It does seem like this would be a lot easier if there were also chat (or even if...

eof · on April 26, 2011

#RubyOnRails on freenode is basically this.

keeran · on April 27, 2011

Give the #RubyOnRails users a way to paste a link (shorturl?) to people who come into the channel asking for premium help.

Make a game of it for the users, have a bot which reports the user stats (which users can auth via privmsg/ctcp password).

edit: a bot which reports stats on a request basis only, and privmgs all interactions with other users! no channel spam!

_chap · on April 26, 2011

Agreed, some questions are more easily answered through chat and #RubyOnRails on freenode is a great place to get help.

However, I think the cool part is that it's not text. Personally I've find it to be really helpful when I'm stuck just to talk through the problem with somebody else. Often just the act of vocalizing dislodges the log jam.

patja · on April 26, 2011

"Often just the act of vocalizing dislodges the log jam."

Got my next product idea: mashup of SAM and Eliza as a developer help line

Ygor · on April 26, 2011

"Often just the act of vocalizing dislodges the log jam."

Hence the rubber duck debugging method:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging

eof · on April 26, 2011

I don't think it's the vocalizing per se.. it's really about thinking through your problem with enough depth to explain it to someone else.