What makes DonationCoder so special?

[app103]

When I decided to write about DC's NANY 2008 Challenge in my blog, I decided to make it a bit more than just a simple announcement.

I felt that too many people that might read it on my personal blog (and the one for my programming chatroom) might not understand what the big deal is about this site and the community behind it.

So I set about explaining that, by telling about one of the most wonderful things about this site that isn't often mentioned elsewhere, from the perspective of both a software developer and an end user.

http://cranialsoup.blogspot.com/2007/12/donationcoder-nany-2008-programming.html

[Darwin]

Nice blog, app. I like the way you emphasized the team atmosphere - the community. Very nice - well done!

[zridling]

Wow, fantastic post, App. That exemplifies all I love about DC, too. IT'S THE PEOPLE. And those people are always looking for a better way to build the mousetrap.

[Armando]

Yes. The people. 
Incredibly nice, intelligent, knowledgeable, insightful, open-minded, civilized... And at the same time very varied.
Thanks mouser and all of you DCers for that wonderful space ! i'm not a programmer, but sometimes I wish I was...

[app103]

i'm not a programmer, but sometimes I wish I was...

You have your place on the team, and you perform a very important job. Without input from people like you, the software we create wouldn't be quite as good as it is. Thanks.

[Darwin]

Wow, fantastic post, App. That exemplifies all I love about DC, too. IT'S THE PEOPLE. And those people are always looking for a better way to build the mousetrap.

Heh, heh, so that's the inspriation behind mouser's username!

[mouser]

That is a really wonderful thing app. 

Everyone here contributes to DC in their own way -- that's what makes it so nice and interesting here.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

[Gothi[c]]

I really love the bit about the team part.

It is true, donationcoder.com is where end-users and developers meet in harmony. This may not seem like a big deal, but it IS. Think about it, Developers and users were like enemies!

Users get frustrated when an application misbehaves or does what they don't want it or don't expect it to do, and curse out the developers for making such horrible contraptions. People have been known to throw around monitors out of mere frustration.

Developers curse out users for having to make their applications dummy proof, or worse, implement very elaborate failsafe mechanisms and security checks.

Yet on donationcoder.com these two groups can co-exist in harmony, and team-up to create wonderful software! Users provide their experience with software and what could make it better, or ideas for new software and plugins. And developers are happy to hear things from a real user perspective instead of the narrow codeworld they live in. Most developers are very aware that they think differently (from a developers perspective) about software than users do, and tend to either guess what users want or build their applications to satisfy their own personal preferences and needs. It is truely a beautiful thing the kind of balance we have going on here.

BUT not only do users team up with developers, as a developer you can get lucky enough to team up with developer buddies and work on software as a team! I've had lots of long brainstorming sessions with mouser for example, about various (bigger) projects. It can be really fruitful to combine efforts and ideas.

[Ralf Maximus]

We're supposed to be writing software?

No, seriously, great article app.  Well written, especially with your non-DC target audience in mind.  I showed it to a couple of people who've heard me blather on about this place and after a reading they really got the core concepts.

My favorite comment: "What's with the bird?"

[Gothi[c]]

My favorite comment: "What's with the bird?"

Hahaha Cody is a mystery indeed.

[app103]

My favorite comment: "What's with the bird?"

this should clarify things 

[tinjaw]

I love DC because it is yet one more place for me to hear myself talk and make myself feel important.  But besides that, I found what I was looking for - a civilized community of people discussing my addiction hobby - software. I'm am disheartened by the number of fourms/communities I have left because they almost instantly turn into a bunch of... No, I'm not going to work myself into a rage. DC is a "happy place" for me. I find myself coming here at odd times, to read and post, and only afterwards I realize I did it because I was looking to take a break from other things that were driving me crazy and I instinctively ended up here.