Whether you are doing coding for the first time, or for eons, there is one thing that is the same: There is always more to learn, and more to get stuck on. As you get better, you aim higher, and get stuck again!
It can be very frustrating to waste a lot of time on one topic, and your progress screeches to a halt. Whether it is infinite loops in your code or really understanding closures where the blog posts and docs don’t cover your situation, you need help.
Here are 3 places to get that help, and also some advice on how to best ask.
Etiquette
It’s good before you jump in an ask for help to do your darn best to solve the problem by searching online, referring to notes/courses/books you have at hand, or trying stuff out like debugging (if you can). Give it a good shot.
Then when asking, say that you’ve done these things, share what you tried and failed and provide as much useful information as possible.
This helps in two ways – you will be taken more seriously, and the information you provide will lead to a better answer.
On forums, like Reddit for example you can go into a lot of detail in one big question post that could be 300 words for example! On a chat based community, e.g. if they are on Discord I’d recommend keeping it brief at first, but have the extra details ready to post when asked.
FreeCodeCamp Forums
FreeCodeCamp is an amazing non-profit organization helping people to learn to code for free. They create courses that take you through from zero knowledge to being a developer that can get a job. There are thousands of hours in their step by step course, and they have a youtube channel with probably thousands of hours of video.
I love FreeCodeCamp because I like the idea that someone who has next to nothing, in bad circumstances can have a chance of getting all the skills they need as long as they have access to a computer. In addition it acts as a trusted source of information, like a Wikipedia, for the coding community, which is important to have. It has also acted as a magnet for programmers to give back by making free courses.
They have a great forum where you can ask for help, whether you have never coded before or have an advance question. Questions are typically answered in a few hours, as there are a lot of old timers and moderators around to help. However as said before, do search and see if your question is answered before asking!
Here is a link to the FreeCodeCamp forums.
The reactjs Subreddit
Reddit is amazing because each community (subreddit) is different, has a different culture, and there are some amazing communities hidden deep inside. Luckily the React communities are excellent and helpful, especially to beginners. The best place to go is the reactjs subreddit.
The reason I like this is that it’s busy enough with about 200000 members, so there is plenty of activity and your question will be answered (as long as it’s a good question, see my comments earlier on that!).
It is also beginner friendly, and at the time of writing it has a regular thread just for beginners to ask questions.
Here is a link to the Reactjs subreddit
Reactiflux
Reactiflux is truly amazing – it is actually many communities packed into one Discord server, like a hidden city.
If you haven’t seen it, Discord is a chat system designer originally for gamers, but has since spread it’s wings to host all sorts of communities, which are called “servers” from gaming jargon.
To give you an idea I made this rather crap info-graphic to show all of the channels you can join. And yes they are all pretty active too.
Here is a link to the Reactiflux invite page
Now, you have 3 great communities to join, if you haven’t already. Check them out, lurk for a little bit to get a feel for the culture and rules, then one day go ahead an ask that question, or give some advice.
Summary of links:
- Here is a link to the FreeCodeCamp forums.
- Here is a link to the Reactjs subreddit
- Here is a link to the Reactiflux invite page
Posted by Martin Capodici
