I love JavaRanch

[Raghavan Muthu]

Just wanted to share my opinion and feeling that I love JavaRanch no matter how often I visit and after how many days / months I visit. Ranch is always maintaining the same politeness and good intention to help people.

I am seeing that Stackoverflow has definitely grown well and sometimes I came across few posts saying that Ranch is very strict and due to which they left Ranch. I strictly do NOT agree with this fact as I had been with ranch for few years very actively - Year 2006-2008. I strictly felt the other way around as the rules and restrictions are more in SO wherein we can't even take Ranch for comparison.

Yes, it is a definitely a personal opinion and it varies from individuals, I just wanted to share my own feelings here. Moreover, this post https://coderanch.com/t/628263/java/java/Passing-multiple-variables-methods#2875722 instigated me a little bit!!

I leave it to the moderators/sheriffs to leave this post here or to delete it if they deem it not fit.

I love Ranch

[Scott Winterbourne]

I'm with you Raghavan. I just joined the Ranch a couple weeks ago and I have had a great experience so far.

I was active on SO and the Oracle forums for a while but I found that people were belittled for not understanding a concept right away. From time to time I'd get yelled at for trying to further break down and explain the concept. I would be accused of "spoon feeding". There is a difference between just handing somebody the answer and breaking down the concept and giving examples to help them understand it. Sometimes a specific concept just doesn't click right away and we (myself included) need a little further explanation.

Here I have found that everybody is willing to give that extra explanation or example to help the person understand the concept.

I'm a Java Rancher for life

[fred rosenberger]

I think that is the primary difference between SO and here. There, you ask a question, are given an answer, and that's it.

Here you will often get a lot of back and forth, often from several people.

I think both have their place, and both can be VERY useful. But I also know which style i like more...

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Scott Winterbourne wrote: I would be accused of "spoon feeding".

Spoon feeder! I accuse you! But here, that's a compliment. Good job

Seriously though, there's a lot of spoon feeding that goes on here - especially in the beginner forum. Please do keep doing what you are doing.

[Raghavan Muthu]

Scott Winterbourne wrote:I'm with you Raghavan. I just joined the Ranch a couple weeks ago and I have had a great experience so far.

Thanks Scott. Glad indeed to see that we both are sailing the same boat!

Scott Winterbourne wrote: Sometimes a specific concept just doesn't click right away and we (myself included) need a little further explanation.

Here I have found that everybody is willing to give that extra explanation or example to help the person understand the concept.

Well said Scott! Perfectly valid if you need to *learn* something. Otherwise, it may be just solving your problems. That is all.

Scott Winterbourne wrote:I'm a Java Rancher for life

Great to hear that!! Lets Party!!!

[Raghavan Muthu]

fred rosenberger wrote:

Here you will often get a lot of back and forth, often from several people.

I think both have their place, and both can be VERY useful. But I also know which style i like more...

That is where Ranch differs and you precisely said it Fred!

[Raghavan Muthu]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:

Seriously though, there's a lot of spoon feeding that goes on here - especially in the beginner forum. Please do keep doing what you are doing.

Well said Jeanne. We have all sorts of dishes here based on your appetite and taste buds! :P Is nt it?

[Heena Agarwal]

Scott Winterbourne wrote:
I'm a Java Rancher for life

Me too. I love JavaRanch. I like the people who've made it what it is. I like the way people mentor us here. Somehow they know how much of a help we require and they guide us accordingly.

I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else, not at my current job, not at my previous jobs, not with my instructors. So it was natural for me to admire JavaRanch. And my fondness of JavaRanch has only grown with every passing day. Every time I see someone who's extremely proud of what he/she knows and is arrogant because of it, I can't help think of the staff here. They know so much and yet they are far from arrogant.

Sometimes I wish I could have them at my workplace also. Or that people ( they are also nice folks but just ... ) I have to deal with everyday at work were more like the people out here.

There is so much JavaRanch has - a Cattle Drive, those lessons in the form of Campfire stories, several helpful pages created by staff and others, nice articles like FirstClasses, MainIsAPain, ... wiki pages that the users can edit, forums for everything technical, MD forum for other things and now RattleSnake Pit for controversial topics, .. I could go on.

It's interesting how the site keeps evolving every now and then with new and interesting features. I see almost no ads on the UI. There is a technical forum for anything I may ever need. And every rancher ( staff and non staff ) here is very helpful and polite. This site gives me a feeling of a community for some reason.

I hope this site will continue to be as beautiful as it has always been.

[Raghavan Muthu]

That's an excellent narration of your experiences Heena. I certainly admit with all of your points

Earlier the site was running with PHB BB (Bulletin Board) forum whose extension was with .cgi. Later they made it totally into a Java ecosystem with the help of JForum. The JForum migration was a biggest task due to the overwhelming user count and their comments + posts I remember Jeanne's blog on sharing those experiences of JForum migration!

Likewise, it continued to have so many improvements till date (like the new UI, Cows, Badges, etc.,) and the list may still continue to go on I believe