Tina HuynhTable of Contents
What is dev.to?
DEV is a community of software developers getting together to help one another out. The software industry relies on collaboration and networked learning. We provide a place for that to happen.
About DEV
Here, developers of all levels of experience from all areas of fields come together to discuss countless of topics. There is a wonderful community here who is set on growing, supporting, and advancing together.
Who are you?
First of all, welcome! Glad you've become a part of this community. Do you know where you're going? Whether yes or no, it's okay! Let's take it one step at a time. Do you want to be a reader or a content writer? Or both?
Readers
Posts / Home Feed
The main feed displays the popular and recent posts that are relevant to you. You are able to follow people, organizations, and tags in order to get more posts curated to your interests.
Comments / Reactions
These are the ways you are able to interact with others' articles. Comments, like writing posts, utilize markdown formatting. Here's a link to the editor guide.
When you want to save a specific article to return to, the bookmark reaction will save them to your reading list.
Content Writers
Profile
When putting together your profile, keep in mind some questions such as:
- Would you send this to a prospective employer?
- What would you want to see on someone else's profile?
Within your profile, you are able to add links to your other professional accounts such as GitHub.
Writing Content
Consistency is key. By staying consistent with publishing content, your audience is able to expect content from you. This lets them know that can follow you and get reassurance that they will hear from you with a certain level of quality in your articles.
Be sure to do your research and put your best foot forward. Your articles is your knowledge, your skill set. They can be opinion based, advice driven, discussion invoking, etc. Whatever you decide to write, give it your all!
Scream into the void
When your first start out writing, don't get discouraged by the views, reactions or number of comments you do or don't get on each article. It's possible to get a voice on this platform. But make sure you are not simply writing for the exposure and for the attention. Write because you have a desire to and you want to. Don't write because everyone says you have to or "it's what is best" or "most beneficial".
By writing about topics that you are passionate about and staying consistent, you will slowly start to see your reach expand. You have knowledge within you to share with the community. You have the right to scream it out loud to whoever will listen. Remember, simply because you only help one person doesn't mean it didn't mean anything. It might've meant the world to that one person; you never know.
Personalize your dev.to
As I mentioned, by following tags, organizations, and other members on dev.to, you are able to fill your feed with the topics that you are interested in.
If you are interested in writing content, there are also tools that may help with the markdown and publishing process:
- Abricotine An open-source markdown editor built for desktop
- MarkText
- Ghostwriter (Linux and Windows)
- Writing a dev.to blog post with VSCode
Conclusion
No matter what you decide to do with your time on dev.to, we hope you decide to stay.
Happy coding!
