DEV Community Basics
Tags: beginners, students
Published: 2019-12-12 20:33:30

---
title: DEV Community Basics
published: true
series: Students
description: How to get up and running on DEV. 
tags: beginners, students
---
This post is the first in a series geared towards newer community members and college students who are looking to get started in the software industry. Learning to code can be an arduous process, but with the right resources and connections you can tackle the learning curve!

In this series, we intend to discuss...
- Some DEV Community basics
- How to Start your Career on DEV
- Coding Resources for Beginners
- Landing the First Job

As we go through the series, feel free to drop any questions or suggestions in the comments below.

***

### **What is DEV?**
DEV is where programmers share ideas and help each other grow. We are an online community for sharing and discovering great ideas, having debates, and making friends. Programmers of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome to share articles, questions, and discussions. Members use DEV to publish posts, participate in conversations, find project teammates, build a following, and create a professional profile. Together, we are a community of over 250k programmers all around the world.

### **What is Open Source?**
Open source refers to codebases that anyone can view and edit. DEV became open source on August 8th, 2018 — operating in the open is core to how DEV builds software. DEV is hosted on GitHub and built with Ruby on Rails.

Working on open source projects can be very helpful for juniors that are looking to become more familiar with larger, more established codebases. It can also be fun to help build a small project from scratch. Even non-programmers can help keep a project's files up to date, such as through improving documentation. Make sure to look through each project’s README to familiarize yourself with their practices. 

### **So, how do I get started in the DEV Community?**
If you don't know where to start, no worries! Here are a few tips:

**Say “Hi” in the [latest welcome thread](https://dev.to/t/welcome/latest)**, new members are introducing themselves every day. This is a gathering point for meeting other folks that are new to DEV and putting yourself out there as a learner. It's a good place to make friends with other people at the start of their dev journeys too.

**Update your profile.** Your DEV profile is built around you and your CS career, so you’re welcome to share as much or as little as you would like. In your profile, you can update your personal details, manage your posts and comments, or just share what you are up to. 

**Join some active discussion posts and share your opinions with the community.** New discussions posts are always available under the [#discuss tag](https://dev.to/discuss/latest). 

**Check out recurring threads…** DEV Staff and other community members often host recurring threads. You can always join the most recent post, or go back in time and find some old gems. The tag [#bestofdev](https://dev.to/bestofdev/latest) can lead you to great posts you might have missed
{% link https://dev.to/devteam/the-7-most-popular-dev-posts-from-the-past-week-2h99 %}
{% link https://dev.to/devteam/top-5-dev-comments-from-the-past-week-836 %}

**Try your hand at the challenge posts...** The [#challenge](https://dev.to/challenge/latest) tag is where you can work through a new problem every day. This is especially helpful for when you're practicing for interviews!
{% link https://dev.to/thepracticaldev/daily-challenge-1-string-peeler-4nep %}


### **How do I create my own posts?**
It’s easy to create and manage posts on DEV. Our post editor uses Jekyll front matter and we support liquid tags. Cross-posting from your own blog is always welcome. If you do not want to create your own post quite yet, feel free to leave a comment on someone else’s article of discussion thread. Asking a thoughtful question or sharing some appreciation is a great way to get the conversation started!

### **I need help!**
DEV maintains a well-enforced and detailed community [Code of Conduct](https://dev.to/code-of-conduct). Our goal at DEV is to create a harassment-free experience for everyone. We expect all community members to make a good faith effort to uphold the professionalism and courtesy outlined in our community guidelines. 

To report violations, you can contact the team via the abuse report form or by sending an email to yo@dev.to. All reports are reviewed and investigated individually and will receive an appropriate response.


***
Thanks for reading! Next post, we’ll discuss starting your career and building your professional profile on DEV.

For some additional reading, check out this great post from @aspittel:
{% link https://dev.to/aspittel/a-beginners-guide-to-devto-n4a %}