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Discussion on: Why is streaming while you're developing not so popular?

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itsmenatalie profile image
Natalia

I think streaming how you code is not popular because of couple things:

  1. viewer can't stop the stream to analyze your code or check the definition of something you just said
  2. if a viewer is not watching the stream from the beginning he will be lost in concepts you explain and won't understand them
  3. for you one problem can be trivial and you won't explain it good enough for the viewer so he will leave the stream
  4. it's not exciting. People watch streams to be entertained more than to learn something.

I think it's because of above things people choose to watch youtube tutorial than stream.

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lampewebdev profile image
Michael "lampe" Lazarski
  1. Yeah, a paused video but not audio would be cool :)

  2. They can ask :) Great training for someone who wants to become a senior dev!

  3. Again they can ask :D

  4. That's true! And I don't think that streaming code will be as massive as game streams but I think there is more potential in it then people think. A good case is to show junior devs who you think!

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itsmenatalie profile image
Natalia • Edited

Well, they can always ask but not always you see the question. Not always you can answer it in a good moment. And not everyone in the stream is interested in your response. I believe in edge case it could even end like - you've got 2 mid/senior people on the stream and then 5 junior joins. They start asking you trivial questions like "what is const?", "what's the difference between padding and margin?", "how do I add js file to my HTML?", etc. you know, questions which you can easily find in Google but people want an answer - not searching for it. So you start explaining them trivial questions and potentially loose two mid/seniors who will be bored? OR you ignore them so you loose juniors but mid/seniors are there staying (maybe)?

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying it's a bad idea. No, it's good. You just to be really lucky to stream about the exact thing someone wants to listen right now.

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lampewebdev profile image
Michael "lampe" Lazarski

So one of the mid/seniors can explain it ;)

In E-Sports, people also don't often understand everything that is happening and.

It does not have to be about learning. If the person is fun, you can be there just for the person and interact.

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pjarnhus profile image
Philip R. Jarnhus

I think part of the issue lies in the skewed relationship between caster and viewer. You can answer in speech, while they have to ask in writing. It makes the discussion part of pair programming very cumbersome on their part

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lampewebdev profile image
Michael "lampe" Lazarski

True but in other streams, it is the same and imagine what would happen if you had like 20 developers speaking at the same time?

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rpalo profile image
Ryan Palo

This is a really thoughtful and good answer. Thanks!

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Hey hey, I get entertained when I watch people coding lol. You are correct people including myself watch youtube coding tutorials, though a tutorial and a live coding stream are two different things. Unless a stream is setup to be a tutorial, for me the most fun streams are watching interesting coding projects, but of course I've been coding for a while so I can understand most things on the screen without pausing.

One note to add about the pausing, is that with vscode live sharing that changes things. You can share a whole session to your viewers, including debugging sessions.