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"If it ain't bust ..." 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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err...rewrite the whole thing in the latest technology in order to burn a month of productivity and opportunity while introducing new bugs at almost no change to the user experience?
At least I think that's the standard accepted answer in our industry.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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You forgot "... but add a few buzzwords to my resume."
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Posting from a temporary account because I did not feel so comfortable doing this from my real one (been pretty active for several years). But it is a real question I have, and I think it is important to discuss.
Why do I think CodeProject is dying? I am seeing a decrease of activity in almost all areas of the website:
- Quick Answers: over the years, the volume of questions has clearly gone down. Questions per day, or perhaps number of Authority points as per the Top Experts list, is the metric I am basing this on.
- Forums: more anecdotal than anything else because I do not have the hard stats here, but I also felt a decrease of activity here. Both in the programming and non-programming forums.
- Articles: the most important one in my opinion. Newly published articles get way less views and votes than they did years ago. I believe the number of new articles is also decreasing: years ago, we still had a Monthly Article competition for several topics. Now it's just one competition to rule them all. (And is January missing from this list, or did we actually skip it?)
Granted, it's not all areas. The high-profile, high-prizes competitions of the past 3 years is an area which is better than many years ago, which is cool. For the site's main activities, however, the decrease feels bit worrying.
What do I believe is the cause? This is a more difficult and speculative question.
For questions, the answer seems simplest: CodeProject cannot keep up with the popularity of Stack Overflow. I know many CPians' negative feelings on Stack Overflow and its moderation (I personally do not entirely agree there, but that is beyond this post's topic), but it is hard to deny that everyone has heard of Stack Overflow, and CodeProject is generally less known. Especially if you are a novice programmer. That is not good, because people unavoidable leave sites and communities, so you need to guarantee a certain influx.
Why are people not discovering CodeProject then? Again mostly anecdotal but years ago, CodeProject articles were very often top Google results for my search queries. Nowadays this never seems to happen anymore. That is not helping CP's overall visibility.
When it comes to questions, there is no winning against Stack Overflow there. (Their strict, disliked moderation paying off, supposedly? But I digress.) What about articles? This ties in with the fact that general article activity decreased. I am not certain why this is. Are people these days less interested in reading? Has it become more difficult to write articles on original topics, especially appealing to more novice programmers? Has the CodeProject community not caught up with today's hot technologies? Are people moving more and more to their personal blogs, or platforms like Medium? I think there is some truth in all of those aspects.
What's the way forward? I have always liked CodeProject and would hate to see the site die a slow death. I would love to hear the community's, and CP's management's, opinion on this topic. I just personally believe that something needs to change to turn the tide. I do not immediately know how, but I wanted to bring it up either way.
Thanks.
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It is a pity that you felt the need to hide behind a false name to start a serious discussion. What are you afraid of?
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This is always a good discussion to have so they question I'll pose to you right off the bat is "what do you want from CodeProject"?
CodeProject was and is always about helping people code by sharing code. The forums and Quick Answers were always second to this, and as you've pointed out, StackOverflow owns that space now for better or worse. We offer Quick Answers as a direct ask-a-question-get-an-answer service for those who feel uncomfortable (or find it impossible) to ask a question on SO. It's very, very hard to walk the fine line between being firm and being rude and almost impossible to have this translate to millions of people across hundreds of cultures. We're more forgiving, more understanding that not everyone is perfect.
So CodeProject and StackOverflow serve very different audiences: we look to teach, to provide full working solutions, and we in turn ask readers to, well, read and dig in a little. Obviously tastes change over the years and there's more demand for right here right now cut and paste snippets (SO's April Fools joke of their stackoverflow Ctrl-C Ctrl-V keyboard said it all) so we definitely lose traffic to those who need to get in, get out quickly.
Discovery: yep, this is a killer, no doubt. We've spent the last 6 months or so working on performance to chase Google's Mercurial search engine demands and are now making them happy again. We hope this will translate into an increase in ranking, but overall Google's engine has, for years, been tuned to exactly what Stackoverflow offers: A question, a bite-sized answer that can be displayed in Google's search preview, and move on. It's a tough gig no doubt.
