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Show HN: Ask a Dev

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Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#31
post #9

I think IRC does half or more of this. Usually there are channels for specific things with a lot of varied experience and expertise. For instance in the #xml channel on Freenode, some very heavy hitters in the XML world frequent the channel. It also allows you to contribute back for the more basic questions that might get asked. I like the personal contact in the abstract but it suffers from huge latency (have to wai…

The target of this service is very much NOT people who would know how to use IRC and know where to go on IRC to ask a question, nor is the type of question which this service is aiming to answer easy to ask over text.

If this is the target audience. Who will be there to help?

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#32
post #9

I think IRC does half or more of this. Usually there are channels for specific things with a lot of varied experience and expertise. For instance in the #xml channel on Freenode, some very heavy hitters in the XML world frequent the channel. It also allows you to contribute back for the more basic questions that might get asked. I like the personal contact in the abstract but it suffers from huge latency (have to wai…

Valid points, absolutely.

IRC and Freenode are great...if you're already in tech. About every third freelance client I speak with needs help with simple stuff - understanding how to get a host. Understanding how to point DNS to a service like Squarespace. They don't have that one tech friend to help them or know where to ask for help, despite the constant and saturated availability of chat rooms/forums.

So while we'll provide dev-to-dev mentoring, I really hope we reach this audience too.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#35
I never would have become a functional program if someone had sat down with me regularly for 3 months to think through these types of problems. Learning how they thought about them and debugged them made becoming self-taught so much easier. This is great!

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#39
post #9

I think IRC does half or more of this. Usually there are channels for specific things with a lot of varied experience and expertise. For instance in the #xml channel on Freenode, some very heavy hitters in the XML world frequent the channel. It also allows you to contribute back for the more basic questions that might get asked. I like the personal contact in the abstract but it suffers from huge latency (have to wai…

It's hard to overstate the value I've gotten out of Freenode IRC over the years. The #postgresql channel is chock-full of contributors and PG gurus willing to generously spend time explaining concepts and best practices. A real gem. Same thing with #clojure and #haskell . ##networking is great as well. Pretty amazing to drop into the same channel for 6-7 years in a row and see the same faces every time. One of the fi…

I still am not sure the best way to "IRC," I remember back in the day having it running in a program on Windows but lordy knows what the "preferred" method is now.

I've noticed that StackOverflow now has a chat feature which is very IRC-ish and relatively helpful, if a bit empty at times.

Re: Show HN: Ask a Dev

#40
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to overstate the value I've gotten out of Freenode IRC over the years. The #postgresql channel is chock-full of contributors and PG gurus willing to generously spend time explaining concepts and best practices. A real gem. Same thing with #clojure and #haskell . ##networking is great as well. Pretty amazing to drop into the same channel for 6-7 years in a row and see the same faces every time. One of the fi…

I still am not sure the best way to "IRC," I remember back in the day having it running in a program on Windows but lordy knows what the "preferred" method is now. I've noticed that StackOverflow now has a chat feature which is very IRC-ish and relatively helpful, if a bit empty at times.

I prefer command-line irc from a vps, I use erc because I'm an emacs fella, but I've enjoyed irssi as well. Don't forget to cloak whenever possible!
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