Idea for forum: Reviews

[Nerseus]

What do you all think about a new forum for "Reviews"? Topics would be limited to reviews of Books, Training Courses, 3rd party products, etc.

I was just thinking, "Wow, these new books I just got are excellent!" and I wanted to tell everyone but didnt really want to post something in Random Thoughts.

Ive also linked to Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code at least 3 times and was thinking it would be nice to have one place to forward everything to.

I was thinking the forum would also be good to ask advice about books or 3rd party products. Getting advice from those that have used the products would be best.

The one thing that worries me is the participation level. No point in having a forum if no one posts! I figured Id toss this one out to the community to see if anyone thought it sounded useful.

Id start it off by throwing in a couple of short reviews on the following (all of which I would highly recommend):
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Programming C#, Third Edition
Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
Design Patterns Explained
Design Patterns in C#
Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET
Expert C# Business Objects


-ner

 

[PlausiblyDamp]

I think it would be a good idea - like you say a central place to both store the links to 3rd party items and have a decent (hopefully) review or two. If nothing else it would qualify what the product does well and who would find it useful; Or if it doesnt have any merits the chance to say so and provide links to valid alternatives.

 

[Rick_Fla]

I like the idea as well, I know there is a lot of times I see someone post about a book that sounds good, but by the time I get the extra cash, I forget At least now There would be a place to look and get feedback from people who use the book. Tired of buying books to find out they were not worth the paper they were printed on.

 

[Nerseus]

Maybe we could use a standard for subject lines to find what you want, something like:

Book Review: Effective C#...
Tool Review: DevExpress XtraGrid control...
Book Advice? Effective C#...
Book Advice? Novice VB.NET developer...

-nerseus

 

[michael_hk]

Good idea. That will be a suitable forum to share various kinds of experience.

 

[pendragon]

I also think this is a good idea, when I started to learn .NET I ended up buying loads of books half of which I dont use because they where no good for what I wanted.

Standard subject lines would make it easier to find what you want or maybe have it the same as the Syntax Specific section and have sub-sections for each type.

 

[samsmithnz]

I like the idea of standard subject lines better. Besides if the quantity always gets too big, you can always create sub folders as needed.

 

[kejpa]

Very good idea, searching for 3rd party controls and books would be much easier and youll get relevant reviews as well.

Go go go!
/Kejpa

 

[ThePentiumGuy]

Good idea - limited to the subject of books only?

How about resources/training? Anything that aids a .NET developer (or any developer) I guess.

I like the idea of standard subject lines too, although some may not follow this - moderator intervention may be required.

I slightly disagree on this:

Book Review: Effective C#...
Tool Review: DevExpress XtraGrid control...
Book Advice? Effective C#...
Book Advice? Novice VB.NET developer...

Becuase it would lead to a little bit of clutter. For example

Book Advice? Effectve C#
"Hi I want to know if this book is good...etc"

But then there are those who dont search. Someone provides them to a link to
Book Review: Effective C#
and the forum gets cluttered.


I think it should be:

[Book] Effective C#
or
[Control] DevExpress XtraGrid
or
[Website] Iceplugs Domain

(Or something in a similar fashion, maybe not websites though)
And it would fit in one catagory where people posted their thoughts about it..etc.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Derek Stone]

The forum would have to be moderated to achieve consistent subject lines.

 

[ThePentiumGuy]

moderator intervention may be required.

=

The forum would have to be moderated to achieve consistent subject lines.

I just said that

 

[Denaes]

Id like to see this happen.

Post rules up there and allow people to post or just submit a review to a moderator here and they put it up like in the code base/tutorials.

If you let people post you would probobly need to have a mod come by and clean things up for people who dont want to read the rules.

Its time for another forum and this one really does belong by itself, not burried reviews amongst General and Random Thoughts.

 

[mskeel]

I agree. I think this is a great idea. [and sorry for starting a rival thread on this subject, this thread was not visible when I made my post]

 

[mskeel]

Whatever happened to this idea?

Further, I just noticed that there was a sticky thread set up for something like this but regular users cant post to it.