If you've read any of my other posts, you've probably noticed most of my posts start with tweets. That's simply because Twitter is basically a live stream of my thoughts (don't judge me). Anyway, this post doesn't start with my tweet. It starts with one by @m1guelpf.
Geez, this sounds like something my grandparents would say "you're on your phone all day".
SOCIAL MEDIA IS A TOOL
You wouldn't tell a door-to-door salesman that he's addicted to houses. twitter.com/Delahuntagram/…11:03 AM - 30 Jan 2020your friend David @DelahuntagramYou are addicted to me. I control your day. I'm the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see at night. You can't live without me. I own you. Who am I? Social Media.
He is essentially saying it is crazy to look at Twitter as a bad thing.
Benefits of Twitter
What can you give and get from the Twitterverse? If you code and you're not already on Twitter, expect this to make you question why.
To start with, who doesn't want to feel like they belong? Dev Twitter is by far the most accepting and welcoming internet place I've been. I've made friends, I've learned things, and I've helped other people. Most of this started by following a list of awesome Women in Tech made by @thecodepixi. (Here's the list!) Anyway, tangent over. How can you create relationships, increase your knowledge, and widen your audience?
Weekly Chats
There are many scheduled dev chats that are well worth your time. For most chats, there's a topic every week, each chat is broken down into several questions, and then a final shout-out post.
Why join in? Meet other devs and learn from their experiences. Just jump in! Lurk, read, respond, tweet. Do whatever it is that you like, but check out these chats. You will benefit from them.
Rules
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The rules are simple. Be nice, be supportive, and talk to each other. Remember to include the 'A1', 'A2', or 'A3', and the hashtag.
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Hashtag Accessibility
As a side note, make sure to capitalize all words in a hashtag. It helps people who are using screen readers. Using #codersteach will be read as "codersteach" like it's one word. Using #CodersTeach will be read as "Coders Teach" like it's two words.
Schedule
| Day | Who runs it? | Time | Hashtag | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | @CodeNewbies | 2 pm EST | #CodeNewbie | Coding Check-In |
| Monday | @shehackspurple | #CyberMentoringMonday | Mentoring | |
| Tuesday | @lavie_encode | 7 pm EST | #CodersTeach | coders learning things from other coders |
| Tuesday | @thepracticaldev | 9 pm EST | #DevDiscuss | devs who dev |
| Wednesday | @parentdrivendev | 7:30 pm EST | #ParentDrivenChat | parents who code |
| Wednesday | @CodeNewbies | 9 pm EST | #CodeNewbie | people learning to code |
El Fin
At the end of each chat, there's typically a post where you say something awesome, mention a post you wrote/read, talk about a project you're working on, shout for joy that you got a job, ask for help, or basically anything.
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Twitter chats are a neat way to meet others and learn from them. From a different angle, retweet bots are cool and can help others meet you.
Another Awesome Chat
Are you interested in infosec or cybersecurity? @shehackspurple prompts #CyberMentoringMonday each Monday with this tweet.
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The goal is to foster an environment for mentors and mentees to assist each other.
Retweet Bots
Retweet bots are Twitter accounts that are set up to retweet certain things. In many cases, they are set up to retweet certain hashtags or strings of words.
Hashtags are helpful to group similar tweets together and help others find them. Some hashtags have bots that retweet them. Include them in your post and they’ll automatically be retweeted. This is a great way to help build your community.
For example, I built the #VetsWhoCode bot and it has allowed me to meet a few other veterans who are also coding.
@dashbarkhuss built the awesome #HelpMeCode bot with the goal of helping coders find other coders who need help with something.
Again, for accessibility, please remember to capitalize the words in your hashtags.
Community Bots
Last month, I had a realization that I wanted a way for devs to meet & learn together that is easy to use, has a low barrier of entry, and is more than typical algorithm stuff. I think there are a few sites that allow this, but from what I've seen you have to sign up and it's mostly algorithm stuff. I wanted something that was convenient and not algorithm-based. So, Code Questions Bot was born. I knew a little bit about how to make it, but wasn't 100% sure.
Anyway, my real desire was to have a convenient and educational, but fun, place to meet devs. I started dreaming about the potential community that could grow around a single bot. I knew I could build it, but I knew it wasn't realistic to come up with enough questions by myself. The bot needed to be built with a diversity of ideas and experience. This is why I chose to make it all open source and beginner-friendly. I want everyone to feel like they have valid input and have a say in the future of the bot.
I started building the Code Questions bot and I was starting to see real potential. I got to work writing out some pseudocode, then making it into real code that really worked.
I started with some simple questions, maybe 10 or so. Now, there are 400+ questions and they range from goofy trivia to historical things and from making analogies to practical questions. As I add more questions, I come up with even better ideas. Though, when I hit the end of my ideas, google has been my friend. I don't know everything and I want to have questions for all sorts of different devs.
As this bot grows, I see more and more diversity of people following and engaging with it. It's still relatively small, but there is a dedicated community of folks who are always there being awesome and adding to the mini-community.
Note: If you know of any more retweet bots, twitter chats, or community bots, please let me know. I'd love to add them to the post.
Also, go read @lavie_encode's post article: Leveraging Twitter to build your web development career
Top comments (18)
Everyone: "twitter is horrible, it's a cesspool, who even uses it"
Me: but.... but its lovely? Filled with lovely people? What twitter are you all using?!
Great post Vicki, I always like seeing people recognize the good parts of the internet and social media.
Right?! What are these people doing on Twitter that makes it so awful?! I love it. Mine is so positive and wonderful.
Exactly! You can make Twitter be whatever you want, and apparently people don't bother making it the lovely place it can be.
I truly don't know of a place more positive and awesome.
Agreed. People create their own environment. I assume those are people who like to complain and like to be mad. Oh well. I'll keep enjoying our positive Twitter awesomeness
Seems like we had a vastly different experience on twitter.
What’s so different?
Lovely and filled with lovely people is the part that I have not experienced.
Over the course of the years it's core userbase attracted the exact opposite and under the guise of extremist inclusivity lost the very thing they fought for.
Maybe it's just me and my habits but I don't find it particularly resourceful :)
Wow, you’re right. I haven’t seen this lack of lovely people. I feel like it often depends on who and what you follow. I would suggest unfollowing anything that feels unhelpful and start following some things that are more helpful.
Shameless plug 🔌, if code isn’t your thing, I’d suggest following Code Questions bot. There are some awesome people who will lead you to meet other great people.
I’d also highly suggest following In_Otter_News2
This is very much why I love Twitter.
It's my blog digest, resource goto, and general "get to know the actual humans of tech" platform.
My only regret is that I haven't been able to find a EU timezone-friendly dev discission on Twitter.
Yes! I love how I get to see real people of tech.
Oh yeah, I’m not sure what times these things are for you. 😕 probably something super not realistic
They pretty much take place when Europe sleeps. I can always attach myself to a discussion after it ended but the interaction by then is very limited.
Yeah. That's such a different experience. :( It's so much better when it's live. Very much like being in a chatroom, but structured. I wonder if there are any EU-based chats.
If you find any, let me know and I'll add them to my list
Who loves Twitter???? We do!
Great post Vicki!!
Yessssss! Loooove it!
As everything, it can be used for doing wrong. Or not.
Definitely
Here's today's #CodersTeach