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Looking for an Accountability Community for Software Development
Hey fellow developers! 👋
I'm on a mission to level up my software development journey and looking to join an accountability community. As a growing developer, I believe having the right community can make all the difference in staying motivated and making consistent progress.
I've been researching several communities including:
- Indie Masterminds (https://indiemasterminds.com/)
- Lunadio (https://www.lunadio.com/)
- Ramen Club (https://www.ramenclub.so/)
- Small Bets (https://smallbets.com/)
Has anyone here been a member of any of these communities? I'd love to hear about your experiences - both positive and areas for improvement. Also, if you know of other great accountability communities for developers, I'm all ears!
What I'm specifically looking for:
- Regular check-ins with fellow developers
- A community that helps maintain momentum on projects
- A supportive environment for sharing progress and challenges
Your insights would be valuable in helping me make an informed decision.
Thanks in advance!
Gary
I'm on a mission to level up my software development journey and looking to join an accountability community. As a growing developer, I believe having the right community can make all the difference in staying motivated and making consistent progress.
I've been researching several communities including:
- Indie Masterminds (https://indiemasterminds.com/)
- Lunadio (https://www.lunadio.com/)
- Ramen Club (https://www.ramenclub.so/)
- Small Bets (https://smallbets.com/)
Has anyone here been a member of any of these communities? I'd love to hear about your experiences - both positive and areas for improvement. Also, if you know of other great accountability communities for developers, I'm all ears!
What I'm specifically looking for:
- Regular check-ins with fellow developers
- A community that helps maintain momentum on projects
- A supportive environment for sharing progress and challenges
Your insights would be valuable in helping me make an informed decision.
Thanks in advance!
Gary
👋 Join WIP to participate
Is WIP not exactly what you’re asking for in this post?
came here to say this...
My suspicion is that it's an AI generated post now
Interesting because it's from a pro member, wouldn't think people would waste $199 just to send AI generated spam but here we are
urgh...
Hi folks,
To clear things up, this is a genuine post.
Genuinely curious on feedback on these 4 platforms.
And no, I am not here to plug these 4 sites like an affiliate, owner, part-owner, share-owner might do etc.
I am a new Pro member to WIP and I can see some of the benefits to WIP (eg. Posting your project build details as part of Building in Public; Posting ToDo's as a motivator to get tasks done; Hangouts to discuss projects and tools; Building the habit of shipping something every day; and you can likely find people to work with on projects in Wip;
But I can't seem to see some of the other features that the 4 groups I listed have. That is why I am asking.
Happy to listen to people point out some of the accountability features in Wip that I may not be seeing?
Kind Regards,
Gary
Okay, understood. I think the reason this is confusing to people is that it's as if you went to Google and asked their support "hey, what would you recommend for a search engine? I heard Yahoo is good!" It's a bit of a strange question to ask given that this is exactly what the site is about in the first place.
Moving on, you asked for 3 things:
1. Regular check-ins with fellow developers
2. A community that helps maintain momentum on projects
3. A supportive environment for sharing progress and challenges
And here's the features on WIP that solve for what you're asking for:
Your feed on WIP is full of regular checkins. There's a streak system and occasional hangouts (see hangouts tab for live video - believe this happens on a monthly cadence) to help keep you motivated to push more updates.
There's a community here with people asking questions/commenting on posts. There's also a WIP Telegram group so you can chat live.
The "milestones" feature when you go to create a new post is for sharing progress and challenges.
If you think something is missing to the point where you're considering other sites, why not submit some specific feedback on what you would want to see?
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.
Okay, so I just tested the Milestone feature. I guess I could use the Milestone feature to post when I have achieved a pre-defined milestone in my project.
And I just visited the Telegram page. Interestingly, I noticed a conversation in there just now which was not too dissimilar to my post.
I guess on reflection it is probably about item 1 (Regular check-ins with fellow developers - in a systematic scheduled way). It looks like on this site, a lot of it is around people posting what they are doing rather than say, having weekly catch up meetings with other members on Zoom etc.
I still have not figured out how the "Streak" system works, although my gut instinct is that the streak is simply how many times a person has posted on the site. Is that correct?
From reading a conversation in the Telegram WIP earlier today I think one of the big benefits of WIP is that there is a bit of camaraderie around building something in the world alongside seeing other people building things at the same time, as well as picking up ideas from other developers that can improve one's skills as a developer.
I will keep persevering with WIP, but I still think for me personally I need to also join a platform that has more of a systematic scheduled face to face online catch up (eg. weekly) with developers.
I think if I had been a software developer for 20 years and built 50+ applications WIP on its own would probably suffice, but as I am pretty new to software development I think I need that extra component to a platform, as well as WIP (hence, the reason for my original post).
Kind Regards,
Gary
To answer your question about the streak: It's not how many times overall, but it's a measure of daily check-ins. If you miss a day, you lose your streak. If you post multiple times in one day, you only get counted once for that day.
If you're looking for feedback or friendly support/questions, there's a place for that here as well. I've asked the most basic, ridiculous questions here, and I was always met with kindness and patience.
