Questions: Answering and Asking
My last post did just about what I wanted it to. I got some questions from people and it gave me some more to think about. A sincere thank you to those that took the time to leave me feedback.
To answer some questions:
Q: Wim said, “Interesting idea. I think you do need to scope it more. How realistic is it to want to cover everything?”
A: After pondering this for a while, I thought yeah, it might be a little unrealistic to want to cover everything. So, here's what I decided; I'm not setting out to cover everything..BUT, I'm not going to leave related technologies hanging. What I mean is, I'm not going to create an XHTML course without having XML and HTML courses. No ASP courses without COM Object and VBScript courses. That sort of thing.
Q: Marcie, the Datagrid Girl and now CodeProjectie asked, “Wow, are you going to develop all of the content yourself?”
A: Oh, heavens no. This is actually a really good question though. I get the feeling that I'm going to be very picky about who I let submit/edit content for the site. I'm not exactly a perfectionist but I know what makes for good learning developer learning material. We'll see but I get the feeling I will be screening all the material and only taking submissions/content from people that I know and trust.
Chris Garrett mentioned getting a host on board and rewards in the way of ad revenue and praise. This is really a difficult decision for me. I know ads help bring in some money but, I'd rather have ads or images that point to resources and other good communities. I'll just have to wait and see on that one. I'm going to go with no ads to start with, but I will build the site in a way that will facilitate easily putting them in later on. Perhaps I'll just start off with Amazon associate links and stuff like that.
I've also pointed a few of my peers to the idea and what I've heard so far is “ how about something geared towards actual developers in actual situations?” to which I say, “Exactly!” I want to post some stuff that's just turn-key solutions also. Need to encrypt some sensitive data? Here's a class to do that and here's a couple sample projects showing how to use it. That kind of thing.
Lastly, I want to mention the importance I think opinions hold. I am definitely going to leave room for opinion/editorial pieces on the site. If nothing else, they'll provide an outlet for when visitors have had enough techno-babble. I've benefited greatly from others perspectives, and I hope to be able to do the same for others visiting the site. Forums won't be there at first, but they will eventually. I have a couple of ideas having to do with comic relief too. Don't want people taking the site too seriously! ;-)
Now, my questions to you:
1. Do you like sites better that have no ads on them or are you so used to ads now that they don't bother you?
2. What kind of information do you consider “must see” on the home page of a site?
3. Do you prefer sites that allow you to leave anonymous feedback/posts or is registering no big deal to you?
4. How often do you find yourself using turn-key solutions from web sites? Once a week/month/year? Never?
That's all for now. More to come later. Stay tuned.