Thank You for Making the DEV Community Magical
Tags: meta, bestofdev, gratitude
Published: 2018-11-22 17:01:28

As we work every day on this community, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed with feelings of thankfulness. We get to come in to work on making the software community feel a bit more like a community day in and day out. This work is a privilege gifted to us by a community of teachers, sharers, and believers.

Any growth of this project was never a given. Every week is a new chicken and egg problem and many unanswered questions. We rely tremendously on the shared belief of the community that we were on the right track. It has helped us overcome many bugs, missing features, and inconsistent experiences along the way. We were always propped up by the many fairy godmothers that make up this wonderful space.

We’re not the first company to try this sort of thing and we won’t be the last. But if we are going to keep growing and keep doing new things, it’s going be for the same reasons we’ve gotten this far

As builders and administrators of this place, there’s always a small fire that needs to be put out.  The lifeblood of this community is that people are so darn willing to share and teach and be awesome, and it just keeps happening. It’s like some kind of magic.

### We all have a lot of fairy godmothers watching over us

Take this thread from earlier this week for example:
  {% link https://dev.to/aspittel/portfolio-advice-thread-56g9 %}  
Holy cow! Can you imagine what a critical moment this could be if you’re a newer dev floating in a sea of uncertainty.

Or this post from the previous week:
  {% link https://dev.to/antogarand/why-facebooks-api-starts-with-a-for-loop-1eob %}
They don’t teach the endless nuances of web security in class. That class would be 100 years long if they tried. But with the right informative posts popping into our worlds at the right moments, we make it work.

  What about this:
  {% link https://dev.to/citizen428/10-common-git-problems-and-how-to-fix-them-234o %}  
The documentation out of context or narrative is not always useful in solving problems we’re not currently in the midst of dealing with. It’s hard to Google for “things I don’t know I don’t know”.

And for more depth and narrative context, the community consistently comes through:
{% link https://dev.to/maxwell_dev/the-git-rebase-introduction-i-wish-id-had %}
And sometimes we need just a bit more guidance through the nuances:  
{% link https://dev.to/pavlosisaris/git-commits-an-effective-style-guide-2kkn %}  
Sometimes you need a concept explained simply:
{% link https://dev.to/lauragift21/explain-serverless-like-im-five-92f %}
And sometimes you just need ideas:
{% link https://dev.to/michael/i-just-got-a-raspberry-pi-3-what-can-i-do-with-it--4ne1 %}
Sometimes we hit a bump in the road and need the community to pick us up:
  {% link https://dev.to/mortoray/sadly-i-must-say-goodbye-to-leaf-my-programming-language-d6 %}
And when we have a moment of success, we need to share:  
{% link https://dev.to/shripathy/dear-devto-i-made-it-3hpk %}
And share some more: 
{% link https://dev.to/jmschuurmans/a-year-ago-i-never-would-have-been-able-to-do-this-but-i-just-built-my-first-web-app-here-it-is-1534 %}
And some more:  
{% link https://dev.to/brendazam/she-can-code-216a %}  
Sometimes we need to change our Twitter names to stylized unicode characters 𝖑𝖎𝖐𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 for no particular reason.
{% link https://dev.to/vickylai/a-unicode-substitution-cipher-algorithm-59gm %}  
Sometimes we need the leaders in our space to tell us they’re human too:
  {% link https://dev.to/hzoo/i-was-not-ready-to-become-the-maintainer-of-babel-2j6 %}
  And sometimes we need them to explain experimental browser APIs we didn’t know existed:
  {% link https://dev.to/addyosmani/adaptive-serving-using-javascript-and-the-network-information-api-331p %}  
And sometimes we just need them to be open with us:
  {% link https://dev.to/shanselman/im-scott-hanselman-ask-me-anything-416 %}
Sometimes we need to be updated when a library has new goodies:  
{% link https://dev.to/tylermcginnis/a-comprehensive-guide-to-reactjs-in-2018--4nbc %}
And sometimes we just need to know where to put things:
  {% link https://dev.to/antjanus/how-i-structure-my-javascript-file-2clc %}  
Sometimes we need to know we have options in our career:
  {% link https://dev.to/annarankin/on-staying-4gfo %}  
And sometimes we need to discover the mistakes we need to avoid: 
{% link https://dev.to/kaydacode/5-things-i-wish-i-could-tell-my-past-self-32e7 %}
Sometimes we _really_ need to discover the mistakes we need to avoid:  
{% link https://dev.to/juanmanuelramallo/i-was-billed-for-14k-usd-on-amazon-web-services-17fn %}
And then there are those who help see the community as a tool for individual progress: 
{% link https://dev.to/isaacandsuch/put-devto-on-your-resume-48h9 %}
{% link https://dev.to/acoh3n/how-to-make-the-most-out-of-devto-ag0 %}
{% link https://dev.to/ryanfarney3/why-your-technical-blogs-belong-on-devto-1hlf %}  
Sometimes we get to share in the building this place with everyone:
  {% link https://dev.to/ben/devto-is-now-open-source-5n1 %}
And sometimes that results in amazing progress:
{% link https://dev.to/rhymes/changelog-export-posts-1kdm %}
Sometimes they write the posts that the core team never got around to writing:
{% link https://dev.to/aspittel/a-beginners-guide-to-devto-n4a %}
Sometimes it's hard not to be amazed at what the next year might bring. Thank you to everyone helping to make the software development career a bit better for everyone.

## Thank you! 🙏