It all started with a tweet from Molly Holzschlag last week:
She followed up with her first tweet of recognition:
The #HonoringWebFolk hashtag spread quickly among the web community.
Soon the Twitter stream exploded with tweets recognizing people and sites that helped us to learn, grow, and eventually teach others about the web.
Remembering Who Inspired Me
I shared a couple shoutouts on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/redcrew/status/586206632310345729
https://twitter.com/redcrew/status/586207195638935552
Yes, I realize I missed including the hashtag on my second tweet. Ack!
But there are many other people who have inspired and encouraged me.
Four people had a major impact on the web professional I am today:
- Meryl Evans who inspired me to become a better writer and to blog
- Virginia DeBolt who inspired me to write regularly about the web
- Nick Finck who inspired me to get more involved in my local user experience community
- Jason Withrow, my user experience instructor at Washtenaw Community College, who encouraged me to look at how people with disabilities access the web
Two online communities helped me to learn about web standards, design, development, usability, and content management systems:
- Community MX, an online community of web professionals writing about and sharing all things related to working on the web.
It was the first online community I belonged to where I felt I could ask any question. Community MX was a great resource of information, with weekly articles written by experts in web development, design, usability, CSS, HTML, ColdFusion, and PHP.Where you got to know each other, ask questions, share your knowledge, and shoot the breeze about your work were the Community MX forums.
What an amazing group of people you would get to know from the forums! It was a learning community for everyone. Members included those first starting out on the web, those familiar with programming but not familiar with CSS, as well as experts in Photoshop, HTML, and more.
I think I started getting active on Community MX in late 2003. In later years, I helped with quality assurance for Community MX articles.
I remember transitioning from table-based design to CSS, based on Community MX articles. And without the support of the fellow members of the Community MX community, I would never have launched my first ColdFusion site in 2005.
- Godbit, an online community of Christian webmasters, web designers, and web developers; the second online community I belonged to.In the Godbit forums, we shared stories of our faith, asked how-to questions, tested each others work, and celebrated our successes when we launched a web project.
Godbit was a smaller community than Community MX, and a little different in that we shared more personal stories about ourselves and our work.
Like Community MX, Godbit closed after Twitter and Facebook became the more popular ways to interact with people.
Over ten years later, I still interact and stay in touch with people I met on Community MX.
And I regularly tweet and chat with those people I met through the Godbit community.
Who Helped You Along the Way?
I’m thankful Molly kicked off the #HonoringWebFolk campaign to honor those who inspired us, shared their passions, and helped us along the way.
In our journey to learn about the web, we sometimes forget about recognizing those who helped us become web professionals.
Check out the #HonoringWebFolk hashtag. Consider tweeting about the people who helped you learn about the web, design, development, user experience, responsive design, or JavaScript. Or write a blog post recognizing the folks who encouraged you.
Was there someone who mentored you, inspired you to understand design principles, helped you learn to code, or sat down with you to discuss usability testing?
