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One year of GreenSock forum participation – what I’ve experienced

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Warning: Please note

This thread was started before GSAP 3 was released. Some information, especially the syntax, may be out of date for GSAP 3. Please see the GSAP 3 migration guide and release notes for more information about how to update the code to GSAP 3's syntax. 

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What a wonderful post. And it doesn't have any question I need to answer or even mention IE! Sweet ;)

 

This is great, Craig. I really appreciate you sharing all of that and I'm sure it means a lot to the other guys too.

 

I tell people all the time that they would be amazed at how much they will learn by lurking in these forums. I know that once I started challenging myself to answer a few questions its really where my learning and understanding accelerated. We all go through that fear of looking like a dope which is why we try so hard to be gentle with any newcomers.

 

My typical experience starting out with trying to help aroud here:

  • here's a question I don't know
  • let me look in the docs
  • oh there's the answer!

When I found something in the docs that I didn't understand like shiftChildren() or invalidate() I'd build a little demo to try to see what that thing does. I found that even building little demos for the things that I conceptually understood still helped to ingrain the concept into my brain. 

 

Even after all my time in here I'm amazed at all the things I'm exposed to that I had no idea about. 

 

Although I appreciate all you did show your appreciation to the team, I truly hope this post serves to pull more lurkers out of the shadows. 

 

Thanks again for sharing your experience, its been great getting to know you and have you become such an important part of what we do.

 

Carl

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You win "Jack's favorite post" for the week...or month...probably year. ;)

 

It's so nice to hear about your journey and the encouragement you give to fellow "lurkers" to wade into the pool and risk asking a question and/or help someone else around here. That's what makes this place so special. I agree that the vibe in these forums is very unique and positive. Rare indeed on the interwebs. Thanks for the way you've reinforced and contributed to that vibe (as this post demonstrates).

 

We echo all your sentiments about the other moderators. Amazing guys. We're all lucky to have them hanging out here, sharing their knowledge.

 

Congrats on the 1 year anniversary. Love the Muscle codepen. Ha. 

 

To everyone else reading this, follow in Craig's footsteps and try helping someone here (or ask a question that's pestering you). We promise, we won't make you feel dumb...unless you insist that IE8 is awesome. ;)

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Very nice indeed, Craig.

 

Keep up the good work and those answers coming otherwise you know what'll happen. I'll catch up with you and you will never live it down.

 

And for the lurkers around here:

 

Come out from the shadows!  :geek:

 

No one's gonna bite you. :) (well, I'm not to be trusted but everyone else is ok)

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Hear, hear! Sharing the love! Well written, Craig, and so well deserved mentions! And other unmentioned heroes too! Great culture of good attitude here!

 

Like you presume, I can very much relate, tho my tl is just tlCraig.totalProgress(0.2). ;) Greensock is my first real incentive to learn Js and it's such a good reason to learn. Now I spend my days in a code editor, but I feel like I'm in after effects! Actually – I feel more empowered by Greensock. Truly amazing!

 

I was lurking lots before my first post, and when I finally did post it was a semi-excuse just to break the silence and say thanks and hello. :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

A great story Craig. very humble and inspiring.  

 

I have been a forum lurker and have restarted my tech career after a 4 year absence from being a senior programmer

of legacy code. Like yourself I am older and haven't had much use for javascript or anything to do with web development

until I made a career decision to get back into the game and take an E-course in Web Development that I am currently taking

online. I have completed HTML and CSS, sections of the E-course, but javascript section of the course is coming along deliberately slow, (At least I keep telling myself that.)

 

(I will get to where GSAP fits in a moment)

 

The last exercise, in my javascript section,  I am required to make something called a reaction tester...

The scope of the project is to create circles that display randomly on a webpage and then make the circle disappear,

when the user to mouse-clicks on the circle.  A reaction-time is then displayed to the user.

 

I thought to myself, wouldn't it be cool if I could animate circles and bring this application to life.

 

After 'googling' many topics such as css3 transitions, transforms, and animations and viewing other approaches that seemed

to bulky and/or required a level of javasript sophistication that I wasn't about to achieve anytime soon.  I came across GSAP.

and while I haven't tried implementing GSAP into my code yet,  I have watched a few GSAP videos, GSAP codepen demos,

and I am lurking in the forums.

