How can we improve?

[Malcolm]

Hello Coders!

When I started this community I wanted to make sure that everyone was getting the help that they need. Today, I want to know how we're doing and how we can improve your experience.

Please keep it constructive!

Thanks

 

[Ghost]

I would love to see more questions. I think we can try to increase the # of questions by asking things we may already know the answer to. This will then lead to good discussions and debates and bring in more visitors from Google, which will in turn bring in more questions and answers. Although there are plenty of resources to use for learning some beginner coding concepts, I think we can do a better job of making this forum one of those resources. However, it will require a community effort to ask questions and discuss answers even if some of us may find those topics fairly simple. As more and more "simple topics" are discussed, it will naturally lead to users learning more and asking questions of increasing difficulty. For example, a member who doesn't know much code now can benefit from this effort and then in a year from now they will be asking tough questions and showing us much more complicated code.

Over time I think we will see a lot more engagement, especially if we start now. Simple topics like How to check a variable's value may end up being better for helping users and attracting new members than "how to make *insert complex project here*" which just happens to also include info about checking values. We should definitely try harder to capture a larger audience by breaking up future tutorials or questions into topics that aren't too broad or complex.

 

[Krusty the Senile]

I would suggest or recommend starting with a limited focus, or a project that members can discuss and contribute to. I have previously asked on Discord if there was a goal or focus for this forum, and it is ambitious to have this site as a comprehensive resource for coding or development related questions and answers.

Getting members or visitors to communicate and contribute here would require a level of investment from anyone interacting with this site. I guess it depends on what the "regulars" would like to see when interacting with new members or visitors to this site. I think is a level of indifference if the site itself is just a resource for coding or answering questions. I think you would get more engagement from members and visitors if there was a goal like a project, and maybe WebWareBox can be a good starting point.

Any projects that would be brought up and discussed here does require a driving force, someone that has a goal that they would like to share. For those people that would like to present their ideas: there is a "risk" if you will when working with strangers when it comes to something you would feel passionate about, and I can only hope that the members and environment here would be supportive enough to allow that community to grow.

I have suggested starting an Android application as a talking point to get members engaged and contributing, but I'm currently time poor and it seems that the interest for that has waned. I would like to contribute to the WebWareBox project, but I don't want to impose my belief into where the project should go without first seeing what the current contributors see the goal of the project being. I would hope these type of conversations would get members interested and coming back, as opposed to simply posting videos about tech that would be interesting - it's the application of the tech that makes it interesting.

 

[Dan-Kode]

"There are a couple things that we can improve on. Then once we improve those, we'll have other things to improve. And then it repeats" - @OscarDeer

But to start, the Open-Source Projects. As @eeflores said, WebWareBox would be a good starting point but we need to put some work into it before it can become a Project where beginners can easily begin work on and know what they are working on. Getting in more Open-Source Projects would be a huge benefit. Maybe CodeForum could create some of its own Open-Source Projects that the Community can work from without the need to look for people willing to make their Project Free and Open-Source.

Secondly, the Posts. I know that you enforce people to write detailed Posts rather than posting just a Link or a word. I think this needs to be further pushed. Maybe delete Posts that don't have any Detail or effort into them.

I think we should also Promote CF a bit more. Maybe have one of those Buttons that others can use on their Site and then have it link back to here. That should hopefully bring in more Traffic and maybe, a few more Members.

These were my Suggestiona for improvements. Feel free to say what you think about them.

 

[Deleted member 65]

I say work on a community project.

 

[Dan-Kode]

@Malcolm, Has mentioned that he plans to do Community Projects when CF reaches 150 Members. So, that'll be soon. We'll just have to wait until we do get 150 Members. Then the Community submits their Ideas and whatever Idea is voted on the most, that Project Idea will be initiated.

