Fundraiser Day 3 - Part 1 - Introduction to DonationCoder.com

It's day 3 of the fundraiser, and we're doing well: Almost $4,500 raised from about 200 donors so far!

I thought today I'd make a post to introduce the site to those of you who may not be so familiar with it.

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Many people arrive on our site for one of our larger free software applications, like Screenshot Captor, Process Tamer, URL Snooper, or Find and Run Robot.  You'll find these and many more on our main Software page (you can also watch some recent videos of these).

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Recently one of the busiest areas of the site has been our special "Coding Snacks" section, where anyone can post a request for a small custom utility that they would like to have created.  Coders on the site regularly read the requests and code the programs which are released as freeware.  You can visit the Coding Snacks forum section to post a new request, or view a list of finished requests to download.

And speaking of our forum, you'll find that there are always some interesting discussions going on there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We pride ourselves on quickly responding to requests for help.  We have some serious software addicts on our site and if you're wondering what's the best tool for a job, you're likely to find someone on our forum with a strong opinion.  Most of the software discussions are Microsoft Windows related, but we also have quite a few Linux users and a handful of Apple users.

Don't be shy about registering at our forum and making your first post -- whether it's a question about a particular software program, a feature request for one of our tools, or just to post a photo of your dog or cat.  We are a friendly and diverse bunch from all walks of life.  You can also sign up at the forum to receive our monthly newsletter where we recap the month's most interesting forum discussions and new web/software discoveries.  We even have an online (text) chat channel where people come to unwind any hour of the night.  There's an About page if you want to learn more about the history of the site.

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In the past we really focused on writing big long comprehensive software comparison reviews.. But most of those reviews are a bit long in the tooth now, and we have shifted focus in the last couple of years more and more to what we call member "Mini-Reviews", where forum regulars write and share their (usually) brief reviews of software packages, both commercial and free (and sometimes other things like Board Games or gadgets).

Look a bit deeper on the forum and you might stumble onto our "Self-Teaching Programming School" section -- a progression of increasingly difficult assignments in dozens of different programming languages for people who are learning to program.  It's our fun way to encourage and motivate new students to join the exciting world of programming.

Let's see, what else?  You may have heard of us through our yearly NANY (New Apps for the New Year) event, where we encourage coders who hang out on our site to release a new free application at the start of the new year.  There were over 30 entries in the event this past January.  Some are just small toys, but some are seriously cool and useful.  They are all free.  We also provide hosting space for those members on our site who need a place to host their software and website.   

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So that's a quick tour of the site. I'm sure I left out a few things but hopefully it's enough to help you decide if the site is something that appeals to you.