When I began coding, I had tons of questions. But where could I go for help? Coding forums were laden with intimidating rules. Sometimes, I didn't know the technical terms needed to phrase a solid question. Instead, I wished I could talk to someone one-on-one.
On Twitter, I found a flourishing developer community. While the community expressed a desire to support newbies, Twitter lacked a defined route to help each other.
How could I get the attention of other coders when I needed help? And how could I find and help others?
Enter the #HelpMeCode hashtag.
#HelpMeCode
Several weeks ago, I posed this idea on Twitter:
People liked the idea. And fittingly, many offered to help get the hashtag going.
So here are the official guidelines for #HelpMeCode.
How To Get Or Give Help Using #HelpMeCode
How To Get Help
- Tweet your question
- Optionally, include a link to more information, like your stackoverflow post, a github gist, or code snippet link on codepen.
- Add #HelpMeCode in your tweet so the @HelpMeCodeBot can retweet you. And so coders can find your question.
After someone reaches out to help you, if needed, both of you can plan to video chat or communicate by channels outside of Twitter. Be brave and ask for what you need, but be sure to be polite and respectful too.
Remember to be gracious. And that asking for help is courageous. Bravo!
Warning: Abusing the hashtag will get you blocked by the @HelpMeCodeBot.
How To Give Help
Two Options:
Help At Your Leisure
- Check the @HelpMeCodeBot feed.
- Or search the hashtag #HelpMeCode on twitter.
- Once you find someone to help, reply to the Tweet or DM them.
If needed, both of you can plan to video chat or communicate by other means. But if you prefer to stay on Twitter, that's fine.
Remember to be kind and patient. And thank you for giving back to the community!
Follow @HelpMeCodeBot to see #HelpMeCode questions on your feed.
Offer Office Hours
If you want to help people at a predetermined time, you can announce when you'll be available to help. Encourage others to tweet with the hashtag #HelpMeCode, so you can find their question, like this:
I'm offering one-on-one coding help on --replace with day, time frame, & time zone--. Tweet your coding question during this time with the hashtag #HelpMeCode so I can find you.
Tweet the above example tweet. Remember to replace the time information. Optionally, you can include your area of expertise.
Then, during the hours you posted follow the instructions for Help At Your Leisure
Tools To Run Your One-On-One Sessions
You can decide with your helper/helpee if you'd like to communicate outside of Twitter. Here are some tools for communication and to share code:
- Zoom: Video chat
- Codeshare.io: Online code editor with video chat.
- Codepen.io: share frontend code snippets
- Stackoverflow: A forum to post code questions
- Github: Share larger projects with many files as repos and smaller projects as gists
Follow The Bot
Follow the @HelpMeCodeBot to keep up with questions using the #HelpMeCode hashtag.
Share the Project
Looking for 1-on-1 coding help? Use the hashtag #HelpMeCode. Learn more: https://dev.to/dashbarkhuss/how-to-get-one-on-one-code-help-with-helpmecode-5dh3
Do Not Abuse The Hashtag
Make sure it's clear in your post that you need help or that you have a problem. Those who are using the hashtag irrelevantly in order to get more attention will be blocked by the bot.
If you got blocked, you can always ask to get unblocked by tweeting at or DM'ing @DashBarkHuss. But you must pinky promise not to abuse the hashtag ever again.
Project Homepage
For more info on the project, check out the #helpmecode homepage.
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