 

[Malcolm]

I would love to see more questions. I think we can try to increase the # of questions by asking things we may already know the answer to. This will then lead to good discussions and debates and bring in more visitors from Google, which will in turn bring in more questions and answers. Although there are plenty of resources to use for learning some beginner coding concepts, I think we can do a better job of making this forum one of those resources. However, it will require a community effort to ask questions and discuss answers even if some of us may find those topics fairly simple. As more and more "simple topics" are discussed, it will naturally lead to users learning more and asking questions of increasing difficulty. For example, a member who doesn't know much code now can benefit from this effort and then in a year from now they will be asking tough questions and showing us much more complicated code.

Over time I think we will see a lot more engagement, especially if we start now. Simple topics like How to check a variable's value may end up being better for helping users and attracting new members than "how to make *insert complex project here*" which just happens to also include info about checking values. We should definitely try harder to capture a larger audience by breaking up future tutorials or questions into topics that aren't too broad or complex.

I completely agree; This should be a community effort, I have already started posting more questions via HTML & CSS forum and plan to do more. It would be awesome to get the rest of the community to help post more tutorials, questions etc. Even like you mentioned, even if it's something that you already know. Create the conversation, help coders down the road, Code Forum is about helping each other, no matter what skill level you have.

I would suggest or recommend starting with a limited focus, or a project that members can discuss and contribute to. I have previously asked on Discord if there was a goal or focus for this forum, and it is ambitious to have this site as a comprehensive resource for coding or development related questions and answers.

Our goal is to provide a friendly community for coders. With that said, this can be pretty vague but what I want for this community is somewhere you could come to get help with coding. If it's asking a simple question to a complex one, it doesn't matter because no matter what I will not refuse anyone from asking their question. I want coders to feel that even though Code Forum is not directly helping with a project, we as a community will always be on your team to help.

Code Forum is a resource for coders, this includes getting help by asking questions, reading tutorials and downloading resources such as graphics etc.

Getting members or visitors to communicate and contribute here would require a level of investment from anyone interacting with this site. I guess it depends on what the "regulars" would like to see when interacting with new members or visitors to this site. I think is a level of indifference if the site itself is just a resource for coding or answering questions. I think you would get more engagement from members and visitors if there was a goal like a project, and maybe WebWareBox can be a good starting point.

I agree, what would you like to see when interacting with new members? I think something you need to take into consideration is that resource for coders or answering questions is actually the same thing. We're providing a resource to coders by offering them a place to ask questions to get answers.

I agree about the engagement aspect, that's why Code Forum created open-sourced projects. Where WebWareBox is under open-sourced projects and was possibly thinking about creating one more. But this is still in the planning stages.

 

[Dan-Kode]

Where WebWareBox is under open-sourced projects and was possibly thinking about creating one more. But this is still in the planning stages.

OwO, What's this? A new FOSS Project under CF?

But really, I never knew that you were working on a super secret Project in the background. I'm quite interested to see what it is. And who knows, if it interests me, I'll most likely Contribute.

 

[Malcolm]

OwO, What's this? A new FOSS Project under CF?

But really, I never knew that you were working on a super secret Project in the background. I'm quite interested to see what it is. And who knows, if it interests me, I'll most likely Contribute.

No secret plan This one would be voted by the community

 

[Dan-Kode]

Ah, okay.

I'm excited to see what it's about.

 

[Bury.ai]

One thing I have noticed is the C programming section, this includes three languages in once section while I understand that C/C++ could be in same section C# shouldn't and heres why:

-C# Is a high level language unlike C/C++.
-While C# has borrowed a lot features from ML and Haskell in it's design, it is still considered as an OOP language.
-C# is widely used and very popular as well; and used by mobile platforms to deskop apps to game development and a lot more. (C# Is a general purpose high level language !)

The sub sections of C# programming section could be something like this:
-Xamarin (subs: Xamarin.Forms, Android, iOS)
-WPF & UWP
-Windows Forms
-Unity Game Development
-ASP.NET

..etc

 

[Malcolm]

I see what you mean, this is kind of what we had in the past. But due to not a lot of activity, I merged all three.

 

[Dan-Kode]

I don't know why, reading at my other Comment on this Reply, I now feel the urge to know what's going on behind the scenes.

