To Blog Or Not To Blog, That Is The Question
I've been thinking about blogging for a little while now. I thought I'd write down a little 'Pros/Cons' list. This is a very short list, but what the hey
Pros
- I can share my experience with others and hopefully help someone with an issue that I've been through and have resolved
- I can share issues I'm going through and receive help from members of the community
- Writing will help me go over issues in my mind, which can possibly spark a resolution
- Writing can also spark a great brain storming session among members of the community, which would benefit everyone
- I can post mindless drivel and feel self important (Maybe this should be in the "Cons" list)
Cons
- I could run out of topics to blog about
- I could mislead someone with misinformation
- My spelling and grammatical errors would be laid bare to the world
- I could expose myself as a person that likes to post mindless drivel and feel self important
ok, lets address the "Cons" first.
Point One - The only valid point in the "Cons" list is that I might run out of topics to blog about. And lately I've been running into a lot of issues that I've had to deal with and resolve, which in turn has made me want to blog about them, so the topic barrel is pretty full right now. So why would I not share my experiences? Because there might be some imaginary day in the unknown future that I'd run out of topics to talk about?
Point Two - Even if I am misinformed about a topic, I'm sure there's someone out there that would be able to suggest a better way of doing things, which just adds to my contribution.
Point Three - I can't think of a better way to improve my spelling and grammar than by using it to blog
Point Four - Only time will tell lol
To sum up the "Pros" list, this would be a great learning experience, not only for me, but hopefully to everyone that reads my blog posts and the responses that they receive.
So that's that, "To Blog" is the answer.
Even though most of the code I have released to the public so far has been e107 Plugins, e107 will not be the only topic I plan on touching on (although I do plan on focusing a lot on e107 Plugin Development, as I'm an RSS fiend and haven't really found any blogs that discuss e107 Plugin Development).
I also plan on blogging about anything that fits my fancy regarding PHP Development, Web Development, Project Management, Application Design, my Freelancing Experiences and anything else that comes to mind.
In no way do I admit to being an expert in any of these topics, and profess quite the opposite:
I am self taught, and have learned everything I know from books, google, forums, IRC channels, hours and hours of banging my head against the keyboard and countless all-nighters. Trial by fire has been my mantra.
I code for the love of it; for the excitement of seeing all of those variables, "if" statements, loops and tags coalesce into a functioning application; for the joy of knowing that my hard work and time has helped even just one person, and last but not least, I code for that "Ah Ha" moment when something in me just clicks and a solution to a problem surfaces to the forefront. Ahhh, the "Ah Ha" moment, also known as an "I duddits" moment in my household, because that's what I yell when something clicks and a solution is laid bare ("I duddits" comes from the Stephen King movie "Dreamcatcher").
My only request: Please keep the flames to yourself!!!
Everyone is on a learning path. It doesn't matter if you've been coding for 20 minutes or 20 years, programming is such a vast topic that no-one knows everything. Just keep this in mind: Everyone has to start somewhere, including you and I. So if you don't have anything constructive to say, there are plenty of other places to flame about it.
And I will try to keep the mindless drivel to a minimum
