What do Bubblers gain from contributing to the forum?

Being that this is a very active community, what do Bubblers gain from contributing to the forum? Like answering questions and solving the bugs of users? Is there some hidden benefit that I am unaware of? Do you get Bubble credits for an active participant in the forums? Can you explain your reasons why you contribute to the Bubble forum?

I think they are just being nice mostly. I have received help from others so if I know the answer I am happy to contribute. A few advertise services but most are just individuals helping I believe.

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We are trying to help for the same reason as any help provided anywhere in the world. We have no financial gain, but I feel spiritually happy for my part.

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When I was new here I learnt a lot from this forum and just wanted to give it back

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Itā€™s in the nature of giving back I think for most. Forum has passively taught me so much.

I know some people offer help and then they are able to charge consulting hours; totally cool too. Others find work by giving advice and then becoming the builder.

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  1. I started to give back (if you go back two years on my profile youā€™ll find some embarrassing questions)
  2. Exploring other peopleā€™s issues helps you improve your own platform understanding
  3. Most of my work now comes through the forum
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Itā€™s a friendly place :slight_smile: Many Bubblers are utterly obsessive about Bubble and you can meet like-minded people :rofl:

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Like others have stated, itā€™s nice to give back and be supportive to the community. If someone succeeds from getting help, it continues there journey on the platform and with that hopefully continues the platform to thrive.

I know in the past Iā€™ve been compelled to help others and almost see myself in the early days of when I started, how helpful it was and appreciative towards others helping.

Another thing is that, for the person helping to answer a question or solve a bug is that, it gets you thinking and problem solving. It gets your brain working in a different way from a kind of solo approach to thinking a loud and putting the thoughts and answers into a more readable format, usually more broken down. It can engage your bubble way of thinking in different scenarios that youā€™ve perhaps not thought of or experienced, so you can see a flip side as to how you would do something and answer back in the question.

I feel like there are many benefits and knowledge shared is a great thing here in this space.

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For me, I had learned so much from the forum (it was actually a post on the forum I stumbled upon during a Google search for NoCode tools that introduced me to Bubble), that when I got to the point that I could start to answer questions, it was a nice way to give back. You can look at some of my earlier posts as well and see the types of questions I was asking when I started.

The best part is all of us are still learning (I just had a great call with @georgecollier this morning to learn from him!). Sometimes I see a question with an interesting challenge that I donā€™t know the answer to outrightā€¦but I THINK I know the answer, and itā€™s a nice mental break to step away from actively developing my app and try my hand at solving another issue - and in the process, learn the solution myself as well.

No sir! (at least not that Iā€™ve ever seen) the only real benefit I could say I get (beyond knowing Iā€™m helping people) is after Iā€™d been around long enough, my account was granted ā€˜Regularā€™ status, which I wear on my profile with pride :smiley:

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when one teaches, two learn

Itā€™s quite surprising but when you try to explain something it also challenges you to know it well enough to say it out loud in a way that others can learn.

Above all, Iā€™m very thankful that we have great bubblers in this forum that are willing to spend some time helping others in their learning journeys. And while I donā€™t want to turn help here into a transactional game, there is some truth in making it fun and rewarding for everyone so the platform can continue to help users into the future.
So Iā€™ll be looking for ways to make the space better for everyone.

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Agree with what everyone has said so far! I think the beauty of Bubble is the community that has been built around it. Bubbleā€™s such a versatile product that Bubble Support by itself couldnā€™t handle all the volume of questions and discussions that happen on the forum.

Also, agree with @georgecollier, people who are hiring a Bubble Developer, typically turn to the forum and look for individuals whoā€™ve added value to the discussion that happens on the forum which shows knowledge that a contributor on the forum has.

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As social animals, humans derive many positive psychological and emotional benefits by helping others. In psychology this is known as ā€œhelperā€™s highā€. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Echoing others, itā€™s good to give back after learning so much from other forum contributors. Another reason for me is to keep the cycle going too. Many great contributors have stopped actively contributing or left the platform completely but itā€™s great to discover new ones pop up.

Also for the magic stars and hearts.

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So many great answers, I feel like I am more encouraged to give back to the Bubble community after hearing all of your answers.

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When I first got started I hit a brick wall, paid an expert $2/minute who couldnā€™t solve and tried to convince me bubble was not the right choice. I turned to Forum and was given the answer which kept my Bubble journey alive. Due to that I wanted to pay it forward.

As I continued in the beginning, I began answering questions with not the best approaches, and got schooled by those more knowledgeable than myself, and so I was able to improve myself while trying to help others. I continue to this day picking up trips and tricks from others, get seeds for concepts planted in my head, see things I might need later in time (I use bookmark feature a lot and have come back 6-9 months later when finally needing the feature/function), and generally keep up to date with Bubble ecosystem like new plugins or built in features.

At a time I was writing self promotionally with even having links at end of posts but started to feel tacky doing so and stopped. There really is not a need to be self promoting in your posts as true value is self evident and people do reach out based on seeing consistent, high quality replies to questions with direct answers that solve peopleā€™s issues.

I still ask questions myself too, or keep that early day mentality of scouring the forum for the little nugget of information that allows me to solve my own problem.

Also, for me, the forum is my social media of choice.

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I do 100% of my hiring through the forum right now also - itā€™s an easy way to see whoā€™s got their head screwed on and has sensible ideas, and Iā€™ve successfully hired three senior developers for my agency by seeing their forum responses. Iā€™ve also eyed up the ones I want to try and poach nextā€¦

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Iā€™ve been developing in Bubble for 4 years, and I find it gives my day a good start to solve a small problem as a brain teaser before actual work, itā€™s also a good place to find leads and a nice way to give back to the community for all the stuff I learned here for free.

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@recker249 Thanks for the chuckle today!

I have been asked this question twice on dm and find it kind of funny that we as humans want to see the ulterior motives in positive things.

My forum journey has been quite recent even though I have been working with bubble for long. And there is so much you learn from others.

Also, this is quite true.

And this has become true for me while on digital detox :rofl:

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Staying active on the forum, even if itā€™s just to read or occasionally participate, gives a true sense of belonging and achievement.

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Status, even in a local sense, still provides a dopamine high. Thereā€™s also the self-promotional aspect (ā€œI know how to fix your problem, I can be trusted to build stuff, you should pay meā€).

Take away the profile names/pictures/pages and almost nobody would contribute.