Hell, maybe even a sneak-peak. I promise not to leak it, master Malcolm UwU

 

[Malcolm]

This has been added! But the second part will come later down the road.

 

[Deleted member 205]

As with everything else, there are plenty of things to improve on. You have acted on some of the Advice and Feedback given which is great and shows that you're listening.

I made quite a few Suggestions under my previous Account and would either like to refer back to them or maybe expand on them a bit.

Suggestion Changing The 'Showcase' Area To A Board?

Hey there. As you may know, there is a 'Showcase' button on the CF Homepage which re-directs you to the Media-Section of CF to look at all of the Showcased stuff. In my Opinion, I don't really think it works well when re-directing to the Media-Section. The reason I say this is because people...

www.codeforum.org

This is about changing the Showcase-Area into a Board. As I stated in the original Post on this, things like Forums should not be allowed on the Board. This Board should only be used for Projects that people built with Code(C, Java, Python etc.) and would like Feedback on the Project. The Showcase turning into a Board could potentially increase the Activity in it and you'll be seeing more Projects around on CF.

But it's best to make sure that you Moderate this Board. Maybe have new Threads for the Board put onto a Review before they're allowed onto it. Also, ban certain things from being allowed on it(E.g. Malicious-Programs/Scripts).

Suggestion - In progress Design also in light

Would it be possible to offer the design in light? Some settings in the design make it impossible to use the unadapted bright style.

www.codeforum.org

This is about CF's default Theme being in Light. While a lot of people prefer Dark-Theme, there are people like myself who can't stand/use Dark-Themes and instead use Light-Themes. This isn't really a high-priority one so spend as much time on it as you like. I'll be waiting patiently.

Also, if you wanted to, you can choose to maybe add Solarized-Themes. It won't require as much Modification to CF's default Theme(This also applies to the Light-Theme). Besides, the Solarized Colour-Pallete is available online.

Official CF Projects
Ever since my WebWareBox Project was removed from CF's Official-Projects, there has been no new Official-Projects since. I think we should maybe do some Brainstorming-Sessions with the Community to gather ideas for new Projects. Or, you can just wait for a new Project to show-up and ask the Creator if they'd like it to be put under CF(Just like WebWareBox).

The Brainstorming-Sessions for new Projects can involve a lot of things. You can give Users a certain type of Project(Is it a Web-Software Project, AI-Project or Desktop-Software Project?). Then decide on who would be best to lead the Project(And optionally, have Co-Maintainers who work with the Lead-Maintainer). Also, decide on the Project's Languages, it's Update-Release-Schedule and how long Versions are supported for etc.

Other Staff-Roles
While it's nice to have Administrators and Moderators, not everyone on the Staff Team can be doing the same things all at once. What if an Administrator plans to add a new Feature but ends up being too busy to do so. Maybe having a Staff-Member with a completely different Role can do that while the Administrator is away.

Other Staff-Roles can include a Staff-Member who deals with Technical-Stuff(Pretty much the example I just said) and a Staff-Member who deals with the GitHub Projects under CF. Those are just some ideas for other Staff-Roles.

I think adding more Staff-Roles can help increase the Staff, give people a chance to apply for another Role in case they can't apply for other Roles and splits-up the parts of Site-Development so say, a Staff-Role can focus on one part of the Site were as another Staff-Role can focus on another part of the Site.

I hope you can take my Suggestions into account to help improve the Site and it's future Development.

 

[Deleted member 65]

Add more sections.

 

[Malcolm]

Thank you for providing ways to improve! I really appreciate it when the community comes forward to help improve Code Forum. And I'm impressed by how thorough this post is.

This is about changing the Showcase-Area into a Board. As I stated in the original Post on this, things like Forums should not be allowed on the Board. This Board should only be used for Projects that people built with Code(C, Java, Python etc.) and would like Feedback on the Project. The Showcase turning into a Board could potentially increase the Activity in it and you'll be seeing more Projects around on CF.

