Extremely discouraging experience

It’s kinda like this…

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I’m sorry about your experience not being what you wanted. I’m not sure if this was mentioned in any of the replies yet, but I really got a lot out of the HTML, CSS, Javascript, and jQuery courses at codecademy.com. I think these courses helped prepare me for started FCC. Good luck!

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I am working on my tribute page right now and can say that FCC beginner course gave me all information i need to build it. You just need to read more carefully through every challenge youve done before, it will definitely help. Of course FCC wont make you professional developer, but it for sure shows the right way to keep learning. Wish you good luck in that!

He’s offering his opinion, just like you. No need to get defensive. You’ll find a big part of programming is figuring things out for yourself, so maybe it’s intentional. I’m also not sure FCC has an unlimited budget considering this entire thing is FREE, so offer up what suggestions you want, but don’t be bothered if others disagree.

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Schweet keep at it and well done…

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The good thing about FCC is that they re-imburse you the entire amount of the tuition you paid if figure out the FCC is not for you.

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IMO the idea of spoonfeeding skills and knowledge in programming and computing science is detrimental in the long run. In this field, there is always going to be the scenario where the programmer is introduced to an entirely new framework or language or something of the sorts. If the programmer had been spoonfed everything they know, they’ll have no clue how to problem solve in that domain.

I like the way FCC almost forces you to go out and figure out things on your own. Problem solving in this domain is different from problem solving in a construction environment.

Anyways, just keep pushing on. It’s worth it in the end.

Yes, it also happened to me.

The code when loading the resources (like the fonts) was not the same and I had to search it.

And yes, it was a bit annoying. Because it’s was a thing I unknow, and it not show how use. Luckily I found it. But if not, it would be frustrating.

Previously, I had a bad experience too.

In the official chat, I have asked for help about a Bonfire exercise and I received the answer: “never mind! figure it out!!”.

At the time, I send a screenshot with what happened to freeCodeCamp but I never gotten answer.

If you don’t know anything, you ask for help and you receives a response of that type… things like that are the ones that leave you out.

Those things are the ones that have to reinforce in freeCodeCamp to say that they are an ‘open community’.

And not only, people, who refuse others for not knowing something.

Just to jump in…

There’s no requirement to exactly mimic the example. In fact, the only requirements for a given project are the user stories, which also do not mention jumbotron or bootstrap at all…

In other words, it’s not about doing the minimum necessarily, but it is about fulfilling the requirements as stated. Anything else is on you.

I will mention that in the real world, going beyond the requirements/user stories as stated is dangerous territory. Yeah, you might do a bunch of extra work that your client/boss loves, but they also might hate it, and then you’ve done extra work for no purpose.

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Great you mention that! There is already a good progress made on videos in the FreeCodeCamp youtube channel. Everyone is invited to visit it!

It is likely that the current created content partially helps to solve the problem.

Also, there is A LOT of GOOD CONTENT on the medium publication.
https://medium.freecodecamp.com/

Personally I suggest, @PortableStick, if you can help to spread the word about those contents that would help: much of that content is specifically made to solve several of the problems that FCC users frequently face.

Apart of that, taking the opportunity to also say that the job of the moderators of these room, like @PortableStick, is exactly to help users like @earthpet to go through the curriculum. I am not surprised you are frustrated, @earthpet: FreeCodeCamp is NOT PERFECT, I TOTALLY AGREE with you. Still, be aware you will always find yourself going through a similar feeling if you decide to dedicate to software development, sorry about it; you will have to learn to cope with that.

Why I regret is that in your particular case, @earthpet, FCC hasn’t been able to detect your needs on time in order to offer you the right help and advice. This is a hard task, but it seems to be real in your case after all.

Before you take any action, remember that FCC is NOT the only resource available. You can always complement other resources you plan to take in the future with FCC. What you decide will be your main reference is up to you, but you are always welcome to come back and ask questions and check the FCC material. You don’t have to subscribe completely to FCC program in order to take advantage of it.

Hope this helps.

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I saw this topic along with your message and I wanted to ask a thing, which could be relevant to this discussion.

FIrstly I defend FCC as well since this site should be treated as a footprint and a place for gathering for web dev/programming enthusiasts.

But now on my question.

I managed to finish the basic scriptng challenges with little guidance and by looking only once at a code solution.

Now I’m doing the random quote generator and (still not finished) https://codepen.io/AlessioNovi/pen/YNoNwX it feels a bit different because I had to read and search almost for everything. If you look at my codepen, I decided to change the background color at every new quote. I don’t know how to do this and by googling I found different methods already made for me. In this case, I just copy pasted the code snippet (had to wrap it in a function, returning it and implementing in my code still) but it felt like how I cheated to arrive at result that wasn’t coming up to mind promptly.

