Where do developers hang out? How do I meet new coders? Where can I find programmer friends? Where do coders hang out online? Which are the popular forums for developers?
Looking for answers to these questions? Keep reading.
It’s essential to have access to the right kind of resources and support system to become a successful software developer. The forum for developers acts as one such system.
Online developer forums help developers connect with like-minded people. Here, they can share their experiences, successes, and failures within the industry. Also, online developer forums act as a platform where dev fanatics, niche developers, developer relations teams, or anyone interested in software development can socialize and expand their network.
Online developer forums are one of the best sources to find free information, code examples, collaboration opportunities, and knowledge shared by industry leaders. Therefore, developers need to be active on developer forums.
Some of the best forums for developers to join in 2023
Stack Overflow is a public platform for technology-related answers. Stack Overflow is serving 100 million people worldwide. It is a powerful Q&A platform to ask questions, learn, and share technical knowledge. Stack Overflow integrates and improves ChatOps tools like Jira, Teams, Slack, GitHub, and Okta.
Stack Overflow features
Technology experts and developers can share knowledge and insights with other community members
Companies can connect with their target audience, build their brand, and attract tech talent
Developers can find credible answers to their questions, engage with knowledgeable people, and grow together Some waysto leverage Stack Overflow
Post unique, challenging, and well-researched questions related to technology
All the questions are tagged based on a topic. It can be related to a programming language or software. The tag list helps users to browse topics of their interest
Upvote answers that you feel are correct
You can improve posts’ ranking by editing the posts or commenting to clarify a question or answer
Gain reputation when others vote for your questions, edits, and answers As you gain reputation, unlock benefits like the ability to vote, comment and edit others’ posts
Showwcase
Showwcase is a network for coders to connect, share knowledge, learn, explore opportunities, get feedback, and ask questions.
On this platform, coders are the decision-makers. They can choose the people they want in their network, the content they want to view, and the kind of messages they want to deliver.
Showwcase offers a range of sub-communities from ReactJS, Web3, JavaScript to the blockchain, and more for developers to explore.
Showwcase features
Users can initiate discussions, ask questions, and share ideas
Developers can create and share content in the form of articles and blogs with the community
Developers can join or propose a new community for discussions related to technology
Users can create their own circle of like-minded people to collaborate, get referrals and earn new opportunities
Developers can share their profile with a free custom domain Job seekers can find relevant job opportunities
Companies can hire developers by evaluating them directly on Showwcase with their respective developer profiles
Some ways to leverage Showwcase
Create your unique profile showcasing the best work and skills Explore various communities, join them, or create your community and get access to better features
Add links to your LinkedIn profile, personal website if any, GitHub, or other handles by clicking on Elsewhere Post images, videos, codes, and more
Create your first post and pin it to your profile
Attach a custom domain to your profile
Share your unique work, product launches, updates, and more with the feature ‘Shows’
Hashnode
Hashnode is a blogging community for developers and tech geeks to connect and share knowledge. It’s a free content creation platform for developers to share their content with a free custom domain.
Hashnode features
Developers can write and read ad-free articles
Developers can modify the blog appearance with the custom CSS feature
Developers can retain all the rights to their content by exporting and downloading content
Users get access to free in-built newsletter services, and the readers can easily subscribe for blogs
Built-in advanced analytics for users to check the performance of their content
Users can get feedback on drafts from peers before publishing the content
Users can easily group a series of articles related to a topic Be it a Hashnode subdomain or a custom one, users get a free SSL certificates for blogs
Team members can invite others, and allow multiple authors to publish articles on the same blog platform
Users can get their personal blogs featured on the Hashnode homepage for a better reach amongst the dev community
Users can have a backup of content, and publish it directly on a private or public GitHub repository
The performance, accessibility, and SEO of blogs are excellent as they are supported by Next.js
Some ways to leverage Hashnode
Read the recent, popular and personalized articles in the ‘My Feed,’ section
Explore popular tech blogs and trending tags
Share drafts with friends and teams for a peer review
Bookmark a favorite blog post to quickly get back to it when needed
Explore ‘Hashnode for Teams,’ a blogging platform for devtools, engineering, and open-source teams
Map your personal web domain with Hashnode blog
Take up the Hasnode created writing challenges like ‘Self Starter’, ‘Word Warrior’, ‘Crazy Blogger’, and more to become a better writer
Major League Hacking
Major League Hacking or MLH is the official student hackathon league. It’s a hacker community for the next generation of technology leaders and entrepreneurs. MLH drives more than 200-weekend invention competitions to empower thousands of students across the globe.