But it's best to make sure that you Moderate this Board. Maybe have new Threads for the Board put onto a Review before they're allowed onto it. Also, ban certain things from being allowed on it(E.g. Malicious-Programs/Scripts).

I want to agree with the beginning where we could transform the showcase into a board but I just feel that the media centre becomes useless and can become a lot of work to approve/disapprove posts. And, I thought of an alternative that may help, what if we made a category in the media centre for feedback so that the community can request feedback on their projects by uploading a picture of something you built. And, perhaps if you wanted to show off the code, you could create a thread with the code inside and link to the media item. I think that would be cool. This is a coding forum, and should remain as one; we don't want to become a place where people pretend to 'showcase' their work to help them promote it.

Now, what I mentioned above doesn't really help with the prevention of promoting websites. So perhaps we can write a new rule where if you are posting a community or website you should include a thread of how you created or show what you did with the code to reach that point, what do you think?

Theme being in Light. While a lot of people prefer Dark-Theme, there are people like myself who can't stand/use Dark-Themes and instead use Light-Themes. This isn't really a high-priority one so spend as much time on it as you like. I'll be waiting patiently.

Also, if you wanted to, you can choose to maybe add Solarized-Themes. It won't require as much Modification to CF's default Theme(This also applies to the Light-Theme). Besides, the Solarized Colour-Pallete is available online.

I like this and I want you to remind me in the future. But as of right now it's not something that I should put my energy into. My focus needs to be shifted a bit from growing to sustaining the current membership of the community we have. Such as more What is posts etc. But, perhaps we as the community can work on a new light them together in the near future. Now, I do believe we still have our old-light theme available, are you able to tell me if it's available to you?

Official CF Projects
Ever since my WebWareBox Project was removed from CF's Official-Projects, there has been no new Official-Projects since. I think we should maybe do some Brainstorming-Sessions with the Community to gather ideas for new Projects. Or, you can just wait for a new Project to show-up and ask the Creator if they'd like it to be put under CF(Just like WebWareBox).

The Brainstorming-Sessions for new Projects can involve a lot of things. You can give Users a certain type of Project(Is it a Web-Software Project, AI-Project or Desktop-Software Project?). Then decide on who would be best to lead the Project(And optionally, have Co-Maintainers who work with the Lead-Maintainer). Also, decide on the Project's Languages, it's Update-Release-Schedule and how long Versions are supported for etc.

I do apologize for this; some of my 150 member points I made were not kept due to my busy schedule and I think it's time to rethink some things that are more sustainable for our community. With that said, I think official projects should be pushed off to when the site has more traffic. But, I would definitely agree to allow members to start their own projects (not affiliated with CF) and encourage others to join them.

I also do apologize for the lack of coding challenges; I'll be sure to raise the priority because I don't see why we shouldn't have them.

Other Staff-Roles
While it's nice to have Administrators and Moderators, not everyone on the Staff Team can be doing the same things all at once. What if an Administrator plans to add a new Feature but ends up being too busy to do so. Maybe having a Staff-Member with a completely different Role can do that while the Administrator is away.

Other Staff-Roles can include a Staff-Member who deals with Technical-Stuff(Pretty much the example I just said) and a Staff-Member who deals with the GitHub Projects under CF. Those are just some ideas for other Staff-Roles.

I think adding more Staff-Roles can help increase the Staff, give people a chance to apply for another Role in case they can't apply for other Roles and splits-up the parts of Site-Development so say, a Staff-Role can focus on one part of the Site were as another Staff-Role can focus on another part of the Site.

I agree I believe @Ghost and I have talked about this previously. And, don't think we came up with a solution yet. I do think we should have different roles to help balance the workload. Instead, of use just focusing on everything. The only thing is that I have been dealing with staff as a if-needed basis, so for example; if we get a spike in reports and we can't manage then I'll bring on another staff member. Because I don't want it to feel like we have more staff online than actual community members. Do you get what I mean?

I hope you can take my Suggestions into account to help improve the Site and it's future Development.

