This is a safe place for beginners to get help with their programming problems and talk with other beginners. Zed personally monitors the forum, or has validated helpers who help beginners.
The Simple Rules For Getting Help
You are free to ask for help on any programming topic, and to collaborate with anyone here. However, one thing you’ll need to learn is how to solve problems on your own before you ask for help. To that end, here are your requirements when asking for help in the forums:
- YOU MUST POST YOUR CODE. This is a safe place to make mistakes so it’s alright to have the most disgusting code on the planet. Showing your code helps other people help you quicker, so your code should be the very first thing you put in your posts.
- YOU MUST SAY WHAT YOU’VE TRIED. You can’t just hit a problem and then stop and run to the forums for help. In most programming settings people like that are annoying and don’t get help. You have to do some work yourself first to try to figure it out. Right after your code list all the things you’ve tried to solve.
- YOU MUST PRINT OUT VARIABLES. The very top thing you must try before you ask for help is printing out variables at key points in your code to find out what’s going on. You can’t figure out what is wrong with your code by just staring at it.
- YOU MUST GOOGLE SYNTAX ERRORS. If the error is a syntax error then you can’t print variables to solve it, but you must google for the error first. After that check all the lines above the line mentioned before you post your error.
- YOU MUST LIST WHAT YOU THINK ARE THE CAUSES. Your guesses can be nothing but “Green goblins are destroying my GPU.” But, you have to write out some list of what you think might be going on. They can be all wrong, but doing this will possibly help you figure it out.
- YOU MUST EMAIL YOURSELF A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PROBLEM. Believe it or not, this works like crazy to help you solve a problem. So many times people post a request for help, and then right away post, “Oh hey I figured it out.” Why not skip ahead and just write yourself a little description of the problem with the above steps completed and see if you get an idea. Trust me, this works.
Don’t take this list as a way to discourage you from asking for help. This is only a list of things you must do before you ask for help with your code so that you get better at solving these problems on your own.
Social Norms
To keep things safe and clear for beginners this community has some simple rules:
- If you are not a beginner then you have to request verified status from Zed before you’re allowed to help. Verified helpers will have a special badge that indicates they can be trusted to help someone.
- Anyone being abusive will be thrown out. No exceptions. Zed will determine what’s abusive and rules with an iron fist.
- Keep on topic. This site is about people learning to code. Unless a category states otherwise, it’s always about programming, code, and computers. If you want to talk about something else then go to Reddit.
- Everyone makes mistakes so no insulting or making fun of people for not knowing something, doing something wrong, or trying to figure something out. If Zed catches you insulting someone for being wrong he will find your code and tear it to pieces before your very eyes to demonstrate that everyone makes mistakes. Keep in mind that Zed also frequently tears his own code to pieces to find ways to improve.
- This is not a place to get professional therapy. If you message Zed privately he’ll try to help you out, but if you are having a serious psychological issue or emotional problem then please immediately seek help from a trusted religious figure or licensed therapist.
- Many people here are looking for work so it is quite alright for the forum to have job postings from recruiters. All we ask is that you use the Jobs forum to post and talk about getting work.
Special Rule for Minors
- If you are under the age of 18 then you will need to make sure your parents know that you are on here, and you should never state your age. If we see that you stated your age we’ll remove it from your posts for your safety.
- If you are ever approached by an adult privately for any reason then you should tell your parents, guardians, or Zed and stop talking to them. No adults should be messaging children privately on or off this site without your parent’s permission.
- If any parent or Law Enforcement Officer contacts us asking to see what you’ve been doing we will show them everything. This is for your safety as a minor.