Splitting Programming Discussion [suggestion]

[sabret00the]

As far as i can tell, this is a community that thrives on the input of the collective, the input tends to revolve around the coders and with the current system (ala plugins) the gap between coders and non coders is widening. thus not as many new coders are born as a result of this community.

Fundamentally coders are born through the help of others in the community spirit where people will, want to help eachother. however the help forum here in my opinion gets a very limited focus.

It's near impossible to provide quality help for people when you just collate all there issues into one stew pot, a lot of issues are missed and more focus help doesn't get the attention it deserves.

I feel that splitting "Prorgramming Discussions" into "PHP", "MySQL", "xHTML", "XML" and "CSS" would inject a new lease of life into the forums, allowing people to offer more focused help in there particular forte as well as allowing people to get more specific help and forcing people to recognise there issues, forcing them to take the first step in helping themselves.

Communities such as SitePoint having thriving programming communities due to the fact that there's no ignorance in regards to the different disciplines of coding and such should be the case here.

[amykhar]

Sabre, I think the difference is that people at sitepoint WANT to learn how to code while the majority of the people here do not. I am not sure that more programming forums would get traffic - but that is a personal opinion and does not reflect official staff position on the matter.

[hambil]

Sabre: I disagree. I think that working in vBulletin is cross discipline. You need PHP, MySQL, HTML, XML and CSS skills, in addition to a knowledge of how vBulletin works. What I'd rather see is more context around questions. Changing the forum so it is a vBulletin programming forum, rather than a specific technology. I want to do X with vBulletin, instead of 'Why doesn't this SQL statement work'.

[Dean C]

Originally Posted by amykhar

Sabre, I think the difference is that people at sitepoint WANT to learn how to code while the majority of the people here do not. I am not sure that more programming forums would get traffic - but that is a personal opinion and does not reflect official staff position on the matter.

That's an extremely naive attitude to have and a generalization that is unfair to make against the consensus of this community. There are just as few people on SitePoint who aren't willing to learn, as on here.

I just don't think individual coding forums will generate the traffic that individual forums should be getting....

If we want to produce more Coders here (and keep also keep the active ones), we have to make developing modifications here an enjoyable and efficient process.

I was hoping for more responses regarding what features would help allow this in our Town Hall thread here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=119069

*wink* *wink*

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by Danny.VBT

I just don't think individual coding forums will generate the traffic that individual forums should be getting....

If we want to produce more Coders here (and keep also keep the active ones), we have to make developing modifications here an enjoyable and efficient process.

I was hoping for more responses regarding what features would help allow this in our Town Hall thread here:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=119069

*wink* *wink*

You know, i keep wanting to reply to the townhall thread, but i'm unsure of what to say, i dislike the fact that i can't support an idea or have any questions raised on it and thus i'm stuck in limbo waiting for the moment in which the perfect post will present itself to me. that said, i've heard some fantastic ideas for this place, it's quite sad that those can't get implemented.

Originally Posted by sabret00the

You know, i keep wanting to reply to the townhall thread, but i'm unsure of what to say, i dislike the fact that i can't support an idea or have any questions raised on it and thus i'm stuck in limbo waiting for the moment in which the perfect post will present itself to me. that said, i've heard some fantastic ideas for this place, it's quite sad that those can't get implemented.

You are allowed to repeat ideas that are already suggested. Regarding the ideas that you heard that haven't been implemented, you can state those again. By doing this, you are supporting ideas without reacting to anyone.

Despite what some peope think, we do want to hear everyone's thoughts. Member feedback is always wanted. (We wouldn't have a public Site Feedback forum if that wasn't the case)

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by hambil

Sabre: I disagree. I think that working in vBulletin is cross discipline. You need PHP, MySQL, HTML, XML and CSS skills, in addition to a knowledge of how vBulletin works. What I'd rather see is more context around questions. Changing the forum so it is a vBulletin programming forum, rather than a specific technology. I want to do X with vBulletin, instead of 'Why doesn't this SQL statement work'.

While you need a cross discipline in order to use vBulletin, if you present a MySQL problem to a MySQL forum, you're likely to get expert answers, more so than if you present them to a general forum. While it's a stretch of the imagination on my part to think that the forums would bring in more traffic, they would make things a lot easier to manage and visit. i enjoy helping people with PHP problems, but abore HTML and/or CSS problems (no matter how many i have). if i could waltz into a php forum and see only php problems i could go about helping those people rather than having what we have a present which is a pick and mix of which only my boredom takes me in there to support the community.

The community in my opinion lacks any focus in regards to coding and the general attitude seems to be that it's a bad thing, hence the opposition of programming discussion.

In no which way should we assume that all 'programmers' that visit the site are interested in coding for vBulletin, and once you remove that assumption, you may actually unearth 'programmers' that are only good when it comes to MySQL and are lost in PHP.

vBulletin is the culmination of a blend of disciplines, let's not assume that it's users are equally interested or able in each of those disciplines. i.e. how many people that visit this site know how to use the template system like it's nobody's business but are lost when faced with PHP? these people can offers their wealth of experience in the HTML and CSS forums.

And yes i do differentiate between the two, though that's because the approaches of each in regards to the end products are vastly different and CSS problems are more likely to make me take a gander than someone saying, "my font won't change colour" or "my table has empty cells".

Originally Posted by Danny.VBT

You are allowed to repeat ideas that are already suggested. Regarding the ideas that you heard that haven't been implemented, you can state those again. By doing this, you are supporting ideas without reacting to anyone.

Despite what some peope think, we do want to hear everyone's thoughts. Member feedback is always wanted. (We wouldn't have a public Site Feedback forum if that wasn't the case)

Ok, that's great news, but then my last issue with the townhall is that, i don't want to post something and get zero feedback. i feel if i take the time to provide input someone should atleast get back to me staying that my this can happen, this can't and why. i know it's a lot of work, but it's just my idea of progress, communication.