I really appreciate the feedback, and I hope we discuss more on this!
seem like we have a higher staff ratio online than community members, do you get what I mean?

 

[Deleted member 205]

I want to agree with the beginning where we could transform the showcase into a board but I just feel that the media centre becomes useless and can become a lot of work to approve/disapprove posts. And, I thought of an alternative that may help, what if we made a category in the media centre for feedback so that the community can request feedback on their projects by uploading a picture of something you built. And, perhaps if you wanted to show off the code, you could create a thread with the code inside and link to the media item. I think that would be cool. This is a coding forum, and should remain as one; we don't want to become a place where people pretend to 'showcase' their work to help them promote it.

Now, what I mentioned above doesn't really help with the prevention of promoting websites. So perhaps we can write a new rule where if you are posting a community or website you should include a thread of how you created or show what you did with the code to reach that point, what do you think?

I would say that right now, the Media Centre is useless as it's not being used. Nobody has Posted anything in months now and it's just sitting on it's hands. I think it's maybe because of the fact that people are too busy browsing the Forum-Boards and not other parts of the Site.

If you were to create a Board, you'd have even more to Moderate and Approve, thus' the whole thing about getting more Staff in(Which I'll move onto later). Maybe you could further explain what you mean by a new 'Category' in the Media Centre. Would this link to a Board that isn't on the Homepage or....? Please explain that.

As for the Websites, what you said, doesn't really help at all. At least a Rule should help with it as I do not want a Media Centre filled to the brim with Websites. I want a Media Centre that contains Projects, Software, Video Games all built in Code.

I like this and I want you to remind me in the future. But as of right now it's not something that I should put my energy into. My focus needs to be shifted a bit from growing to sustaining the current membership of the community we have. Such as more What is posts etc. But, perhaps we as the community can work on a new light them together in the near future. Now, I do believe we still have our old-light theme available, are you able to tell me if it's available to you?

As I stated in my Post, it's not necessarily high-priority. I can wait forever just for a Light-Theme and I'd be extremely happy once it's released. Maybe if you Open-Sourced the Code to the default, Dark-Theme(If possible) and then on GitHub, the Community can work together on this new Theme. Or of course, you can maybe just give the Task to somebody else. But, to test a Light-Theme, you'll need a secret Page that is not accessible by the Community if you want to test a new Theme.

The reason I say that we should have a Test-Page is because, when modifying CSS, there are thousands of Lines of Code and just one mistake can break a part of the Site and it's Look. And if this new Theme is available to the public when it shouldn't be, somebody may end-up criticizing you for a broken Theme. Maybe look into and think about having a Test-Page. It could also come in handy in the future.

As for if there is still a Light-Theme, yes there are two actually. The IO-Theme and Uniform. I'm currently using Uniform right now as I find it much better for my eyes. While I do like and use Light-Themes(Which are bright), the IO-Theme is just blinding for my taste.

I do apologize for this; some of my 150 member points I made were not kept due to my busy schedule and I think it's time to rethink some things that are more sustainable for our community. With that said, I think official projects should be pushed off to when the site has more traffic. But, I would definitely agree to allow members to start their own projects (not affiliated with CF) and encourage others to join them.

I also do apologize for the lack of coding challenges; I'll be sure to raise the priority because I don't see why we shouldn't have them.

That is completely fine. I can understand that. As long as the excuse is valid and is a good one. And being busy is one of them.

I would nonetheless agree with you on that one. I think we should wait until we have more Traffic and more Members around. As for Traffic and Activity, we do need to find ways to keep people more active first before Projects are initiated. As for Member-Count, I'm looking at 375 - 450 Members. By then, maybe we'll have more Activity which can then lead us onto doing Projects.

Coding-Challenges, I'm not necessarily too bothered about. As long as we can get them first, then that's good enough.

I agree I believe @Ghost and I have talked about this previously. And, don't think we came up with a solution yet. I do think we should have different roles to help balance the workload. Instead, of use just focusing on everything. The only thing is that I have been dealing with staff as a if-needed basis, so for example; if we get a spike in reports and we can't manage then I'll bring on another staff member. Because I don't want it to feel like we have more staff online than actual community members. Do you get what I mean?

