How did you first hear about CodeProject and why did you decide to become a member?

Ravi Bhavnani: In the 90s, Chris Maunder and I (along with several other CPians who are as old as dirt) used to contribute articles to and help out at a site called CodeGuru.com, run by Zafir Anjum. I managed the MFC/C++ and Shell Programming sections and Chris managed several others. This was a voluntary effort, whose only reward was communicating with developers all over the world who were as excited and frustrated by Microsoft technologies as the rest of us were.

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Little did we realize we were building two families: one, a family of developers, and two, a family of source code that anyone could use to their advantage. To his credit, Zafir was instrumental in blowing our minds with his plethora of articles on the ListView control, and several delicious examples of owner drawn controls.

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In 1999, Zafir sold CodeGuru to Earthweb and disappeared from sight. The quality and performance of the site swiftly degraded, and while the rest of us were bitching and moaning, Chris decided to actually do something about it and started CodeProject. Many of the early volunteers at CodeGuru began to help out at CodeProject.

DaveAuld: It has been a long time now (almost 10 years, and I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday!), but I am sure I came across CodeProject when searching on Google. However, I do remember where I was… out on the Forties Delta platform in the North Sea, and at the time, working as a Projects Team Leader. If I recall correctly, I was looking for sites relating to coding and places to discuss issues etc.

Why is CodeProject important to you and why do you continue to use it today?

Ravi Bhavnani: CodeProject is important to me for several reasons, all of which are why I continue to use it every single day.

CP is the single most valuable resource on the planet for fully contained sample code and applications for the Microsoft platform (C, C++ and C#).
CP contains some very good tutorials on specific topics. Recently, I happened to come across Shiv Koriala's quick 'n' easy introduction to Regex. In just five minutes this article caused me to lose the irrational fear of Regex that I had harboured for more than seven years. Goodbye string.IndexOf() - it's Regex all the way for me now.
CP allows me to share my work with other developers and help out those who are starting out, whenever I can. It's a small way of paying back the amazingly warm, smart, open and non-judgemental community of developers called CodeProject.
Where else can I find people who will put up with my horrible puns?

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DaveAuld: The site is important to me not only as a research tool, but it is nice just to kick back and chew the fat sometimes. I find the articles from some of the Gurus are simply awesome, and as a non-professional developer they are invaluable. I wont mention anyone by name for fear of making anyone feel left out!

I find that also writing articles and answers gives me great satisfaction in helping others and provides a mechanism to test your own writing capability and expressive methods. Those reasons, coupled with the general banter with the other members is why I keep coming back. Unfortunately life just gets in the way sometimes; otherwise I think I would be on more frequently!

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What is your most memorable moment on CodeProject?

Ravi Bhavnani: A few years ago I received an email from a product manager at Kurzweil, who wanted to know if they could have my permission to use some of my source code that they'd come across on CodeProject, in a product that helps severely visually impaired persons read. I was surprised, humbled and generally blown away by the fact that someone would find my articles and source code to be of any real use, and granted the company permission to use the code in question. But what really did it for me is that CodeProject made it possible for someone with a serious disability to have a chance at a better life. I just happened to be a tiny part of the equation.<o:p>

In case you didn't know, Kurzweil was started by Ray Kurzweil, a scientist and visionary (and now Director of Engineering at Google), and amusingly, a neighbour of mine (although he didn't know it) several years ago. By neighbour, I mean we lived in the same town. I also happen to own several products made by Kurzweil Music Systems, and thanks to Ray, an autographed copy of his book "Singularity".

DaveAuld: For me personally, the buzz at eventually publishing my first article after so many years of being a lurker was a significant milestone. It maybe wasn't a world changing article, but to me it meant a lot, and also the convergence of both hardware and software in the article made it that little bit different.

Oh, and how can we forget all the great debates on the millionth lounge post, or the great reputation recalc debacle, or even the first to 500K. It just all adds to the atmosphere and how can we forget the yearly hype around the MVP awards [I'm still waiting ;-)]

What are your thoughts on CodeProject reaching 10 million members and what do you hope the future holds for the community?

Ravi Bhavnani: I'm amazed (but not surprised) that CP's membership has grown to ten million. My hope is that CP continues to be an enabler of success as it has been for me. I've learned a lot from my much smarter and more patient colleagues at CodeProject who continue to share their wisdom with this bumbling old fart.

Now where did I put that Win32 handle...?

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DaveAuld: This is a brilliant achievement for the site and just demonstrates the work and commitment that Chris and the CodeProject team have to ensure the site doesn't go stale. Competition on the net for customers/consumers of a service is greater than ever and to keep interest going is a challenge.

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There is still a lot to do, but with the advent of the sister sites, the great competitions, and speculation of future functionality I am sure the community will just get stronger and bigger.

Here is to the next 10,000,000!!! [beer]

Other Articles In This Series

Looking back at the first 10 million members (Part Three)