MLH Features
Users can access the complete guide for organizing hackathons
The Member Events Organizers get one-on-one mentorship, event promotions, and on-site support from trained MLH representatives
Hackon, an in-person conference by MLH, helps students to meet and build relationships with community leaders and develop new skills
The MLH community provides complete support pre, during, and after the hackathon
Some ways to leverage MLH
Integrate MyMLH account with your website
Customize MyMLH with API that is extensible
Hackathons and third-party hackathons can view and manage the personal information of
users who have created an account with MyMLH
Attend the MLH Localhost workshops to learn, teach and grow
Dev
Dev is a community for software developers to write, share, collaborate, and network. In this community, developers and organizations can create various upcoming events, job openings, mentorship offers, education courses, product listings, and more.
Dev features
Users can explore a variety of interesting podcasts related to technology
With Dev Tags, users can select and follow tags to discuss posts related to Cloud, Angular, Kubernetes, Go, Machine Learning, Android, and more.
Users can watch insightful videos posted by community members
The Markdown editor in Dev is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, where users can write with an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, and convert their text to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML)
Some waysto leverage Dev
Click on ‘Write a Post’ to write and publish articles with relevant tags
Use the markdown editor to edit posts, tags, titles, and more. To know more, visit the Dev page.
Get your blogs featured on the home page by posting high-quality content on the Dev platform
Set up a canonical URL for better Google ranking before publishing
Aviyel
Aviyel is a forum for developers to find open-source projects and build professional relationships with like-minded people. Developers can learn from experts and share knowledge in the community.
Aviyel features
Users can add open-source projects to the community, engage with contributors, and expand their community
Users can attend or host the events and discuss ideas, conduct training, and learn more about different projects
Users can earn rewards for contributions to the projects.
Some ways to leverage Aviyel
Add your open-source project
Track your activities
Connect with the contributors in your community
Find the resources related to your project
Explore events to attend or host one
Answer the users’ questions
Offer guidance on projects
CodeProject
CodeProject is a popular community where software developers help each other by sharing code, tutorials, and knowledge for free. CodeProject is an excellent platform for programmers to explore several articles and tutorials related to programming languages. Developers from top companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and more often read CodeProject articles.
CodeProject features
Discussion boards help users find relevant answers and discuss with fellow mates
The Lounge is a unique feature for CodeProject members to socialize and know what’s happening in CodeProject
CodeProject members can customize the weekly newsletters to read only ones that are of their interest
In the Community Surveys section, users can suggest a survey, search queries from the available surveys, and find the results
The rating and comment feature helps in filtering good articles from bad ones
Registered users get benefits like storing personal files in their account, having live hyperlinks in their profile biography, and more
Members can write their articles and code for visitors to view
Some ways to leverage CodeProject
Have your own page and share your interests, personal information, and a listing of all your articles
Vote articles of other authors
Bookmark articles of your interest
Filter articles and Q&As based on tags and scores
Participate in competitions to get rewards and enhance your skills
CodePen
CodePen
CodePen is an open community for front-end designers and developers to write codes, create attractive websites, showcase their work, build test cases to learn and debug, and find inspiration for new projects. CodePen users use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS languages. Pens are code snippets in CodePen with three separate windows for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and a preview pane for real-time updates as and when you code.
