solid Francis. The consistency point is the one most people skip over. Everyone wants to know the posting schedule. Nobody wants to hear "just show up."
The thing I'd add and I learned this the hard way on dev.to — commenting came before everything for me. My first post barely got 200 reads. But the comments I left on other people's work are what started real conversations. The follows, the reads, the job leads that came later — they traced back to someone noticing a comment I left, not a post I wrote.
Dev.to rewards genuine curiosity more than output volume. That's rarer than it sounds.
Good work putting this together. Needed for the people just landing here.
Thanks Daniel! :D
Aaaw, what a sweet and supportive article! 💛 I've been around
dev.tofor a few weeks and have many post ideas, but impostor syndrome and my inner critic keep me from posting. Recently, I've been fighting thoughts that say, "You don't have anything worth saying", so reading an encouraging article like yours really lifts the spirit! Thank you!No problem Klaudia! Glad my articles encouraged you :D
Great work putting this together Francis! Really helps out the new members here. Keep it up!!!
Thanks Aryan. Been a bit! :D
Just joined dev.to a few days ago and stumbled on your guide right when I needed it. Thanks for putting this together.
I'm coming from a slightly weird angle—Japanese Amazon seller in Osaka, building an AI tool for product listings on the side. Not a traditional dev background, but learning fast.
Your point about commenting before posting really resonated. Already feels different from other platforms in a good way.
Thanks Mamoru and welcome to DEV! I am glad that this guide is helpful for you!
What kind of products do you sell in Osaka? In other case, glad you are doing well!
That sounds awesome!
I decided to write this guide because of my great experience when I was new to DEV. Everyone was so nice and supportive whenever I make a comment or post. I made this blog so that I can share on my experience as well as helping others who are struggling to figure out how to use DEV.
Thanks Mamoru :D
Francis, that origin story is exactly why DEV's onboarding feels different from other dev communities — people remember and pay it forward. Your guide did exactly that for me.
What's the most surprising "pay it forward" moment you've had since publishing it?
Thanks Francis — the guide did the work. Went from lurking to a posting habit. Paying it forward now. 🙏
Thank you for posting this guide. It was really helpful and I felt welcomes into the community. I'm new to front end development. I'd like to eventually be a full stack developer. I do find that I have questions and get frustrated with myself when I can't get things to work correctly sometimes. I've been looking for a community to get some helpful encouragement and to give it when I'm more proficient. I appreciate you all. Thank you!
I appreciate it Allen and glad you join DEV! Glad it was helpful :D
I appreciate your kind response very much. Be well, my friend!
Hello everyone.
I have just joined DEV.to. Why? Let me blame Lumo...
For more than one year I am maintaining my own wiki in a desktop at home, using RHEL10, Tomcat, Postgresql and XWIKI, to document my learning.
The reason joining this platform is to share with others my journey.
Hopefully my future posts can help someone out there!
Cheers,
Ana
Hey Ana! Welcome to DEV and appreciate you coming to this post! Any plans on what you are posting specifically? Regardless, good luck on your journey on DEV!
Hi @francistrdev! Thanks for your warm welcome.
My intention is to create very practical posts, howto's kind of documents.
But it is going to be slow pace, as I am rather busy at the moment.
Thanks again!
Thank you for all the advice, experiences, and information you provide. I'm a beginner here on this platform and I really would appreciate it if you could read my articles and give me tips to improve them. Also, I believe you are a professional software engineer and I would like you to guide me on the right path to learning.
Hey! Glad it was helpful! I would recommend more on putting yourself out there by making meaningful comments on other people's articles. That way, you get more connections and meet more people! Let me know if any questions!
I found your article while looking in the welcome thread. It's so good that I thought it was literally some sort of community documentation for dev.to (I'm very new to this site).
Hey Tyler! Great to see you here! I would say it's part of the official dev.to documentation since it is listed as part of the help section for community resources.
Regardless, hope the guide helped you! Any goals you are achieving on DEV?
Right now, I'm just trying to get my first article published here. It's already written and published to my Hugo site, but right now I'm spending some time in Inkscape trying to make an image for the article.
That's awesome! I would assume you are reposting it from Hugo to dev.to? Would be nice to expand your network!
I just posted it! You are right, I originally posted it on Hugo about a day ago.
Hi, I am Deekshitha. I am new to dev. and it become complex for me to understand this platform and then I found your profile you are replying to everyone without any hesitate. so, I like to text you. I don't know whom to ask my doubts. literally I have many questions. I think you will help me by reaching me when you are free. Thank you.
Hey Deekshitha! So sorry for the late response. I was planning to respond but went over my head :(
Do let me know if you have any questions you have! Don't be shy to ask others as well since this community is quite supportive regardless of your career role!
Hope you are well! Thanks for reaching out :D
hi
hi Tanush!
Hi francis
Great article! This helps to ease the "new kid in class" jitters 😅 I'm an engineer and am taking courses to become a full-stack developer. I'm taking note of your suggestions on ways to engage and am looking forward to interacting with this community! Thank you!
No problem Prisca! Glad it was helpful! :D
😁🤍
♥️
Hello
Isso é conteudo de qualidade!!!
Muito obrigado! Espero que você esteja bem :D
hello to an absolute amazing community found some unique and noticable points in the post and for sure its been helpful. no wonder i am new in the community but still learning and still growing😄
Glad it was helpful Samia! Thanks!
New here. Looking forward to engaging, collaborating, and learning.
