Why not?
Just kidding, there is more to it. Just thought it flows well with the title and having the answer straight up. Anyway, here's my reaso...
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I don't think you realize how much I needed that this week. I've got my next JLPT exam coming up this weekend (need to max out that stat now lol), and lately it's been a balancing act between two jobs, studying Japanese, trying to keep learning as a developer, and still making time to actually enjoy life. Some days you start wondering if you're spreading yourself too thin.
Then something as simple as seeing your name mentioned in a post like this reminds you why communities matter. A little encouragement from someone you respect can completely change the mood of the day.
When I first joined DEV, I expected to find interesting articles. What I didn't expect was to find people who genuinely challenge my thinking, give thoughtful feedback, and celebrate each other's progress. That's been the biggest surprise for me.
That said I'd better get back to studying... Thanks again for the kind words and for building the kind of community you wrote about here.
Cheers to writing many more great articles together!
Oh yea Aryan, get back to studying lol. Here is my response when you get back and GL!
That is something about blogging. It's not about sharing a one-sided knowledge, it's a collaborative work and helps you improve as a blogger AND a developer. It's a WIN for me.
Once the one year of dev comes up, I have a more detail article about how you change my experience and such. Stay tuned for 2027 lol.
Thanks!! I am obviously gonna stay tuned to see how you rock this place man!!!
It's funny now that I think of it. I was mostly reading articles from daily.dev everyday to the point that when I click a link, it usually points me to dev.to. So I wonder, is this a place where the cool devs hang out? So I created my account this year and read wonderful articles ever since.
PS. I just hope that more and more genuine articles are posted. Recently, I'm tired of seeing obvious AI posts with just a couple of scrolls. MAKE DEV.TO GREAT AGAIN!
"I am going to build a wall" ahh speech. 😭🌹
But yea, I am hopeful to see DEV's future on moderation and excited as well. Saw many Pull Requests related to Moderation and it looks very excited to see new potential features lined up.
I do hope you will stay on dev.to. It's a great community regardless of AI if you think about it. :)
Thanks for sharing Elmar!
I have one thing to say: dev.to genuinely feels like home to me. No need to put on a front like you do outside. You can drop the mask here. It's a rare kind of comfortable and free.
🙏❤️
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Thanks for sharing Xulingfeng ❤️
I joined because I always wanted to contribute and learn, not just be a full-time consumer of the efforts developers put into building things. Dev.to makes me a better indie organically.
Having like-minded people engage is encouraging. Normally, people will say, “You can’t give what you don’t have,” but I most of the time think, “You can’t get what you couldn’t give.” 🤧
Thanks for sharing Ekong! Contributing and learning from others is my guess of why most people are here on dev.to and that's great to hear!
“You can’t get what you couldn’t give.” is an interesting quote, but makes sense. How would you get things if you couldn't show that you are worthy of it is something I thought about. If I want something, I prove it.
Great article Francis! We are here to learn from each other. I am learning a lot of Sylwia or @konark_13 if we tease with each other.
Thanks Ben! ❤️
I really enjoyed reading this, Francis. 😊
I joined DEV because I wanted a place to share what I was learning and writing, but honestly, I’ve received so much more from this community than I ever expected.
The people here have become one of my favorite parts of DEV. The thoughtful comments, encouraging words, honest feedback, and little conversations have meant a lot to me. There have been many moments when a simple interaction genuinely made my day and reminded me why I enjoy writing and sharing here.
I’m also really grateful to the people behind DEV who put so much effort into creating and maintaining a space where developers can share their work, discover each other, and feel encouraged to keep going. The recognition and opportunities I’ve received here have meant a lot to me, but more than anything, they’ve made me feel that the work I’m putting into writing and learning is being seen and appreciated.
So if I had to answer "Why did I join DEV?" today, I’d probably say: I joined to share, but I stayed because of the people and the community.
Really grateful to be a small part of DEV. Thank you, Francis, for writing this and giving all of us a reason to think about why we joined in the first place. 😊
Thank you so much, Francis! You have no idea how much this means to me! ❤️
I’ll definitely share the story of how I ended up on DEV, but it’s so crazy that it deserves a post of its own 😄 I’m planning to write it for my anniversary here!
Can't wait for next month to hear from your first year anniversary on DEV! I would have to wait till next year oof. Looking forward to it regardless :D