http://javachannel.org is the “channel website” for Libera #java (if the title of the site doesn’t give it away), the replacement for the old Freenode ##java channel (see this post on the move from freenode).
The idea behind this site is that a lot of the conversation on #java is fairly useful (a lot is … not) and it’d be a shame to not preserve interesting content, whether it’s stuff that people talk about on #java, or whether it’s stuff that #java might find interesting or relevant.
We publish a few different kinds of content:
- A set of “interesting links,” comprised of things that might be topical for #java (i.e., things that come up during conversation, or have come up before, or things that maybe should have come up)
- Original content related to topical content (i.e., Java development), generally written by people on the channel but not limited to them.
The site doesn’t really solicit content, although it’s welcomed; the idea is not that this site becomes a general clearinghouse, but that it serve as an outlet when none other seems convenient.
For example, if someone talks about something relevant (let’s pick resource streams as a real-world example), it’d be great if their expertise were preserved for others to vet and learn from. Thus, the operators of the channel asked the person in question to write up more about resource streams, and publish it somewhere. It didn’t matter where; his own blog would have been fine, as would StackOverflow, or DZone, or TheServerSide.com. If he had no desire to publish on those platforms, well, this site can serve as a platform as well, and it did: see “How to access static resources in Java.”
One advantage of this site is that it actually has a professional editor and java coder to curate content.
This site doesn’t carry ads (although there’s no promise not to in the future, I guess, but the intent is not to use the site for profit); we don’t sell user lists; we accept sponsors, but don’t solicit sponsorship. It’s a gratis resource, provided because we care just that much.