CodePen features
Members can use Preprocessors in CodePen to simplify the coding process
CodePen Embeds provide customizable personal themes to each member. They can edit these themes to match that of the blogs
Developers can create Template Pens that help to minimize the repetition of ideas or concepts
Developers can test a code in real-time in multiple browsers and devices with the Live View feature
For some inspiration or new ideas to code, users can choose from a huge collection of Pens in the Pattern library
Emmet in CodePen is a time-saving plugin that converts some of the time taking tasks into simple shortcuts
The Collab Mode allows real-time coding and chatting with multiple people
Some ways to leverage CodePen
Create small codes using Pen Editor
Use the Project Editor to code for projects
Use Collections to add any Pen of your choice
Share Pens easily on social media sites via SMS
Create a copy of a Pen by using the Fork option
Make the codes readable using the formatting options in the Pen Editor
Fix the code errors with the Analyze option in the Pen Editor
Share your Pens on social media channels by clicking on the share button
Download and save your work in the system with the Export button
Turing DeveloperCommunity
Turing, a remote-first company, has created a career-centric community for developers to share their experiences, enhance skills, and build their engineering careers.
The Turing Developer Community is built for developers, by developers. With the community, developers can supercharge their professional growth and get matched with some of the top US companies. With the help of mentors present in the Turing community, developers can build excellent software products from the start.
Turing community features
Developers can build their dream engineering careers with actionable career advice and tips
Developers can boost their professional development by adding technical and soft skills to their toolkits, and accelerate their career growth with the guidance of mentors and industry experts
Developers can expand their network by meeting professional and experienced engineers
Exclusive events like Jump Start, which are basically live and guided sessions run by experts to help developers complete Turing’s vetting process, coding sessions, career development workshops, and more help developers upgrade their skills and explore opportunities
Some ways to leverage the Turing community
Head to the Turing community and join the Turing Forum to connect with experts and mentors
Select from a wide range of events like webinars, podcasts, career development series, ESL (English as a second language) sessions, and many more to learn and grow
Join an event by selecting any of the Chapters in the community
Choose the best forum for developers
The above-mentioned names are just a few of the active forums for developers. There are many other forums to explore. The purpose of developer communities is to provide the resources for developers to learn anything they want to. Communities encourage developers to have peer-to-peer conversations, find opportunities and engage with other members to develop successful products or applications.
Which of the above forums would be your choice? Let us know in the comments!
Would you like to explore remote developer jobs with excellent compensation and career success? Try Turing! Turing developers work with leading US companies in a wide range of industries. Developers can explore opportunities at Turing based on their skills, career goals, and aspirations.
FAQs
Which community is the best for a software developer in 2023?
The Turing Developer Community is a great platform for developers to connect with peers, grow their network, share knowledge, explore opportunities, learn new skills, and more. Here are a few other developer forums developers can join:
Stack Overflow
Showwcase
Hashnode
MLH
Dev
CodeProject
CodePen
Aviyel
Turing Developer Community
How do you grow a developer community?
Here are a few ways to grow a developer community:
Encourage participants to create and share content that challenges, inspires, and informs the readers
Keep the lines of communication open for the members to feel involved and be heard
Recognize the active members for their excellent contributions and involvement
Create events to strengthen the developer relationship
How important is a developer community?
The developer community is important for the following reasons:
To share knowledge with fellow members
To build a great network with people of similar interests and goals
To enhance writing skills, soft skills, technical skills, entrepreneurial skills, and more
To learn from industry leaders and mentors by attending events and workshops
Join a network of the world's best developers and get long-term remote software jobs with better compensation and career growth.
Top 9 Community Forums for Developers to Join in 2023
Description
The best forums for developers to join 1. Stack Overflow 2. Showwcase 3. Hashnode 4. MLH 5. Dev 6.CodeProject 7.CodePen 8. Aviyel 9.Turing Developer Community
Gayathri Avinash has written content for several industries like digital marketing, franchising, education, automobile, financial consulting, and software.
