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04-07-2012, 12:31 AM
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Originally Posted by derek lapp View Post
i agree the terminology of what you call yourself is arbitrary.

the question was sparked by some of the complaining in the tf changes thread. people are complaining about the changes, so i was curious what they actually expected to get out of being a user here - my expectations are to get to know my fellow professionals, different audiences and just a better understanding of the industry, so what does and doesn't happen to the market place has little aaffect on me. i've never been one to make a design with no objective and hope someone will buy it and turn it into something, but that's always been my impression of the target user, so i figured why not ask? perhaps their missing the great insight from discussions like this by only going in the market place - and perhaps i'm missing something by never bothering with it.
I started coming here to learn more about the industry. I wasn't new to building website, but came here for more knowledge on how to make them better (design and code structure). If I remember correctly, there used to be a lot of amazing designers on here who were successful at doing what they do, creating websites. What drew me in was having these great people and having the ability to read informative posts and interact with them. I still remember the people like Bryan Le, Julian, Salathe, Village Genius, BlindChild02 and even you (Derek Lapp).

I came here to learn. I'm way beyond that point now. I look back and laugh at some of the stuff I used to ask or say. I occasionally come here to help out others and give back, but the activity level doesn't seem to be as high as it was in the glory days. The discussions seem much more basic and "newbie". Not sure if it's because I've matured or what. I don't spend enough time on here to really tell if there are as many 'leader' kind of people or just a bunch of people looking for help.

Hell, the whole web industry has changed. I used to love smashing magazine. They seemed to be looking right into the future of the web and always giving out free stuff and having great articles. Now it's progressively getting worse and worse. The whole reason I came to this site and SM was to learn and implement. Now I'm coming to these places, not learning and leave right away.

I'm not sure if I'm making ANY sense. I'm just typing exactly what I'm currently thinking. The discussions back then used to be really intelligent and active, not so much anymore.

Again, everything I've been saying has been about learning the art and skill of building websites. I thought of this place as that. I know freelancing is more than just about learning a skill, there is marketing and business behind it. I just did not use this place for those resources.

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