Welcome to a list of websites to get help with programming. Oh no! A certain master code ninja blogger is not responding to your questions. What is happening, and what should you do to get help? First, keep calm, don’t rage, and don’t spam. On this very Code Boxx itself, the spam filter blocks hundreds of spam comments every month.
Guess this situation happens with just about any other larger bloggers. We get a lot of questions, but only have so much time to answer. So what’s next when we don’t respond? Try posting on one of the community boards listed below, and see if the guys there can help you.
1. STACK OVERFLOW
If you are looking for a large online community of programmers, Stack Overflow is probably one of the biggest and the oldest. This is a question and answer (QNA) website that is by programmers, for programmers… Or for anyone who wants to learn to program.
A good thing about Stack Overflow is that it is not restricted to just web programming. It hosts a ton of other languages – Javascript, Java, C#, PHP, ASP, HTML, CSS, SQL, Python, Ruby, whatever you can think of. Signing up is a breeze if you already have a Google or Facebook account.
2. REDDIT
Some of you guys may know Reddit as the “holy land of memes, trolls, haters, and flamers”. But nope, Reddit is actually a massive online forum/social/exchange/site thing that hosts almost every topic under the sun – Programming included.
Just do a search for “web development”, “PHP”, “HTML”, “CSS”, or “Javascript”, and you will find plenty of subreddits that can offer help. But be warned – Trolls are still very prevalent on Reddit… Just remember to not feed them.
3. QUORA
Quora is a question and answer website that is not particularly for programming alone. Although it does deal with a wide array of topics, there is still a sizable programming community that you can get help from. Just sign up for an account, and ask a new question. One thing to take note in Quora, there is an upvote/downvote system, but it’s kind of messed up.
For example, I once did a research for “can HTML contain viruses” on Quora. The most upvoted answer was an “expert” who gave an obviously wrong answer of “yes” – I slammed back with “HTML is essentially a text file, not executable code, therefore cannot contain a virus”. Just be careful with some the most “upvoted answers” there.
4. STACK EXCHANGE
Not to be confused with Stack Overflow, Stack Exchange is more like the “superset” of Stack Overflow; Stack Exchange is a compilation of various question and answer communities. Not just for programming, but also for everything else. So if you are having trouble with Windows, Linux, Mac, servers, laptops, mobile, or just technical issues in general, this is a good place to haunt.
5. FACEBOOK
I kid you not. Yes, the largest social media website on Earth is also one of the best places to get help. Just do a search for “learn web development”, “learn programming’, or whatever language that you want – Then restrict to groups only, and join the active ones. Plenty of folks around that will answer your questions.
6. CODE PROJECT
Code Project is an ancient one that has survived since the Netscape days. It now holds plenty of programming-related news and articles. Of course, a section for you to ask questions. Take note though, you need to be registered first to post questions.
7. SITEPOINT
Sitepoint is an Aussie website that is all about web development, and they have also published some books. What’s important here is that they have a community forum – A rather lively one that you can join and ask away.
8. CODE RANCH
This is yet another ancient coding website that has been around since 1998… Even the design of the website seems to be stuck in time. Take note – This is not a mobile-friendly website. But don’t be fooled by the design, they still have a rather active forum that covers a wide array of topics.
9. BYTES.COM
Once upon a time, this site is known as “thescripts.com”, then it changed to “bytes.com” for some reason. But it did not change the fact that it is still a community of developers (and IT guys). Has quite a large number of members, so join and ask away.
10. WEBDEVELOPER.COM
WebDeveloper.com is just as the name implies. It is a community that is all about web development – HTML, CSS, SQL, Ruby, design, and even site management in general. It is a good recommendation for beginners, and more like a traditional forum; Very easy to navigate around, without all the upvote/downvote gimmicks.
11. DANIWEB.COM
Ah, good old Daniweb. This is another oldie that has been around since the stone age of the Internet. There is a huge community of developers here, and you can be sure to almost get an answer over a wide array of web development topics.
THE END
Thank you for reading, and we have come to the end of this list. I hope that it has helped you with your project, and if you want to share anything with this list, please feel free to comment below. Good luck and happy coding!
I find w3schools very useful for html and css syntax. Don’t know about the rest. If, like me, you can’t, for example, format an html table from memory or if you can’t remember whether you should use the “name”, “id” or “class” property…
I don’t go there to post questions, I go there to fix syntax errors. Badly written CSS doesn’t return an error, it is just ignored. If there is an example of what you need on w3schools, it will be:
a) a complete example, not 3 lines of code you won’t know where to copy.
b) a functioning example.
What do you think about: -LINK EDITED- https://w3schools.invisionzone.com/
They have a forum hidden in a corner and don’t seem to be very active.
What I think about W3Schools – Their paid courses are not worth it, there are a lot of free basic tutorials on YouTube. Their certificate is also generally not recognized worldwide. If you want an accredited degree without breaking the piggy bank, check out https://www.uopeople.edu/ instead.