 

GSAP looks incredible and I want to start playing with it ASAP, yes that is the correct word... PLAYING :)

 

I am about to create my 2nd post in a moment to see if it is possible to achieve what I dream. (Craig, your story

rightfully deserves a response, and gets my 1st post honor.) I hope that yourself, or any other GSAP Superheroes,

or fellow lurkers can help me accomplish what I want to achieve with GSAP.    See you very soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lots of love and thumbs up!

 

GSAP forum and the community are indeed super responsive and helpful.

I did ask a lot of dumb questions on the forum but everyone is so kind to not call that out (:

 

Continue the awesome work on GSAP!

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I did ask a lot of dumb questions on the forum but everyone is so kind to not call that out (:

 

The Stackoverflow effect! I think most people have this fear, but as you've seen, this forum is totally different. And when it comes to programming, I don't think there are any dumb questions.

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for sharing! I'm also just starting with GSAP and I already used GSAP for this project. My number one resource on this moment is ihatetomatoes from Petr Tichy, his inspiring workshops really helped me allot!

 

When I worked with GSAP allot of questions I had were answered through older forum posts, this forum is really helpful for people who are just starting.

 

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and when I'm confident enough I will also participate in the future.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Had this story bookmarked on Twitter for a while and finally got around to reading it.

I share Craig's sentiments even though I'm not so active on here. The general demeanor of these forums is amazing - especially the fact that I know I'll generally get an answer on here quicker than if I'd have posted on StackOverflow. And without the snark!

I'd also like to recommend a weekly newsletter of forum activity - even skimming through threads that other people are discussing helps but sometimes I forget to visit to browse.

 

I <3 you GSAP people.

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Well, it’s been 6 months since I wrote the post that started this thread and it appears to have been read quite a few times. Thank you to all who commented. I’m glad my story has inspired others to get involved in the GreenSock community.

 

Congratulations to Jack and Carl on the continued development of GSAP. The new CustomEase is absolutely astounding! I’m looking forward to all the new goodies that will come in 2017. Also – a BIG thank you for the honor of producing the explainer videos for GSAP and Club GreenSock. It was such an exciting experience and you two were so much fun to work with.

 

Cheers to my fellow moderators - Blake, Jonathan, Diaco, Dipscom and Rodrigo. You guys are so clever and talented. I keep learning more every day by reading your answers and tearing apart your CodePens. I’m truly honored to be included in such a tremendous group.

 

A shout out to the GreenSock community members. Keep learning, asking questions, experimenting and creating. My original advice still stands. If you’ve never asked or answered a question here, please jump in and participate. We’d love to hear from you.

 

I hope everyone takes some time for fun and relaxation over the holidays.

 

See you all around the forum.

 

- Craig

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Great stuff, Craig. Very thankful for you and everyone that contributes to the community here. I continue to learn more and more each day and am often amazed by what I see. Thanks for being such a big part in making this community what it is.

 

Carl

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Nice Post, Craig!

 

It totally makes me feel better because I'm just starting to transition away from the "Wait a minute. This is ridiculous." phase.

 

I'm not a strong coder, I'm used to Adobe's Edge Animate, AFX, Maya, Flash.  Anything with a GUI. This straight coding thing is a bit scary. But I hope to be where you are in 12 months. :)

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Only recently started using Greensock. Loving it so far and very much impressed with this forum! Very considerate people and a tone of voice you don't see much on the interwebs. Color me impressed :)

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Outstanding post, Craig!

 

I'm new to the Greensock world (just asked my second question this afternoon ha) and reading through your story has inspired me to learn Javascript via GSAP. It's ironic, as I was driving home from work this evening, I thought to myself "this GSAP thing could really help me learn Javascript as a whole". 

 

You're right, it's actually fun learning this way. Greensock is simply amazing. I've already had wonderful experiences with @Carl and @mikel. Seems like a great little community and I'm happy to be a part of it :)

 

We have a lot of similarities, just from reading through your post. I'd like to thank you for writing this and know that it has inspired me (and probably a lot more) to continue down this scary path. 

 

-Shawn

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