I asked this question once before about a year or two ago, but would like to open it up to discussion again. Am I doing a good job? Is Davey doing a good job? Do you feel that DaniWeb is headed in a positive direction?

Excellent Job ..

(F) (F) for both of you =D ..

F?

Except for the microscopic quick reply box, you're doing fine.

But seriously, you are doing a very good job. Just look at the popularity of DaniWeb? Would 309,010 threads exist if you were doing a bad job? Davey has also been doing a good job, although it's sometimes hard to see directly the work he contributes to.

One thing that I especially like about DaniWeb is the fact that the software is constantly being updated and tweaked. Often software bugs in other forums can be present for months without being fixed. DaniWeb also values community's feedback, which is another reason why DaniWeb is my primary message board I visit right now.

Thank you for the feedback, joeprogrammer. However, in your post you compared DaniWeb to other forums you visit. May I ask what forums those are and what drew you to them - what do they offer that we don't? Just trying to pick your brain!

Funny you should ask. A lot of the forum is the community - and that's a huge contributing factor to which forums I visit.

I used to visit CBoard quite frequently. And I still do, although not as much. How might I describe it... it's quite hardcore. It covers C/C++ far more than it could ever be covered here at DaniWeb. The downside is that because the members are so hardcore, there's a ton of sinister and sarcastic posts. Boy, if you don't know what you're doing, you could easily be mocked and insulted... (might I mention Quzah for those of you CBoarders)

What basically made me stray away from CBoard was the fact that I felt I wasn't helping terribly much in the community. Experts seemed to answer all the posts, and I never felt like I got a chance to respond. I ended up mostly posting in the General Discussions board, where I lost any reputation I still had at that point. :p Nevertheless, I still visit CBoard when I have the time.

Other boards that I've visited include DevShed and GIDForums. DevShed has WAY too many ads on it, which although can be blocked give me a bad feeling about the way the site is run... and GIDForums seems a little too beginnerish for me.

The amazing thing is that once you start visiting other boards, you begin to see the same members more and more. It's really cool because the programming community you know and love isn't just confined to one site, it's actually all over the internet.

Another reason I like DaniWeb is that it covers a wide range of topics in less detail, which kind of suits my knowledge of tech. I don't truly specialize in anything, so the threads are at the right knowledge level for me to not only help others, but also for me to learn more.

Thank you for your comments. It's really interesting to see how there are some people here who swear by CProgramming and want DaniWeb to head more in that direction, and then there are people like you who want DaniWeb to head in the opposite direction. It just goes to show how hard it is to try to please everyone ... but I can try

I agree that DevShed does have too many ads, but then when I actually take the time to count them, I realize DaniWeb is pretty much on par with them, so that really disturbs me.

It's not just numbers of ads, it is placement. Which is where you pull ahead of the pack, Dani. Your ad placement is such that it feels like there are less of them.

I agree with Davey, the site is clear and looks clean.
I started out with GIDforums and some Dutch forums but sticked with Daniweb because of the 'community feeling'. It's always good when you can get into a discussion without being shot down for not agreeing with everyone else.
Second: I liked the colorscheme. Nowadays it has changed a little (..) but it's something different then blue-grey-white.
Third: I too like the fact that I can give feedback on Daniweb or upgrades etc.

The fact that I'm not around very much lately is due to my personal life and you probably won't see much of me here in the upcoming few month. But after that I'll be back @ Daniweb

Niek

Thank you for your feedback, Niek It's important to me to get a sense of what drew each person here and what is keeping them here, because this way I know what elements of the site the community values most, what to focus on, and where our strengths and weaknesses are.