Ask HN: Where do all the web devs talk?

28 points by LinguaBrowse 5 hours ago


I've been using Twitter / X for a good decade now, and while I've found it's a great place to connect with native app dev communities (I'm well connected with the React Native scene), I really struggle to connect with any web devs.

There are a few big names like Adam Wathan who are pretty active on Twitter of course, but considering how widespread web dev is, I see precious few up-and-coming web devs coding in public.

So, where are they? I have explored BlueSky a bit, but again it feels a bit like tumbleweeds (though maybe that's just my luck as a small account).

Are web devs more old-school, posting on bulletin boards and forums? Or is X still the answer, and I'm just getting aggressively packed into a different bubble?

… Or is it all realtime communication, like Slack and Discord, these days?

gethly - 4 minutes ago

Discord channels. Though you have to find them out on your own.

asimovDev - an hour ago

I browse my LinkedIn feed (yeah, I know) and I often see discussions pop up between people from my network, albeit nowadays it's mostly about AI tools.

I see discussions pop up on /r/webdev on reddit, but not a super active subreddit.

on 4chan there used to be /wdg/ (maybe there still is, but i haven't been to that website in years at this point)

I bet a lot of discussions happen on Slack servers for specific frameworks, but I don't have a lot of experience with using those except asking questions in the #questions channels

rozenmd - an hour ago

Twitter, still.

Despite several attempts to move off, the center of gravity is still there.

raaron773 - an hour ago

Everywhere... I have seen good devs on Reddit, Discord, Mastodon and even IRC.

Bedlow - 2 hours ago

I'm only a casual dev but I see a lot of chat on Reddit, or Lemmy, the fediverse alternative. There's tech folk also using Matrix.

MrDresden - an hour ago

There is a very large presence over at Mastodon when it comes to people well versed in web standards. The public discussions are often very lively (in a good way).

makeitcount - 19 minutes ago

[dead]

phendrenad2 - an hour ago

I think that X was the big web dev community, and as soon as it was taken over by rocket man, people scattered to the wind. I think most, however, didn't actually go anywhere and just decided to be less social.

kittikitti - 2 hours ago

I've found that layoffs and RTO have multiplied the toxicity of development communities. People will openly threaten to call your HR department if you say something wrong. Developers and engineers aren't trying to get better, they're just harming each other in a loop until the most evil one survives. It's cut-throat but not even in a good way, just extremely anti-social and aggressive.

I don't recommend any development communities. If you want to try Discord, many people who will try to get you fired are available to chat with. I talk with long time friends who are developers but it's mainly really sad conversations.

DANmode - an hour ago

> Are web devs more old-school, posting on bulletin boards and forums? Or is X still the answer, and I'm just getting aggressively packed into a different bubble?

> … Or is it all realtime communication, like Slack and Discord, these days?

Yes to all.

Friends + threads like these!

Try searching Twitter using key terms on xcancel (or another proxy) in order to find more relevant accounts to follow, and seed your algorithm with.

Unless you originally started using the account for niche tech purposes, your niche interests can remain a minor part of your bubble for sure.

King-Aaron - 3 hours ago

[flagged]