Pay It Forward/Back
I was having a conversation with my wife this weekend, and we were discussing how valuable forum posts, blog entries, and the web in general were to us in our various vocations. In my paying job, Google is a fixture — I’m constantly searching for how to do something, and very rarely am I disappointed. Sometimes it’s a forum post from 5 years ago on an obscure subject, sometimes it’s a blog post on something fresh, but I always find it. Gone are the days of contacting software support, going to the library or buying a new book, etc…a google search is much faster and easier.
In our discussion, we both noted that we rarely post on these threads, or answer questions of our own. An informal poll leads me to believe that alot of my techy friends are the same way; we enjoy the fruits of these searches, but we do not contribute.
Starting today, I’m endeavoring to change that. I’m going to start registering on forums and acknowledging when a post solves my issue, but more importantly, I’m going to try to do a better job of answering questions that I can. I’m not going to go out and monitor forums looking for questions to answer, but I am going to try and do a better job of being “active” in the communities that support me. I’d encourage everyone who so frequently turns to Google for knowledge to try and give a little back.
While I’m here, here’s a blanket “THANKS” to all the PHP, XCode, iPhone SDK, CSS, ASP, SQL, SSRS, Progress/Webspeed, Windows/Linux/OSX, Hardware, and countless other site contributors that have helped me over a hurdle in the past.