Articles: Our level of posting has been fairly consistent over the last 3 years, which is not to say I wouldn't like more. A big issue for us is one of trends. We started as an MFC site, then moved on to .NET, Web development, and now AI, Python, IoT - you name it - but our core audience is still mainly .NET. While there's an absolute bucket load of C++, MFC and .NET devs around (even VB is still very much in demand) the questions and the interest are often in newer technologies where there isn't as rich a depth of information lying around. Things are obviously still changing in the .NET and C++ world but not to the degree that other languages and technologies are constantly springing up. IF we don't have an answer or article the we won't appear in Google.
So what can you do?
- Share your code or your knowledge as an article. It doesn't have to be long. It just has to help someone - anyone. There's an insane amount of new stuff coming online every day so write about it. Let's be the first to get articles up on these new platforms, libraries, and languages
- While posting answers on online forums link to written articles on CodeProject. The reader may just get a solution rather than just an answer
- Edit questions in Quick Answers so their title better reflects the question. Make titles be something that someone would type into a search engine. This massively helps our search ranking
- Tell us what you'd like to see, keeping in mind we need to look forward, not backwards.
So again, thanks for the post. I love what we've built here and CodeProject has exceeded my wildest dreams. Obviously we can do better, so let's do it together.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I've been a registered user here for over 20 years. From a user's standpoint...
I don't think it's dying. User interest ebbs and flows, and that's to be expected. I went two years without even coming to the site because I was busy with non-computer stuff.
Forums - Honestly, I don't really read/participate all that much. I simply don't have the time or interest most of the time.
Articles. I've posted four or five since Jan 01, and have 77 under my belt, along with over 80 tips. When you consider the code as well, I can spend anywhere from 1 week to two years on a given article. I don't do articles about theory, or the latest gee-gaw or doo-dad. Those kinds of articles don't generally interest me in terms of reading, either. Most of the users don't have the time to write articles, or don't feel like they have the skills, or anything interested to say.
QA - I answer when I can, and when the question hasn't already been answered. I've also found that questions get asked/answered at european times, so by the time the sun comes up here in the US, there's not much for me to do.
Like Chris said, SO is catering
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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---CP-Temp--- wrote: Quick Answers: over the years, the volume of questions has clearly gone down. Questions per day, or perhaps number of Authority points as per the Top Experts list, is the metric I am basing this on.
Never cared about quick answers.
---CP-Temp--- wrote: Forums: more anecdotal than anything else because I do not have the hard stats here, but I also felt a decrease of activity here. Both in the programming and non-programming forums.
Decrease happened a few years ago. Not much changed, but we see some noobs from time to time, and try being nice.
---CP-Temp--- wrote: Articles: the most important one in my opinion. Newly published articles get way less views and votes than they did years ago. I believe the number of new articles is also decreasing: years ago, we still had a Monthly Article competition for several topics. Now it's just one competition to rule them all. (And is January missing from this list, or did we actually skip it?)
Back then, there was a lot to explore. We did, there's articles on lots of subjects.
---CP-Temp--- wrote: For questions, the answer seems simplest: CodeProject cannot keep up with the popularity of Stack Overflow
If SO is the standard, I quit. Simple as that. I want no part in that crap. Yes, I like Joel, love Fogbugz, but not ever participating in SO.
---CP-Temp--- wrote: What's the way forward?
Noobs, writing new articles. .NET core and that stuff. Forums will be ded; al questions have a post to answer them. That what killed QA.
But CP is broader than SO and will outlive it.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Two major reasons:
When you spend significant effort in documenting/founding your views/statements, but are chopped down by fellow debaters by a "tl;dr" (or a poorly disguised of the same), then you realize that CP is more a forum for quick, funny one-liners than than for well founded arguments. (Side remark: Surprisingly many of those stating "tl;dr" make comments to points made far down in the source post, making the ";dr" part rather dubious, and the "tl;dr" - in whatever wording - seems like childish name calling.)
Second: When responders repeatedly insist that to make a proper evaluation of your professional statements about computing and programming, they simply have to know your nationality, your mother's tongue and your sexual preference to judge the validity of the point you are making, then the importance of that evaluation is significantly diminished.
