Holy crap.

I didn't really expect my site idea to get all that many responses. When I wrote out my thoughts, I expected maybe 50 or so people to be interested in a group learning site for web languages like PHP and Javascript.

At the time of this writing, it's been about two days since I posted these pages in place of the AppDB. In that time, I've gotten over a thousand "I'M IN" E-mails from people excited about what I proposed. I'm floored. I've read every word in every E-mail, and I apologize for not having the time to reply to so many. But thank you to everyone who took the time to share a bit about yourselves and what you're looking to learn! It was enlightening, and has helped me plan my approach to this site far better than I could have hoped to otherwise.

While the number of responses I got is exciting, the number of different kinds of people interested is what really blows me away. High school teachers, college professors, videographers at the olympics. Students of all ages, 15 year-olds with ridiculously popular websites, 50+ year-old network specialists, web project managers looking to make a career change, designers and programmers at some of the top web agencies all over the world looking for a place to bounce ideas. We have everyone from folks brand new to programming, to people at the top of their field.

All this has made me rethink the new site. Back when I thought only a small number of people would be interested, I assumed I'd be making a private forum, maybe with some invites, having just one tight-knit group of people discussing the finer points of technical design and web traffic control. Now, though, it's clear that a fully private site isn't the way to go.

So here's what I'm thinking. This site has the potential for disaster, so there are some significant pitfalls that I need to avoid. When I thought it would be small, I mentioned that I'd be open to making additional forum sections for non-web-related technologies people wanted to discuss. But now that it's looking like it will be bigger, the worst mistake I could make is trying to do too much. I'm going to keep the site strictly to topics relevant to creating and serving websites and webapps. No Obj-C, no native iPhone apps, no hardware interfaces, no C++. My apologies to anyone who wanted to focus on those. Not only are those topics out of the scope of what I'm trying to do, I really don't have much to offer with any of them anyway. I really wish I were the supergenius that many of you make me out to be ;-).

What it WILL focus on are these topics, to start with: HTML/CSS, PHP (maybe with separate 5.2 and 5.3+ forums, since the technical design behind them is so different), Java, Javascript/ECMAScript, SQL/Database design, and *NIX-based server administration. The more advanced folk will get into language-independent topics like stream cryptography, programming patterns, and cloud computing. I'm open to supporting Python and Ruby developers if we get enough experts in those topics (sorry, I've not dug into those deep enough to contribute), and if lots of people are interested, I might let my arm be twisted into opening up sections for Microsoft-proprietary tech like IIS, C#, and the .NET framework. But I really hate proprietary technology for anything online ;-).

Let me clarify one more time that this has NOTHING to do with the iPhone. A chunk of my "I'M IN" E-mails were from folks who were looking to learn Objective-C, "how to hack", and "how to make programs for Appulo.us". That's not what this site is. Appulo.us, as it was, is dead. The most we'll get into for the iPhone is how to make iPhone-specific websites. This new teaching forum is not going to be part of the "scene", and will not be illegal, borderline or otherwise. I'm simply extending an invitation to any of you to follow me to where I'm heading next :)

The philosophy of the new forum is simple, though. I'll have two golden rules. First, don't post any question that you can type into Google. ALL successful programmers have to learn to help themselves. The only threads I want to see on this forum are the more complex questions that Google just can't answer. Secondly, always always be encouraging and kind. This isn't the first programming forum out there, but my goal is to make it one of the only programming forums without people trying to assert superiority over each other by talking down and disparaging folks who are still learning. I have no qualms over asking people to leave if they're not the personality type I'm looking to have there.

It's important that you understand one thing: I am not a magical creature capable of transferring my knowledge to you in an instant, and neither are any of the other expert-level folks that will be involved. If you're new to programming, you have to be committed to teaching yourself this stuff, or your time will be for nothing. We'll guide you to some great tutorials that will help you start out with the basics, but no one is going to hold your hand or give you step-by-step lessons. The internet is already full of that stuff, if you take the initiative to look for it. What I will do, and what I hope other more advanced folks will do, is nudge you in the right direction when you post about a concept that you're just not understanding. The learning process is going to be all up to you.

This is already long enough, so I won't bore you with more detail. Closer time to launch, I'll outline how I'm hoping to keep this site useful and clean no matter what skill level you're at. I don't know exactly when the site will be ready, but I figure I'll try to throw something together as quick as I can, and work on customizing and building off of it more and more as we go. No use in spending a ton of development time if it doesn't end up taking off ;-).

Cheers, everyone!
--Kyek