Recommendations for learning to code communities?
Hi all,
I'm learning Javascript, CSS, & HTML by building a chrome extension, but I'm making slow progress. When I get stuck, it takes me ages to find the solution.
Does anyone have recommendations for coding communities where you tend to get answers to most of your queries quickly? I'm using a lot of the open communities (e.g., on FB, Code Newbie, etc.), but often don't get answers.
I'm a quick learner and don't need/want the answers drip-fed to me, but knowing where to direct my learning efforts and having someone to come back to when I really hit a wall is what I need.
Thanks in advance, and all the best,
K
For programming/dev questions, you can't go wrong with Stack Overflow.
You can find niche focused communities and forums to get help from on Reddit and platforms like Gitter/slack. Here are a few I found for Chrome Extensions: r/chromeapps subreddit, Chrome extensions google group
For a more general "tech/programming" community, head over to one of many communities on Social media. I personally prefer one on Discord called TCD. Quite popular on Discord and is a nice community.
Here's an invite link if you'd like to join.
Also, whatever community you are a part of. Make sure you are asking productive questions to increase your chances of getting help.
Read about how to ask, don't ask to ask, and please don't just say "hello" in chat
Hey Ash, thanks for the advice. Oh, Reddit is something I completely overlooked. I'll check out those groups. I'll also check out joining that Discord community this week. Thanks again!
Stackoverflow for fast help with coding, reddit (search by "learn to code" or "lear programming" or "web programming").
Hey - thank you! Stupidly, I completely overlooked Reddit, but I'll check it in future. Thanks again.
I’d recommend freecodecamp, they have a very active community forum, fantastic learning tracks and loads of very in-depth YouTube tutorials and courses, where you will also find a sub-community.
https://www.freecodecamp.org/
Hey - awesome! Thank you, I'll check out the Free Code Camp communities and see how I get on. Much appreciated!
Sounds like you need a mentor https://commoncog.com/blog/be-good-to-your-mentors/
I give community design advice regularly, but usually don’t bother with low-level programming advice unless it’s a protégé.
Most online communities I’ve seen ask for help with just an error message. No reproductions, no info on what has been tried, etc. It’s hard enough to get the code and error reproduced on my laptop, much less understand the project’s context and fix it. Not to mention, async communication means a lot of waiting. It’s a lot of effort for little reward, and far more work than design feedback.
When I need help (there’s always someone more specialized) or give help with programming, I usually pair program https://tuple.app/pair-programming-guide/
Anyway, I’ve rarely found those communities to work for me. I usually use them to see common questions about a framework I am deciding whether or not to use.
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That’s how you learn sometimes.
Take CORS for example. You have to learn about headers, domains, security, and so much more to actually understand it. Once you know those things, it’s easier to debug future problems.
Other times, it’s easier for a mentor to say x is the best solution because y, or you forgot about z, or x is a dead end. Or they’ve seen and debugged it before, just more experience. Certainly saves a ton of time and head-banging.
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Maybe I’m just wrong and most people have great experiences in programming communities 😂 g’luck!
Hey, thanks for the insightful comment - completely agree with everything you said. Also, really interesting insights into the level of effort-reward into giving coding feedback versus other domains - something that I hadn't considered before.
Thanks for the luck. I managed to figure out the problem that prompted the post after eight hours of head banging, but you're right, it's something I won't mistake again in the future now I've learnt it 😂