The point is: is there a limit to this “read-search-ask algorithm” when doing projects or is totallly fine to use what people have already solved to use it for your purposes?

I remember that phase.When I started projects the first exercise was the random quote machine with the twitter button. I was stuck for TWO FULL MONTHS. It was a nightmare. I had no clue whatsoever how to proceed. I did get out eventually by a ‘technique’ I call ‘chipping away at the problem’. I started reading up on everything I believed was connected: what is an API, HTTP… found all sorts of sources, but couldn’t connect theory to practice. And then one day it hit me: I had to use the DOM. I asked FCC members and they said, well yes, do that. Fifteen minutes later I was twittering away in all directions. If you can’t find a direct solution, surround it, find out which questions to ask, which building blocks you need. At some point you have found the puzzle pieces you need and you will understand them well enough to put them together. The second technique is of course: ASK PEOPLE FOR HELP. FCC has gone to great lengths to bring people together, their bonfires are totally awesome and the projects are very interesting. And it is FREE. You don’t have to pay, there is no deadline anywhere.
However, I do agree with your suggestion. Take people by the hand and make a project with them. Show them what building blocks they need, what kinds of questions to ask and where to find information.
MDN is building a beginner section. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web They don’t ‘atomize’ info the way FCC and W3C do and tell you how to set up a good environment and what is required to make a website. Their approach is more comprehensive, you get an overview of all that you need. This may help you on the way.
Don’t give up.

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If I can answer your question, I personally think that for the beginning checking the answer is totally fine. However, bear in mind that as coder you will have to learn some basic solutions ready from the top of your head so you have to repeat and practice them frequently so they come out almost automatically. Not all the solution at once but surely most of the code.

I understand your point.

I believe your point not only for HTML/CSS but for javascript (or whatever other language) as well.

in this case just asking for guidance without looking at any solution could be a good compromise for a beginner.

Maybe FCC is just not for you. There are so many other resources out there that work in different ways. Before you begin to try and suggest restructuring ideas for FCC and suggesting what YOU think works best perhaps you should just try something else. After all, there are thousands and thousands of students that love FCC just the way it is. And yes, as has been written already, your post does suggest that you need to seriously chill. Go in peace - become a code warrior someone else and take your negative energy along with you.

This seems like a big topic, and so I’m going to jump on the band wagon.

Having completed the frontend cert & backend cert. freecodecamp is not the place to learn programming.

Most computer courses on the web, don’t start get at the purpose of programming. ie you making a computer (though in this case the browser) show people the right text to help their business projects, personal projects, study faster, get textual information faster, send messages, and even have video communication.

in short i’d say a programmer is a person who writes software which help people, or themselves.

What most computer courses do is teach you the syntax and concepts of programming, now go and its up to go do it yourself, be it a pong game at highschool or online shop.

I’d say where freecodecamp fits in is after you’ve learnt javascript, is in challenging you. can you build xyz… . Here’s a link to some resources / frameworks, they may help the may not, what matters is you get the project done, and functional to this standard.

And do you what yes this is hard, after you’ve learnt the basics html css and javascript, your just a drop in the ocean the amount of thoughts, and frameworks saying ooo this is the right way to do something and this is wrong. becoming a good web developer takes time and guts, and you’ll learn from your negative experiences and positive, it’s not for everyone.

Unfortunately like building a house, programming is complex. And atm there are no lessons in project management and planning from freecodecamp. It’s tough because its alot to think about, and keep in your head, whilst working on project.

btw I think it would be interesting and very useful to make a course about structure, project management, and how to break down a list of software requirements in to the technical coding elements.

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I havnt read all the supplies, but I wonder, aside from the use of code pen , what are the similarities between the cat app and the tribute page?

Using html tags.
Using style tags
Using p tags
changing font size of text
changing color of text
adding images to a page
linking to external pages

Knowing the above things from the Cat App demo would meet all the requirements from the Tribute Page exercise

User Story: I can view a tribute page with an image and text.
User Story: I can click on a link that will take me to an external website with further information on the topic.

This is a valid tribute page… meets all User Story requirements above.

https://codepen.io/owel/pen/BZaXwN

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Exactly my point! Cat app example is fine teaching tool for the tribute page. My question was for the OP…applying what you learn in one setting to a different context is pet if what makes FCC a great source of guidance for self directed learning.

What you’re looking for is incremental improvement. A cornerstone of mastery.

In other words, first do one thing well, then build upon it incrementally.

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