How did you first hear about CodeProject and why did you decide to become a member?
Marc Clifton: I first encountered CodeProject 12 years ago while searching for something (I think it had to do with TCP/IP connections in Netscape) and was thrilled to find a site where I could self-publish, so that was the primary reason for becoming a member. I remember Nish had this huge article count and it was my goal to surpass him. Of course, he was writing more articles too, so it was quite the undertaking!
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Florian Rappl: I am actually not sure about how I heard about CodeProject in the first place, but I am sure that a lot of people where I worked used CodeProject as an excellent source for tutorials or production ready code. One guy once told me when I was facing a programming task: "I am sure there is an article about this on CodeProject". I mostly decided to become a member for being able to vote on articles and download sources.
Why is CodeProject important to you and why do you continue to use it today?
Marc Clifton: Today I enjoy perusing lounge posts, reading articles, and of course still writing. A lot of things have changed over 12 years but the soul of CodeProject is still the same and it's great how there are some folks still around from that long ago.<o:p>
Florian Rappl: Well, on one hand CodeProject is a giant source of information and on the other hand there are lots of people on the site with outstanding knowledge and inspiring work. So many great open-source projects started at CodeProject and many near-perfect tutorials are also available here exclusively.<o:p>
What is your most memorable moment on CodeProject?
Marc Clifton: There's been a few, but mostly it was the obnoxious attitude I had when CodeProject introduced ads to the articles that is most memorable. Anders and I decided to create an ad-free dev site (which failed) but it was a real "growth experience" (hahaha) for me to stop behaving like such a little pr*ck about changes that only helped to improve everyone's lives on CodeProject.<o:p>
Florian Rappl: When I started publishing articles on the CodeProject I did not know what response to expect. Luckily the community responded well, which motivated me to continue publishing my work. The most memorable moment was when I realized that one of my articles could actually win the article of the month competition (the SpaceShoot game). Another memorable moment was the first reaction of the community to my Mario5 article. Totally rocked my socks off.
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What are your thoughts on CodeProject reaching 10 million members and what do you hope the future holds for the community?
Marc Clifton: Well, it's fantastic of course. What I really dream of with regards to the community is that we could somehow become a more cohesive force in the world (there were ideas of a co-op contracting service bandied about a few years ago) -- it seems like with so much talent we could effectively change the landscape of how software development is done -- software development does not fit well with "traditional" business and management models, in my opinion. I guess I have "conquer the world" fantasies.<o:p>
Florian Rappl: I think it’s a step. 10 million members is a giant number, but in the future there will be a rising number of developers. Also it's the old snowball system: once something has a certain size it will just continue growing until it saturates.
In the case of CodeProject I hope that not only new members are joining, but also people who are willing to contribute. For me personally it took a few years until I decided to contribute, but it has been one of my best decisions and I can only recommend it. The last year has been amazing and I hope it continues in this manner!
Other Articles In This Series
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part One)
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Two)
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Three)
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Four)
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Five)
- Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Six)
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