Why not?

Just kidding, there is more to it. Just thought it flows well with the title and having the answer straight up. Anyway, here's my reason.

Actually to be fair, I don't have a great reason. I mainly saw dev.to back in around early 2020, but I didn't get into it. I saw dev.to as part of my resource whenever I look up how to fix a bug or a feature I want to implement alongside with StackOverFlow. dev.to sometimes comes and go in my development and I ultimately decide to join dev.to in the middle of January.

I heard networking plays a crucial role in this career field and I believe blogging is the easiest thing for me at that time. I haven't really properly network with other people during my career other than following people on LinkedIn to begin with and just building projects no one knew about. I wasn't the type of person who would put myself out there and ask for a job because it felt like it was wrong. I am also an introvert since I wasn't really conformable meeting new people and conscious about what other people think of me.

On top of that, my OCD prevented me from doing anything technology related, so it was difficult for me to code or use my computer at all. The only thing I had at that time was a Nintendo Switch. Nothing more, nothing less. You may now be wondering: "How are you communicating right now?".

I have been doing ERP (Exposure Responsive Prevention), which has helped me a lot and I was able to use a Computer more comfortably than before. Although not perfect, I am hopeful for the future and I know it will take more time. Though, I am grateful to what my OCD gave me that I never knew, which is a deep self reflection.

OCD gave me a clear pathway on what I need to do in my career. I notice that I haven't doing much on my portfolio and projects I have was disappointing to say the least. Most projects I have done is in Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS! Never did anything advance or rarely did any.

I want to join a community, so that I can learn from others around the world. I knew that the resource I have currently is not enough and I knew I have to take a risk and put myself out there. We all know where I am at right now and I don't regret it haha.

Another thing is that I promised myself for 2026 to lock in and start putting myself out there and to share my knowledge as a developer. Additionally, I want to continue to think positively and acknowledge small wins, which helped my mental health by a mile since I have been thinking about the small wins for each day.

dev.to also helps me with my typing habit. Sometimes when I type, I tend to have a habit of erasing a whole sentence to a paragraph for reasons I don't feel conformable disclosing due to OCD.

TL;DR I felt like I was typing something wrong, which causes me to delete a good portion of what I wrote and rewrote it again.

Although it has gotten better, I still have the habit time to time. Though since I am on dev.to almost everyday, the repetitiveness basically reduced that habit since I am posting weekly and I have to type my blog out by hand. I don't use AI in writing and I avoid it completely, so that I can improve myself on writing, English, and reducing my OCD.

Now why dev.to specifically compare to other platforms? I want to find a community where it is not really big, but also not really small where no one has heard of it. I decide to look into dev.to because I have heard great things about it such as setting up your portfolio, community, and how it is recognizable from just a google search!

With that said, I want to see what dev.to was about and see the community for myself. It is not small, but big enough community where I am heard which is something I don't get used to. My experience is that I would say something (like an idea or opinion), but people don't really listen to my thoughts before speaking. They tend to be really defensive or just straight up mean without having a proper argument structure that I respect. dev.to is a good place because everyone's voice is heard and professional to the point where I can put my voice out there and respect people who agree or disagree with my opinion.

Conclusion

When someone asked me "Why did you join dev.to" back in January, I would probably say "why not" to begin with. However, if you asked me now, I would say that:

"I join dev.to because I want to be part of a community where I am supportive, and included. I realized the importance of being part of a community where I get to meet like-minded people I never knew like @codingwithjiro, @konark_13, @sylwia-lask, @itsugo and many others. I never knew that people will not only change my life as a developer, but also in general as well. It has made me a happier person and I was able to share my thoughts and opinions. Additionally, I learn a lot from other people who are more experience in this career and I was able to speed up my learning by a ton.

Honestly, if I haven't join dev.to, I would probably be behind in tech. Learning would be very difficult I would imagine.

I am glad to join dev.to and it's one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Networking is not just about meeting people just to get a job, it's about people who will support you in your career and reach to your goals beyond your comprehension."

Now it's your turn!

Now I want to hear from you. I believe this thread will allow new and current members to hear from others about their story of how they got here in the first place. I also want this to be a place to connect with other developers and make memories wherever you are.

So now tell me this: "Why did you join dev.to?" Unless you are @ben and @jess, "Why did you create dev.to?"