That's great to hear that you're considering more Staff-Roles and Staff in general. As for the solution, take time with it. It will come eventually.

As I said, different Staff-Roles means that you can split-up Site-Development and Content-Moderation. It helps balance everything and gives you a break and other Staff-Members a break as well. But, I do get how you don't want too many Staff. That just makes it unbalanced and God knows what effect it could have on the Users. Maybe it could cause Users to force themselves to be nice just to avoid getting Reports or maybe too much Staff can encourage an Attack on the Site, to see how the Staff will respond.

As for the Solution, again, take your time with it.

I really appreciate the feedback, and I hope we discuss more on this!
seem like we have a higher staff ratio online than community members, do you get what I mean?

You're welcome for the Feedback. I'm also looking to see what else we can discuss about any of the things I mentioned and things that others have mentioned too.

And the Staff:Member Ratio....In the past month(Around September and/or October), the Staff seemed to be more active. But something tells me the Members have been more active this past week.

 

[Malcolm]

I would say that right now, the Media Centre is useless as it's not being used. Nobody has Posted anything in months now and it's just sitting on it's hands. I think it's maybe because of the fact that people are too busy browsing the Forum-Boards and not other parts of the Site.

If you were to create a Board, you'd have even more to Moderate and Approve, thus' the whole thing about getting more Staff in(Which I'll move onto later). Maybe you could further explain what you mean by a new 'Category' in the Media Centre. Would this link to a Board that isn't on the Homepage or....? Please explain that.

As for the Websites, what you said, doesn't really help at all. At least a Rule should help with it as I do not want a Media Centre filled to the brim with Websites. I want a Media Centre that contains Projects, Software, Video Games all built in Code.

Oh I agree, that's why I'm thinking of solutions to boosts its use. Under Media Centre, I'd create a category labelled as Feedback, where members can post images regarding their project to gain feedback from the community. This would be located in the Media Centre.

So we cannot ban asking feedback for websites as it is a development area as well. But I was thinking maybe if you are going to post a picture of your website you must meet the following conditions - URL must not be included etc.

As I stated in my Post, it's not necessarily high-priority. I can wait forever just for a Light-Theme and I'd be extremely happy once it's released. Maybe if you Open-Sourced the Code to the default, Dark-Theme(If possible) and then on GitHub, the Community can work together on this new Theme. Or of course, you can maybe just give the Task to somebody else. But, to test a Light-Theme, you'll need a secret Page that is not accessible by the Community if you want to test a new Theme.

This can all be done using XenForo, in-built appearance settings. All that would be needed is creating another child theme, and make it light colours then walla done.

 

[Deleted member 205]

Oh I agree, that's why I'm thinking of solutions to boosts its use. Under Media Centre, I'd create a category labelled as Feedback, where members can post images regarding their project to gain feedback from the community. This would be located in the Media Centre.

So we cannot ban asking feedback for websites as it is a development area as well. But I was thinking maybe if you are going to post a picture of your website you must meet the following conditions - URL must not be included etc.

Ah, right. I get it now. I was thinking of Linking to some secret Board. And yeah, you can't Ban someone for Posting a Website. But most of my Posts related to not allowing Websites, I'm mainly referring to things like Forums. For Forums, you just need to grab a piece of Software and then boom. You've got a Forum, time to Promote it on CF. That's the kind of stuff that I don't want popping-up anywhere on the Site.

Maybe also expand the Conditions to now allow Forums at all. Maybe also Brainstorm for a couple more Conditions as you can't just have one Condition. I'd consider 2+ Conditions to fit the bill.

This can all be done using XenForo, in-built appearance settings. All that would be needed is creating another child theme, and make it light colours then walla done.

My Opinion on this friendly and extremely fancy Discussion so far about improving the Site, it's Media Centre and things like Staff and Projects/Challenges: