Coding Communities - What Works?

drDugan asks: "There is a resurgence in interest lately in information-based systems and websites for data sharing, structured data, and enabling communities to work together better. I'm working a contract for a new business that is trying to build a community to support people who write software. What communities are you a part of now that help you write and develop software? I mean this question in a general way, including both online communities and offline interactions (your office, LUGs, etc.) -- where do you find connection with other people to get information, answers, and inspiration?"

Re:Sourceforge!

[lukewarmfusion]

You make a good point about people. Surrounding yourself with talented developers (in your office as co-workers or simply through friendships as colleagues) is an excellent way to push the limits of your skills.

As you learn more, they will benefit as well. It's a great system, provided people are open and willing to be helpful. If you work in a place that hoards information and your co-workers feel threatened by other talent, however, it's a dead end.

ironic

[prockcore]

The irony is most coding community sites are poorly organized, poorly designed, and lack features.

I think it's because few coders put any sort of stock in appearances. It's a shame, because appearance really helps make a site (or product) feel "solid". Too many coding sites feel like they're barely held together with duct tape.

Poor presentation doesn't instill a lot of confidence that the content is worth anything.

Slashdot for coding

[typical]

The problem is that while Slashdot is a good place for general technical-social discussion (the sort of stuff like Wired likes to talk about) and some technical things, it's a little limited for in-depth technical discussions. The stories fly by too quickly, whisking threads away, and the folks that read it are not all developers.

If you want to talk about techniques for developing software, you might get a good comment or two, but people are unlikely to keep going back and reading a thread.

Slashdot still isn't a perfect replacement for Usenet. If you read comp.lang.c or similar, you'll learn a lot more than you will from Slashdot about technical stuff.