[spullen]

I like the idea of a challenge topic, where there is a new challenge every month and people can brainstorm and post their ideas and solutions, etc... I think people can benefit from a process like this. Also, I don't think there is much you can do about having newbies posting questions (and posting them wrong), just have to give them a little push in the right direction (if it's a HW problem) , and tell them what they are doing wrong (w/ their posts). And it would be nice to see the .net topics broken up into their own topic groups.

[skyhawk133]

Quote

And it would be nice to see the .net topics broken up into their own topic groups.

Suggestions for forum names if we break that section up??

[Programmist]

Just checked this tpic and tried my best to read/skim through the posts, so forgive me if I reiterate a point already made.

I like the idea about tagging posts with respect to their level of difficulty. The only caveat I see is that a beginner might find something very challenging and mark it as "advanced" when it's really not. I suppose this is where the mods will come in.

I haven't said much about this topic lately, but I suppose maybe my absence speaks volumes. Just to clarify my position a bit and defend those of us who may have stopped stopping by as often; I haven't been posting much for a combination of reasons. It's not always that we're tired of the newb posts. Maybe some people have been complaining, but there are those who just have busy lives. My group has just had a very short release cycle, which meant I've been busy coding/unit testing my a$$ off. Aside from that, my fiancee wants more time with me lately, so that means less recreational computer time when I'm home. Hey, it's part and parcel of the relationship deal. But, when I did visit, I saw the same old, beginning-of-semester homework posts. Inevitably there would be several separate posts for creating a mortgage calculator, among others. When I see total beginner posts like that, it's not that I don't want to help, but rather that my help is not needed. Anyone above total beginner level can help this person and strengthen their skills in the process. Plus, to be frank, financial stuff bores the crap out of me. Seriously though, after telling someone how to convert an Integer to a String for the billionth time, for instance, it does get a little boring. I do still peruse the forums and if I notice a post has 0 responses after a while I'll check it out to see if I can help.

Something I try to avoid is just giving out answers. In some recent posts, I've tried giving hints and pointing people to the API when it has the answer. I feel that this approach helps people learn more the way that I learned: by reading the fricken manual. I mean, once I learned how to use the Java API, about 75% of my questions were answered. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like my approach was having the desired effect because often people ignore the API or when you give hints they come back and say they don't get it, so you give them another small hint which they don't get (or don't try to get), and so on ad infinitum until you end up giving the answer anyway, but it takes days instead of minutes. It's frustrating. I wonder, is there a way to get people more motivated about looking for understanding rather than just the answer? Dunno, but I think Ive said enough for now Cheers and I'll try to check in more.

[5ubw0r1d]

skyhawk133, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 07:56 AM, said:

Suggestions for forum names if we break that section up??

What about something like: Networking, Databases, File Handling.

Obviously there will be others but you get the general idea.

[skyhawk133]

5ubw0r1d, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 10:53 AM, said:

skyhawk133, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 07:56 AM, said:

Suggestions for forum names if we break that section up??

What about something like: Networking, Databases, File Handling.

Obviously there will be others but you get the general idea.

I meant more language specific. Right now all .NET is in the same forum except for ASP.NET. I'm not a .NET programmer so not familiar with the languages.

We've got a networking and database forum. But I don't want to break the programming forums down in to that finite level.


Alcdotcom, good info and thanks for the feedback. I'm going to do what I can to attract a more advanced audience so we can get some of those more advanced discussions going.

[bazookatooth]

there should be a thumbs up and thumbs down button on every post. if you like it, thumbs up, you don't thumbs down. you can sort messages by # of kudos and/or filter by # negative responses.

later, code can be written that gives users rankings based on their # of thumbs ups, not just their number of posts.

just an idea. ?

[skyhawk133]

You can rate threads in a few of the forums, and all the tutorials...

[bazookatooth]

SO?!

[skyhawk133]

Want me to change the stars to thumbs?

What I'm saying is, I think that capability already exists to a certain extent. If we need to make it more prominent or factor the rating in some how we can look at that. I'm not sure invisionboard supports searching/sorting based on rating, but I can look in to it.

[Liontrue1]

ajaymatrix, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 02:32 AM, said:

Start a thread on upcoming International Programming Challenges
(I can help in that respect)

Bring 'em on!

bazookatooth, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 01:48 PM, said:

there should be a thumbs up and thumbs down button on every post. if you like it, thumbs up, you don't thumbs down. you can sort messages by # of kudos and/or filter by # negative responses.

later, code can be written that gives users rankings based on their # of thumbs ups, not just their number of posts.

just an idea. ?

Good thing, why not?

[spullen]

skyhawk133, on 1 Jun, 2007 - 07:56 AM, said:

Quote

And it would be nice to see the .net topics broken up into their own topic groups.

Suggestions for forum names if we break that section up??

C#
Visual Basic, etc...

[5ubw0r1d]

Another quick suggestion just off the top of my head. How about a general programming forum, in which users would discuss various universal approaches to developing solutions and perhaps include a tutorial section for newbies which would teach them the basics they need to learn any language, i.e. all your variables, conditional statements, file handling and the likes.

[NickDMax]

Quote

Suggestions for forum names if we break that section up??

Well you could break it up by language which gives you
VB.NET, C#, C++/CLI, PowerShell, Everything else.

Truth is I think the C/C++ forum can handle the CLI posts -- but as with the VB form it can be hard to tell if people want to use the CLI or not -- but really CLI more or less is an application of C++ (like STI) rather than a new language (though it might as well be).

As for VB.net I don't know how much longer the pre-.NET version of VB will be popular -- but for now the VB forum shows a pretty good mix and since many people do not specify which they are using it gets confusing. I would like to see the VB and VB.NET forums broken up.

I would like to see a PowerShell/JScript.Net or Scripting forum.

I don't think you will find too many people using F#, J#, IronPython, and IronRuby so they can be included in one of the others.

So in summery I would like to see:
C#, VB.NET, Scripting(.NET), maybe J#

if NOTHING else at least a C# forum.

[5ubw0r1d]

Scratch the last post I just made. I feel like such a n00b. I found the forum that dicusses this and I also cant work out how to delete a post, if its even possible in the first place. Sorry people.

[skyhawk133]

I can delete your post, but we'll leave it, not a big deal. I assume you're referring to either "Software Development" or "Other Languages" which are both "general" type forums.


On a seperate note, I added an "Industry News" forum that populates automatically from some RSS feeds. Not sure if we'll keep it, but will experiment with it, just like the thread icons.