//Editor's Comment
All Together Now
By EldenNelson
Ten years ago, I started work at my first technicalpublication: WordPerfect Magazine. I was an eager technical editor andwriter, and I wanted the whole world to know how great I thought WordPerfect5.1 was. I spent hour upon hour of free time on TAPCIS, monitoring CompuServe'sWordPerfect forums (remember, this was before the Internet had gonemainstream), answering questions practically before they were asked, andpromoting "my" magazine whenever I could.
Then something completely unexpected happened: Someonejumped in on one of my threads, recommending everyone instead subscribe toCobbs' Inside WordPerfect. Of course, I was outraged and embarked - withall the vigor of youth - on my very first flame war. I'm pretty sure the sysophad to step in and pull us apart a couple of times, threatening to eject usfrom the forum.
This went on for days - each of us doing the forum-threadequivalent of baring our teeth, thumping our chests, and throwing leaves in theair - until someone finally barged in on our hate fest with a crazy thought:Why couldn't/shouldn't someone get both publications? It was a good question.Neither subscription would break the bank, and both publications had contentworth reading.
Now WordPerfect is a distant memory (I haven't used itsince version 8, when I wrote my last book on the subject), but I like to thinkthe lesson I learned way-back-when has stuck. Once again I'm an eagercheerleader for a technology I believe in, but this time I'm rooting foranybody - no, everybody - who's involved in spreading the gospel ofASP.NET. This includes some groups that might surprise you.
Other Magazines: Everyone who gets asp.netPROshould also get MSDN, CoDe, and Visual Studio Magazine.Why? Because they're good, for one thing. And because the super-tight focus weprovide at asp.netPRO is worth supplementing with broad-basedprogramming discussions. Besides, Markus Egger, publisher of CoDe, hasalready extended a big ol' olive branch by writing a couple of articles for thismagazine, including July's cover story, PlugIn .NET My Services. The more you know about .NET development in general,the better you'll be able to use asp.netPRO.
Other Web sites and Newsletters: It would bearrogant to suggest that the only place on the Web you're going to find goodASP.NET information is on www.aspnetPRO.com, orthat ours is the only e-newsletter worth subscribing to (although it also wouldbe foolish for me not to plug them here, so: Visit http://www.aspnetpro.com/ealerts/default.aspto sign up for asp.netNOW, the free e-companion to this magazine). Inparticular, you've got to love Jonathan Goodyear's angryCoder Website/newsletter (http://www.angrycoder.com)and Doug Seven and Donnie Mack's dotnetjunkies Web site/newsletter (http://www.dotnetjunkies.com). Theyeach have great content, and both seem to embrace the "let's work together"philosophy - Jonathan's a columnist for this magazine (see the BackDraft column in any issue of asp.netPRO), and Doug's the columnistfor asp.netNOW's ADay in the Life of a Developer.
Let me go one step further on this one: I'd love to knowabout your ASP.NET site, whether it's a site about ASP.NET or a site usingASP.NET. If I agree it's worth sharing, I'll tell people about it in the asp.netNOWnewsletter.
Microsoft: The press often treats Microsoft as afaceless, ruthless, unstoppable machine. When you start talking with individualdevelopment groups, however, a much different picture forms. Rob Howard, whooften appears in these pages as the AskMicrosoft columnist, takes time from an incredibly hectic developmentschedule to answer questions because he likes knowing what your questions are.Nikhil Kothari, father of the Web Matrix Project, started it not because hecould see lots of money in it for Microsoft, but because it was a fun littletool and an interesting experiment (read the article at www.aspnetPRO.com for our interview of the ASP.NET developmentteam). Scott Guthrie and Shawn Nandi champion the product with the zeal of theconverted.
Why am I mentioning all these people and companies -including some competitors? Because right now I like to think we're all workingtogether, building the momentum behind ASP.NET. The more we support each other,the better off all our development efforts will be. And we've all gotinteresting things to say.
Elden Nelson is editor-in-chief of asp.netPRO and itscompanion newsletter, asp.netNOW.E-mail him at mailto: elden@aspnetPRO.com.