I have realized that well founded arguments (as part of you post) does not have a place at CP. Also, your argument/point will not be judged by its face value; it all depends on who makes the argument - his/her nationality, maybe age, maybe language, maybe who knows what. You never know what might be used as a counter argument to turn you down, in the continuation of the debate.
I will continue following CP as a source of valuable information. But whenever I see some post making me think "I really should contribute here", my next thought is: "Forget it! Who wants to seriously, on a professional basis, react to my considerations? CP wants one-liner arguments and answers, not explanations. And the interpretation of the argument will be based on my age, nationality and whatever". So: Just forget it!
This post obviously is in the "tl;dr" group - four paragraphs. Yet I am quite sure that tl;dr readers will have a lot of reactions to even the third and fourth paragraph ...
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---CP-Temp--- wrote: CodeProject cannot keep up with the popularity of Stack Overflow
CodeProject and SO serve two completely different needs. I go to SO frequently to find the answer to a simple question. I go to CodeProject for the community and the amazing articles by people like honey the codewitch - Professional Profile[^], to name just one member.
---CP-Temp--- wrote: I would love to hear the community's, and CP's management's, opinion on this topic.
There you have it in what you said. Code Project is a community. Stack Overflow is simply a resource.
And I don't think CP is dying. If anything, it feels more vibrant.
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... it's much easier to work with than the old single column version.
Would it be possible to add it to the "Paste as" list when the user selects "code block" - that way the user can specify exactly how he wants his code to show instead of manually adding the ' lang="xxx"' to the vanilla <pre> tag that is currently generated?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Good idea,
once you choose "paste as code" then mini popup on the side with the languages.
That should reduce the amount of not properly formated code all over the place, because most either doesn't know about the manual add of "lang" or just don't give a crap about it.
But having to chose on the fly, would make it more accesible.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: or just don't give a crap about it.
And nor should they. I've been working on something for a while I hope can make this issue go away.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Discussions: Feature 'Load More' not working!
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Definitely a bug. Working on it ...
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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If I visit one of them, the tags show (presumably) correctly, and with teh same count as teh number of "undefined" shown on the home page:
Chrome Version 89.0.4389.114 (Official Build) (64-bit).
Windows 10 Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.867)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Each time the homepage updates we actually modify the HTML by hand. With thousands of messages and articles and comments being posted it can get a little tedious. Evidently someone - and I'm not going to name names - go tired of typing "C++" and "Artificial Intelligence" and "Microsoft-Continous-integration-server-for-.NEtCore-2019", especially because they kept misspelling "continuous" and so they just started cut and pasting "undefined" in all the tag spots each time they updated the homepage HTML.
That person has been spoken to.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I'm not at all surprised they got tired on such a beautiful April day! 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Well, it's cold and freezing here in T.O. 
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Just your luck to get locked down away from Oz ... ![Java | [Coffee]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif) (It may warm you a little)
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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cheers
Chris Maunder
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Here is the problem:
I prepared this article specially for April 1st: Markdown Calculator.
I intentionally waited until today's night and completed all activities on April 1. And yes, it is listed as:
Markdown-Calculator,
Posted: 1 Apr 2021 Updated: 1 Apr 2021 (according to https://www.codeproject.com/script/Articles/MemberArticles.aspx?amid=2291164).
And yet, when I referenced the article and clicked at the link to see how it looks for the reader non-authenticated with CodeProject, it shows: Posted 31 Mar 2021!
The same goes for the page of the article: it shows the correct date, but for a non-authenticated reader it's "31 Mar".
How so? Can it be fixed? Remember, having the publication marked as of April 1st is the point.
Thank you.
—SA
Sergey A Kryukov
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We'll check this out. While annoying, pretty much no one would have seen that article before the great reveal.
But seriously: when are you going to build it? 
cheers
Chris Maunder
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The point is having the April 1st mark on the article permanently. I consider it as one of the attributes of all my April 1st articles.
Even if I see a need for a fix, I prepare an update and wait until next April 1st to submit it...
Thank you.
— SASergey A Kryukov
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We do have some magic powers that will allow us to update your article without changing the date...
(Just email us the changes and we'll look after you)
cheers
Chris Maunder
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