I love learning new things. I love asking questions and I love the challenge of mastering new skills. I’ve also learned that to master web technologies you have to do it in the open, ask questions online and be open to what it entails.

Online communities have the tendency of forgetting that we all asked stupid questions when we were starting out. I no longer post questions on Stack Overflow (any of them) because the people who downvote, criticize and made me (and I bet a lot of beginers) feel feel like I’m dumb because I don’t ask the questions in a way they will want to answer.

And before people get all up in arms. Not all communities are like this. There are some very nurturing support communities where I’ve learned a lot about being a peer and becoming a mentor. I’ve just been very frustrated lately with the way web-based communities react and the high and mighty attitudes some people take.

That’s the risk you run with putting your learning in the open. There are times when it’s ok to learn on your own but if you’re going to ask a community you have to be ready for what the community will answer with.