If you're looking to LEARN software dev, check out something like Skillshare, Udemy, or Coursera. (I personally really love Skillshare -- and not just because I'm an affiliate, but because they typically have project-based courses so it helps you learn faster.)
@cat Many thanks for clarifying that point about how streaks work in that a person needs to post something at least once per day to keep their streak going. Point also noted about asking general Q&A questions, much appreciated on that as well. For the learning, recommendations noted.
I think most people here are using WIP 😄
I don't have any experience with platforms you mentioned, but I've seen Small Bets mentioned on Twitter before. I believe they more frequent video group calls with various experts, etc. It's something I'd consider doing with WIP through our Hangouts feature ( wip.co/hangouts ) if there's enough interest.
Yeah the whole expert thing is something I would find useful. I think it was attempted at some point with topics about SEO; I don’t remember exactly.
I'd be happy to do some on SEO, messaging, and positioning if you decide to bring this back :)
@marc Probably a stupid question, but should thank link in your reply go to a hangouts page? I tried it but it gets a 404 response. I have had a look around the Wip dashboard and I cannot seem to find any links to Hangouts either.
Whoops! That should have been wip.co/hangout
A quick one:
Indie Masterminds: I know the founder, Ayush. He's a great guy. This is best if you like a small group.
Ramen Club: I was in Indie World Wide when it was under Anthony Castrio. And then RamenClub acquired it. I'm guessing they're similar. Active Slack group, biweekly/monthly catchup sessions, etc. I find it too overwhelming, anything with Slack/Discord is overwhelming for me tbh.
Found this one just recently, looks fun: indieaction.club/
Or you can create one here on WIP. Everyone here can create Hangout sessions' right, @marc ?
@leifjerami Thanks for the reply and the comments on Indie Masterminds and Ramen Club, very much appreciated. Link on indieaction noted, thanks. I noticed Marc mentioned Hangout earlier in the thread, I will see if I can find the correct link for that.
Hi, that's what WIP is for. We're a fantastic and supportive community. The biggest thing here is getting connected and making friends. WIP is definitely a place that you get what you put in it (and rightfully so).
If you want support, support and encourage other creators.
I joined Small Bets, out of curiosity because I heard so much about it.
I'm not a developer (unless you include websites (and only if you include a little custom code on places like Squarespace) and Unity (game dev), but I'm a freelancer and game creator. I haven't been too active there, but one thing I've noticed that's different from here is that they have trainings they'll do every so often. I haven't gone through them yet (super busy), but the topics sound interesting. Branding & marketing are my primary services, though, and it seems like a lot of the recordings are about these. They also have an active Discord server.
Honestly, unless you want trainings, a more organized platform, and access to like 6,000 people (if all those people are active), WIP will suit your desire for accountability just fine.
(Put it this way: I'm also in Small Bets, but I'm only active HERE. I logged into Small Bets tonight for the first time in maybe 5ish months, just to see what it looks like. Interface totally changed btw.)
You just have to build relationships with people here to where people want to care about what you're doing. But...that's anywhere you go.
PS If you're looking for live (silent) coworking, I have a space I let WIP members use for free. It should still be in my WIP bio. You're welcome there any time.
And if you're looking for community challenges:
I'm reopening my Pitch Play community where we send pitches/proposals. Typically, my audience is freelancers/creatives who are pitching potential clients, media (like HARO), and literary mags/anthologies, but I've had people wanting to pitch investors and grants so that's cool too. This is an ongoing one that I had paused last year when life got too chaotic to create educational content for, but I'm reopening in April. (You're welcome to join the Telegram community now, though.)
I have a writing challenge I run yearly in July. It's similar to Ship 30 for 30 in that it's a writing challenge, but instead of Twitter/LinkedIn/social media, I focus on & teach brand messaging, storytelling, and SEO to create a Netflix-style "binge bank" of content for community building.
And I have a yearly creative writing challenge in September where I teach worldbuilding, lorecrafting, narrative design, and game creation, and we create a different thing each time (ttrpg module, branching narrative, etc). But I'm going to guess that's not quite what you're looking for 😂
@cat Many thanks for your 2nd follow up reply and your time for putting that together, again, much appreciated. You raise some smart points on managing relationships with people in platforms like this which was good to read and take note of. Feedback noted on SmallBets. For writing, I joined London Writers Salon 2 weeks ago, as well as Shut Up & Write. I have also started posting daily on 750words.com as well. I particularly find London Writers Salon really good. I am a member of a pretty good community for AI as well, which I have been a part of for the last 2 years and I recently joined a group for entrepreneurship which is going quite well as well. The last piece in the jigsaw for me right now is Software Development. But, after reading your comments about how to build relationships in Wip I think I can get quite a bit more out of this platform than I originally thought. Again, many thanks for your time in putting together your replies, much appreciated.
I'm glad you decided to give WIP a chance and get more involved in the community. There's a messaging feature available, too, so if you find someone who's doing similar things as you or who you vibe with, you can message them and see if they want to be accountability partners for even more support.
It sounds like you're trying out lots of things for everything else, so good luck!