Quick survey for all you power posters

This is specifically targeted at those of you who have been on this forum for a long time and have posted thousands of times. I'd appreciate it if you could give me your input on the following:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much have forums (not just this one) increased your developer skills.
2. On same scale, how important are forums to helping you keep your existing knowledge in your brain where it belongs and not dribbling slowly out of your ears?
3. Taking all your programming related tasks as a whole in an average year, what percentage would you guess that you devote to the following:
a. Development (specific programming tasks for specific reasons - work in other words)
b. formal training
c. self-training (excluding forum activities)
d. forum related activities(posting, investigating, banging head against keyboard, etc...)
e. any other areas I didn't think to include here

Thanks. Just curious as to how big a part the forums have played in your life as a developer. Kudos to all of you who have posted so many times. And especially to those of you who have posted to the same thread over and over again, trying to guide someone through their issue when lesser men like me would have given up.

1) Very hard to say, but I think around 7 would be fair.

2) That depends entirely on what is happening at work and life. Right now, it is probably 9. One year ago today, it would be down around 3. I went from being really busy writing code, to barely having enough to justify waking up in the morning, all due to politics around projects.

3)
a) Right now, about 20%. Last year: 80%
b) 0% at all times. We have no formal training.
c) Right now, about 50%. Last year: 5%
d) Right now, about 20%. Last year: 5%
3) Meetings: 10%

(Those add up to 100, in both cases, which probably isn't quite right, because I left out a big, peculiar, part in e. Being a fish biologist, I spend a certain amount of each year counting fish. On the other hand, I spend a certain amount of each year sleeping, too, and I didn't count that, either.)

Moved to the chit chat forum.

I'd say that it should be in General Dev, but either one works.

1. I'd say 8 or 9 but that includes times when I just find an old answer on a forum rather than just the times I contribute or post a question myself. Pretty much every time I google a question I ultimately find the answer on either a forum or blog.
2. Not at all so zero. But I'm quite happy for it to dribble out of my ears. There's way too much information for me to retain and I'm quite happy to forget detail as long as I can pick it back up again later. Forums do help me to pick it back up.
3. a> 50%
b> 0%
c> 40%
d> 10% - unless you include ChitChat posts in which case that percentage goes up to 90.

Like Shaggy, I excluded anything that wasn't directly techy related from teh figures. I'm a curious type who'se always learning something but I figured you probably weren't interested in teh brick laying course I took last year.

1. Difficult to say: Most of what I needed for day to day work was available in the books and MSDN, but there were a few crucial topics such as calling Win API functions and such which were only better explained on the forums. This is the one and only technology forum I have been a member of and I have managed to find most answers here. I would say about 8 due to the niche nature of the problems it helped me solve.
2. I would rate this somewhere around 3. Retaining the knowledge of VB6 is not necessary now since we have moved on, but occasionally I do get flashes of it whenever I browse through the related section on the forum. It's been years since anyone ever coded in VB 6 for serious programming (ThEiMp is trying, but I can't decide if it's serious programming).
3. Taking all your programming related tasks as a whole in an average year, what percentage would you guess that you devote to the following:
a. Development (specific programming tasks for specific reasons - work in other words): 50%
b. formal training: 5%
c. self-training (excluding forum activities): 20%
d. forum related activities(posting, investigating, banging head against keyboard, etc...): 30%
e. any other areas I didn't think to include here: Project/Team Management etc. Sadly I chose to work with people than with computers in the later part of my life. Still regret it sometimes! 30%


Yeah, and I am poor in maths and usually work overtime everyday. So don't bother tallying up those percentages. Just use them in relation to my programming work. :D




Hey! It's nice to be called a PowerPoster! I just wish I could have earned it.

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any other areas I didn't think to include here:

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Ooh, that's a good point. I also do project management, mentoring and sometime I advise on business processes. That probably makes up about 30% of my time.

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It's nice to be called a PowerPoster!

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It's certainly better than being called a Frenzied Member which just sounds a bit rude to me.

Less than 100 posts to lose that frenzy.

At that point do I become a spent member?

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much have forums (not just this one) increased your developer skills.

8

2. On same scale, how important are forums to helping you keep your existing knowledge in your brain where it belongs and not dribbling slowly out of your ears?

0 - I find that helping users creates new ideas for me. That's the result of fortifying a concept through apprenticeship...

3. Taking all your programming related tasks as a whole in an average year, what percentage would you guess that you devote to the following:
a. Development (specific programming tasks for specific reasons - work in other words)
b. formal training
c. self-training (excluding forum activities)
d. forum related activities(posting, investigating, banging head against keyboard, etc...)
e. any other areas I didn't think to include here

It's all R&D every day. Sometimes I am "spot on" with what I want to create so the development is nearly full-time. Like if I am coding stored procedures for the CRUD of a database project - I can fly non-stop on that task.

Today I am learning about structures here on the forum - actually asking questions. I have been working the "research" on this task for several weeks - started with long walks and design notes in my journal. Long emails I send my partners every day that help fortify and build up the ideas. Weekly meetings we have where we fill and clear a whiteboard 3 or 4 times...

That project is probably getting 90% R & 10% D.

Of that 90% R it would say it's nearly all googling around for info. If I find something that needs to be dived into I either mock up some code for POC or start a thread here to ask a question.

1. Skills? 0... Knowledge? 7... knowledge is knowing... skill is doing... I get knowledge from here, but the application and refinement of it is elsewhere.

2. Retaining? Ziltch. I retain by doing... What I pick up here is usually new knowledge.

3.
a. 75%+
b. 0%
c. 10-15%
d. 20%
e. This is what I'd call the administrative category... I try to keep that to a minimum.

-tg

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much have forums (not just this one) increased your developer skills. --8

2. On same scale, how important are forums to helping you keep your existing knowledge in your brain where it belongs and not dribbling slowly out of your ears? --6
3. Taking all your programming related tasks as a whole in an average year, what percentage would you guess that you devote to the following:
a. Development (specific programming tasks for specific reasons - work in other words) --20-30%
b. formal training --programming related training None
c. self-training (excluding forum activities) --50-60%
d. forum related activities(posting, investigating, banging head against keyboard, etc...) --10-30%
e. any other areas I didn't think to include here -- what would that be? None

I wouldn't be a my present (programming) stage without THIS forum!

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Originally Posted by FunkyDexter

It's certainly better than being called a Frenzied Member which just sounds a bit rude to me.

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It's better than when you think up some title which you think is cool and everyone else thinks you are in a frenzy.

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1. 80% during my early professional life. Now around 30%-40% may be.
When I first started posting in the forums (not this one), I was a student. I excelled at my first job interview and got it mostly due to fact that I was able to solve DIFFERENT kind of programming problems that a typical college course does not teach you.

2. Don't have much time now to post in forums. Now I just google the problem - 80% time someone has already solved it. :D

3.
a. 70%
b. 0%
c. 10% - 20%
d. 10% - 20%
e. My hobby, Photography - 10% - 20% (haven't beed able to do last 5 months :( )

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Originally Posted by FunkyDexter

At that point do I become a spent member?

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Am I the only one who will have nightmares over this visual? :sick: