Open Challenge to the ColdFusion Community
Yesterday I read this post by Yacoubean and it got me thinking. I've been kicking around similar thoughts about the ColdFusion community lately and decided to take it one step further. I'm issuing an open challenge to the ColdFusion community to get more involved and help CF grow to new heights. I'm not putting down anyone at all by issuing this challenge, rather I'm calling for those 'lurkers' or as a friend of mine likes to call them 'takers' to get more involved in the community.
There has been debate in the community as to whether or not a 'novice' should really be blogging or putting out code examples for other 'novices' to consume, thereby creating and enforcing bad coding techniques, but I think many people out there have much to give to the community if only they would take that first step. I struggled with whether or not I should start this blog last year since I still have much to learn. I was nervous about looking like an ass by putting something out there that showed my naivety, and to be honest I have done that on several occasions. Luckily there have been people kind enough to step in and steer me down the right track without pointing out how blatantly stupid I was.
My challenge is this: Get more involved. Start a blog, join a mailing list, visit a forum, engage yourself in a debate in the comments of a blog post. Post a question on a blog post if you're not sure you understand what is being presented. Send a blog post to a coworker or friend (start by sending this one)! If you already have a blog, post on-topic relevant stuff more often or create and release a new open source project. Take someone elses open source and make it better. Do something! I personally think ColdFusion is the single greatest language on earth and it's getting better every day. Let's build up the community! It's already a great community and I want to see it grow to new heights.
For those who can't quite afford the cost of hosting a new blog there are plenty of free services out there to take advantage of like blogger and instantspot and the newly released cfblog just to name a few.
Again, this challenge is not intended to single out anyone or put anyone down. Please take it in the spirit that it is being issued and lets make this happen. The community is amazing already, lets kick it up a notch.
RSS
What it needs is for all of us to find at least one CF developer who doesn't read blogs or lists or attend CFUGs and encourage them to actually start reading / attending.
This friend of yours that came up with that word sounds like a genius.
Like you said, the thought that someone out there could actually make your project better by sharing their experience is very motivating to me.
http://fro.instantspot.com/blog/
Something that might help bring some more bloggers out of the woodwork, no matter what level of tech you post in your blog...there will be some people out there that will learn from it.
Aaron
http://ajlcom.instantspot.com
Thanks to all you BAD TO THE BONE dude/gals out there. you all made me happy.
http://cfblog.com/loveColdFusion/
ja
I'm into agile development as well, so when I read Raymond saying something about a single massive cfc in BlogCFC, I decided my first project would be to TDD a blog and write about it. (Show how to build a real cf application from scratch, using test driven development - kill 3 birds ... )
It's not meant to be a competitor - it was simply a good chance to write my first test-driven app from scratch.
In any case, I focus on cf, agile, a little java, and my adventures in learning ruby so far. Unfortunately, I'm starting to wish I'd just used BlogCFC, as with school back in and the job being so demanding, I haven't had much time to write, much less code the thing.
I used to be a cf "expert" on experts-exchange, but I lost the time and drive. But lately I've been getting more involved on mailing lists as well. I've got a couple of open source projects in mind too.
Right now the blog doesn't have much cf on it (other than the TDDing parts - which can't be found because all it has now is a front page, and no way to find old posts), but I'll be sure and let you know when its further along and someone can get some cf value out of the thing.