Shared editor window??

[Dani]

I'm thinking of creating a new feature to our chat in which users can share a code editor, which would update in realtime. Does anyone see a use to this?

[JamesCherrill]

Dani. Please. For the sake of all of us who love and contribute to DaniWeb, please stop fiddling about with techy black holes and put 100% of your time into saving DaniWeb. DW is the one and only flagship demo for Dazah. Without a thriving living growing example Dazah will be an impossible sell.
Please. Fewer posts about code, more posts about SEO and marketing.
Fous, focus, focus on what really matters.
JC

[Dani]

Fewer posts about code, more posts about SEO and marketing.

Sorry, I'm misunderstanding. You mean focus on driving traffic to DaniWeb's Digital Marketing category? I'm confused.

[JamesCherrill]

No, I would (humbly) suggest that your time should go on SEO and marketing to drive DaniWeb traffic in general. That would be refected in the kinds of posts you are personally making here - ie you would be discussing SEO and marketing ideas rather than code features.
J
(ps please do not think I am just criticising for the fun of being a troll. I have loved what I have been able to do for others via DaniWeb over the years, and I think it's tragic that this is drying up. For me it's the only priority, and for you too I would imagine: no Daniweb -> no Dazah.)

[Dani]

Check out this post that I just wrote an hour ago.

DaniWeb is my priority. However, the business model we have always relied on simply doesn't work anymore. The industry changed and we didn't keep up with the times. We always relied on SEO for traffic, banner advertising for revenue, and paying for ads to bring in a constant stream of new blood members.

Google built into their algorithm that they no longer like forums, and the ad industry changed in that banner ads are no longer profitable. With decreased revenue, we were forced to spend less money bringing in new members. With less and less money being spent by me on ads, eventually the number of new members did not exceed our natural drop-off rate.

That being said, I now need a different business model. SEO doesn't work anymore. Banner ads don't work anymore. I'm hoping that Dazah will help fit the bill. However, I can't rely exclusively on Dazah. I also need to work on constantly enhancing the product so that it will be appealing to the members that are retained. Hence my asking the OP question in this thread.

[JamesCherrill]

OK, well, I hope you're right. It's tragic that such a valuable service to our future IT professionals is subject to G's whim, but "Where does a 1 ton gorilla sit? Anywhere it wants".
I don't have the skill set you're looking for Dazah, but you have best wishes.
J

[Dani]

It's not really that we need to be subject to Google's whim ... we are, but that's the problem. The main problem, all along, was that we had all our eggs in Google's basket, and our business model simply didn't keep up with the times. If we had had a product that was so amazing that people would tell their friends, and we would get enough repeat traffic, and traffic from other sites, that we didn't need to rely on Google ... well ... that's the goal.

[Reverend Jim]

Does anyone see a use to this?

Is anyone even using chat? Doesn't look like it based on reviewing the logs. I don't see the ROI potential here. I think you are more likely to just get more HELP HELP HELP URGENT!!! types who don't want to wait for an answer in a forum thread.

[Dani]

Is anyone even using chat? Doesn't look like it based on reviewing the logs.

Nono, I'm talking about a new feature that would allow rudimentary pair programming that would have keystrokes logged and could be replayed, and would potentially be attached to individual threads.

[Dani]

That would be refected in the kinds of posts you are personally making here - ie you would be discussing SEO and marketing ideas rather than code features.

But I am

I'm just posting those questions in our Digital Marketing forum, while posting questions related to DaniWeb features and functionality here in the community feedback forum.

[Reverend Jim]

that would have keystrokes logged and could be replayed

I don't understand. How does seeing pre-recorded, animated keystrokes add to an explanation?

[Dani]

Think outside the constraints of a typical forum thread and instead as a more realtime way of teaching / explaining / learning in a pair programming environment that is split side by side with one half being a realtime chat and the second half being a realtime code editor that both parties can see.

The entire session would be recorded for others to replay and potentially learn from in the future, or perhaps see how something is built.

[Reverend Jim]

That might work for some but not for me. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but to me it sounds like one-on-one tutoring and I think the quality of the answers improves when I have time to reflect/refine/test. Also, I can spend 10-15 minutes at a time on a solution and interruptions don't matter. Real-time interaction would require scheduling and commitment to a block of time.

[Dani]

That might work for some but not for me. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but to me it sounds like one-on-one tutoring and I think the quality of the answers improves when I have time to reflect/refine/test.

One use case is one-on-one tutoring but it could have other use cases as well. For example, suppose I'm chatting with a friend over on Skype or messenger about code and I want to show him something super quick ... I might be like "Hey let's pull up a DW snippet" the same way one today might think of or use a JSfiddle.

[Reverend Jim]

I may be dense (or just old fashioned) but when I want to show Adam (son) something like that on Skype I just paste a block of code (or text) in the Skype window. I still don't see why animating and recording the keystrokes has any advantage over chat or how watching a playback of someone typing is better than just reading the chat history.

I have never heard of JSfiddle so I'm off to Google.

[pty]

I use snippets heavily. For non-work stuff, Github's gists are perfect. You can add multiple files to a single gist (which would help if some of the code you're pasting is spread across a model, controller and view), and everything's syntax highlighted.

Github allows gists to be embedded. Perhaps this would be a better approach than creating one from scratch. To build anything with that kind of functionality that people will actually want to use is a project in itself.

[Dani]

For non-work stuff, Github's gists are perfect.

Yes! Something like that is exactly what I'm referring to, only having it operate more like Google Docs where multiple people can make and see each other's edits in realtime.

Perhaps this would be a better approach than creating one from scratch. To build anything with that kind of functionality that people will actually want to use is a project in itself.

It should only be about a day's worth of work using Dazah, and the objective was to create it partially to show off the flexibility of Dazah's API.

I just really wanted to see if there would be any interest at all in it before bothering.

[Dani]

Keep in mind, my primary objective right now is to find a way to reinvent DaniWeb for 2017.

[diafol]

Not sure we have the traffic for it. I think James laid it out. I wouldn't use it. Is there really no way to improve DWs ranking with search engines?

[Dani]

There's no way to improve DaniWeb's traffic with the search engines in the capacity of a forum. Google just doesn't like forums anymore. Doing something non-forum related is still fair game.