Hey LaQuita! Welcome. Hope the article helps you! Let me know if any questions! :D
Very helpful, thanks I’ll use this guideline for my profile 😃
Thanks Grace :D
I am new here, this was a great read. Thank you.
Thanks Travis! :)
Hi everyone, I’m new to development and just joined DEV. Excited to learn and share my journey
Hey Ibrahim! Welcome!
I got a very clear view about the community through this post. I will make meaningful contributions.
Glad it was helpful Mohd! Thanks for stopping by :D
yeaa
I am really glad to be here. Found this community through Google. Amazing stuff going on here.
Welcome to DEV Marcus!
Thanks - I'll check it out
I work on exactly this — observability to measure the gap between demo and production. Good to see more people on this topic.
Hey guys hope u all are doing great its my first time in dev.to and still feeling like i belong here the community is great hope together we can make world a better pace.
Welcome to DEV Mohsin!
Bom demais! Parábens!!!
Obrigado! :D
Hi! Welcome to DEV!
I love all the Pokemon gifs!
Great article BTW
Thanks Mario (kinda late on response sorry lol)
Welcome!
:D
Hi,I'm new at programming,and i'll be thankful if someone can reply my questions😊
Hey Nare. Feel free to ask :)
Thanks for great community
Thank you for the beginner’s guide. I was looking for online community/group for developers, since it is difficult to start out in a new area alone. I am glad I found the community.
TBH, initially I thought the conversations and posts will be too tangled with technical jargon for me to understand, but there is a little bit of everything for everyone at different points in their journey. So, thank you for the space!
Thanks Nikita! Hope you are well! Dev.to is great since there is something here for everyone (even the small stuff)! Usually conversations aren't too technical in my experience since it is more about if the post resonated with you and things you want to add on. If it something about Java and their post is about how they like the syntax, you could mention that you also liked the syntax and add anything you want to mention that they have not!
Hope this helps and good luck on your journey here :D
Thank you so much for the mention! 😊
I genuinely love the discussions on DEV, especially when a post actually makes people stop and think.
When I publish more technical articles, the comment section often turns into a full-on conference Q&A session, which honestly feels like the best kind of warm-up 😄
Hey no problem! Your posts are a great example of how posts are structured along with the discussions! It does take the time and think critically about what we learn and things we want to add on!
For me, I am an all-around poster. I post either technical/non-technical stuff. I am glad people are finding my post interesting!
Hope your journey continues to go well for you!! :D
Great post!
Thanks @the_nortern_dev! Much appreciated :D
Great article, but why are there so many Pokemon 🤯
Thanks Ember! I like Pokemon, so there are so many Pokemon here lol. Thought it would be relaxing in a way to showcasing it here :D
Thanks a lot for this post, I made my account a month back with aim of blogging my learnings on weekly basis but gave up on it due to just thinking what if I don't write well? Your post just motivated me to write my first post here! I'll surely start with weekly blogging, Thanks a lot again <3
Hey Shaurya! Glad to hear and welcome to Dev.to! Just followed you to witness your journey :D
No one here is perfect (even me!). Just remember to not do too much or you'll be burnt out. Also comment on other people's post if you learn something (like you did here) and I think you will do great! Thanks Shaurva :D
This is such a refreshing take on getting started with Dev.to. I love that you mentioned there's no correct posting schedule and that consistency and healthy interaction matter more. The reminder to stay open to different perspectives in comments is a great one it's what makes this community special. Saving this for reference!
I am Glad Harsh! There is no correct posting schedule. It's important since you can measure yourself and know if you will get a burnt out from it or if it is doable. I appreciate the comment and hope this helped you!
Great post man! Definitely reading it later
Im still new here so this post really help me alot.
Appreciate it! xD
no problem @yor! Hope this will help you on your journey on Dev.to :D
Thank you so much! It was really helpful!
Thanks Varsha! Glad it is helpful!!
Thanks for your effort. I really enjoyed it! :)
Thanks @realactioner! Hope it helped you as well :D
Thanks for writing this
Thanks Herrmer! :D
Thanks for this mate , much needed !
Great to hear Nikisha! Hope this helps :D
This is super helpful, thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks @southy404!
Love this! Some good pointers on how to get started.
A tip I would add to this guide is to check out ongoing challenges regularly as they provide a way to engage and get inspired + structure to write posts around a certain theme or project built. Also they are fun to participate in and you can win nice prizes!
Hey Julien! Great idea (forgot to add that lol). Will add it in a bit! Thanks! :D
It is now added @javz! Thanks again! Let me know if anything else I am missing!
Well said! Thank you to provide a guidance for the new dev. members. It will give them some positive message.
Thanks Benjamin! Especially would be useful to share in the Welcome Thread as well, so others can have a great start on their journey on dev.to! :D
Appreciate it!!
Thank you :).
I love a good unofficial guide!
Indeed Amara! Gotta add a disclaimer there so other would not think I am a dev.to staff lol. I appreciate the comment and thanks for reading!!
@missamarakay News Flash. It is now part of the Official Dev.to Community Resource!
dev.to/help/community-resources
Thank you! I greatly appreciate the information! 🙏 🤲
Thanks Daft! :D
Great post ! very helpful !
Thanks! Appreciate it :D
Such a lovely thread to read through! 😊 It's clear why this became part of the official help guide — the warmth in every reply really sets the tone for what DEV feels like. Definitely bookmarking this one! 🌸