Developer Challenges on my forum

[fantanoice]

So I've noticed that despite a number of the members on my forum being developers, the Programming and Development section on my site doesn't appear to get as much activity as it probably should. I'm thinking of maybe trying to promote more activity in the area with Developer Challenges.

In a nutshell, I'd give people a theme, then they'd have 2-4 weeks to build something to that theme. I doubt I'd make a contest out of it because I'd rather it be a community-based thing where people can get experience and help, rather than doing it just to win and/or getting discouraged to enter against more experienced people, but could possibly make it a contest if people really want that.

What do you think? Do you think it is a good idea that you would participate in? Do you have any suggestions to improve it? Feel free to give feedback.

 

[GrabThe.com]

It sounds like a good idea. Also when I have a section that lags I start writing more topics in there. And usually after a while it will pick up. But the contest/challenge sounds good. I'd participate if it was something that interested me.

 

[Stalin]

I was thinking about doing the same thing on my forum. though I think making it a contest with a prize would push more people to join.

 

[fantanoice]

I was thinking about doing the same thing on my forum. though I think making it a contest with a prize would push more people to join.

I dunno, I find there are people, especially beginners, who get intimidated by competition and sometimes won't even submit their project because it didn't meet the 'quality' of the others.

What sort of challenges do you think would be good? I'm thinking maybe little game projects might be a good start because they tend to be more fun to dip your feet into and prototype, as well as more fun to judge/critique :b

 

[awesomeaniruddh]

You are correct that for skill-based competitions, beginners often do not submit their entries because they get intimidated.

I guess you could hold different competitions for different skill levels. You set a time period of the competition, for example a week and then all entries submitted might get a badge or something for participation and the winners will get a prize. This eliminates the beginner-intimidation part because the experts compete in a different competition.

Since I have the most RW experience with backend languages like PHP and Ruby, I can suggest some applications that you can have your members build:

Beginners - a simple twitter clone. Stuff like hashtags is not expected.

Intermediate - a simple blog with user permissions.

Experts - a full-fledged forum software with stuff like moderators and admins, as well as their related panels. Nothing as complex as phpBB, or the other mature forum softwares, of course.

It has been a while since I have done some real coding though, so you might want to have that checked with some more in-form developers here on FP. All of these present great learning opportunities, as you intend.

You might also want to have an experienced developer mentor each of these competitions so that any body who runs into trouble can get help for free.

Hope I helped 🙂

EDIT: Wow, I didn't realize I wrote this much. The small reply box makes it look like a paragraph.

 

[fantanoice]

Cheers for the feedback Aniruddh, I'll definitely take that on board.

I like the idea of having something for participation if they do end up being contests. I'm not sure if we have the userbase for different difficulty levels, plus what scale would you even use to rank them? Heck, even just trying to decide on the difficulty of the project is a bit tricky because each project has its own set of problems that you can't always prepare for. I mean I have 6+ yrs of programming experience and proposing a twitter clone for a 2 week 'beginner' programming challenge sounds pretty difficult to me.

I think I would probably prefer for people to make teams for the challenges, like maybe pairing someone less experienced with someone more experienced and that would help resolve the problem of the different skill levels and mentoring, though it isn't going to solve it completely.

I guess we'll have to play around and find something that works. :b

 

[Stalin]

I was thinking about doing the same thing on my forum. though I think making it a contest with a prize would push more people to join.

I dunno, I find there are people, especially beginners, who get intimidated by competition and sometimes won't even submit their project because it didn't meet the 'quality' of the others.

What sort of challenges do you think would be good? I'm thinking maybe little game projects might be a good start because they tend to be more fun to dip your feet into and prototype, as well as more fun to judge/critique :b

well if you are going to do this i think you need competitions for each level of expertise.

 

[fantanoice]

well if you are going to do this i think you need competitions for each level of expertise.

Eh, I'd prefer to keep the themes broad enough that it can cover different levels of skill and promote teamwork, similar to game jams and such.

 

[cyimking]

So I've noticed that despite a number of the members on my forum being developers, the Programming and Development section on my site doesn't appear to get as much activity as it probably should. I'm thinking of maybe trying to promote more activity in the area with Developer Challenges.

In a nutshell, I'd give people a theme, then they'd have 2-4 weeks to build something to that theme. I doubt I'd make a contest out of it because I'd rather it be a community-based thing where people can get experience and help, rather than doing it just to win and/or getting discouraged to enter against more experienced people, but could possibly make it a contest if people really want that.

What do you think? Do you think it is a good idea that you would participate in? Do you have any suggestions to improve it? Feel free to give feedback.

Well the thing is... your site isn't MEANT for developers so you shouldn't really be as surprise by this. The only reason why people post on "coding" forums are for help or for fun competitive challenges. With this said and done, if you strongly want to get more activity in that section then I would do a series of competition for all skill's set and provide some sort of reward. This can be money or an award... (up to you really).

Also make sure you understand the difference between a beginner, junior, mid - level, etc... developer / engineer. Also determine if you want to appeal to programmers, developers or engineers. Why? Well a programmer, developer and engineer are 3 different position so you shouldn't be giving a bunch of developers engineering challenges.

 

[fantanoice]

Well the thing is... your site isn't MEANT for developers so you shouldn't really be as surprise by this.

Well, firstly it is, which is why the Programming and Development section gets real estate on the forum index.

The only reason why people post on "coding" forums are for help or for fun competitive challenges. With this said and done, if you strongly want to get more activity in that section then I would do a series of competition for all skill's set and provide some sort of reward. This can be money or an award... (up to you really).

Well there are reasons to post outside of those, like sharing information and projects, which seems to make up most of the posts in that area; but yes, I'm definitely looking to grow it further.

I can guarantee that money will not be used as a prize because that makes people do things they wouldn't otherwise do; instead of doing the challenge for the experience, they do it for the money, and it turns into a job and a battle to make the best thing, rather than being something to collaborate and learn from.

Also make sure you understand the difference between a beginner, junior, mid - level, etc... developer / engineer. Also determine if you want to appeal to programmers, developers or engineers. Why? Well a programmer, developer and engineer are 3 different position so you shouldn't be giving a bunch of developers engineering challenges.

Yeah don't worry, this definitely won't be an issue. 😉