FAQs

Purpose

The purpose of this page will be to provide answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). This will eventually include links to FAQs on C++, C#, .NET, VB, and more. For now, we are providing answers to questions specific to using this site.

C++ FAQS

Our C++ FAQs are located within our discussion forum. You can find them Here.

Site FAQs

The following are FAQs regarding the site. Several of these address features that were added in May/June of 2004. Most are general site questions. If you don't find an answer here, you can post your question in the feedback section of our discussion forums

I want to submit an article! Are there any guidelines?

Yes! You can submit an article by clicking or selecting the Submit An Article button on the left navigation menu. For security reasons, you will be prompted to enter your ID and password to get to the submission page. This is to prevent someone from using your computer to get to your articles. Once you are logged back in, you will be on the first of two submission pages. You can click the help buttons and icons to get help. Additionally, you can get help by going to http://www.codeguru.com/submission-guidelines.php. These guidelines walk you through submitting an article as well as provide suggestions on writing.

Does CodeGuru accept book reviews?

Yes! Guidelines for book reviews are at http://www.codeguru.com/review-guidelines.php. We are currently in the processes of creating an online submission for for book reviews.

When I enter an article, do the administrators and moderators see it?

No! We don't actually see articles in our administrative area until you select to submit it for publishing. This means you can use the CodeGuru site to work on articles over a period of time. You can even preview them in this working area. Until you press the button to submit them, we won't know they are there.

Technical note — Yes, we could look into our database and see you have articles, but we have no reason to. We are too busy to do that. We are interested in your articles when you are ready to publish them.

I submitted an article and it isn't published yet. What gives?!

We are still reviewing articles before they are allowed to be placed on the live site. This should only take two to three days (working days). Once reviewed it will be published. You will be able to check the status (published and such) from your My Articles page in your profile.

In the very near future, we will have "Edited" versus "Unedited" articles on the site. This will allow us to get your article onto the site faster. Articles will initially be placed on the site as "Unedited". Once a reviewer and a grammatical editor have reviewed the article, the status will update to "edited". This is coming soon!

What is a CodeGuru Badge?
I saw a cool little CodeGuru graphic on another site - How do I get that?
What types of CodeGuru Badges are there?

These questions are all similar, so this answer will cover all of them!

There are three different types of badges you can get for being a part of CodeGuru. Each type of badge comes in two sizes. The three areas are:

• Member - You have registered with CodeGuru and have a sign-in name.
  
  
  
• Contributor - You have contributed one or more articles on CodeGuru and they have been published.
  
  
  
• Poster - You post in the CodeGuru discussion forums.
  
  

If you fit one or more of the above areas, then you can use one of our badges on your site to let people now!

If you place a graphic on your site, then you must link it back to CodeGuru.com. You can link the Member or Contribtor badges to either the home page (http://www.codeguru.com), to your profile page, to the forums main page, or to your article. You can link the Poster badge to the forums page. If you want to link it to a different CodeGuru page, ask us.

Just to cover us.... These badges cannot be changed in any way, nor can you use them in any way other than what we have specified here unless you obtain our written permission. We reserve the right to ask that these be removed at any time.

Are there any usage restrictions or is the code on your site considered open source?

Within the submission guidelines on CodeGuru there is a lot of information about posting as well as a Permissions paragraph. This paragraph tells you what people agreed to when they uploaded code, resources, or an article. To answer this question, submitted code has been provided with the understanding that others may use itin both, personal and corporate, applications. If you use the code, you should honor any copyright notices and other similar information that may be stated within the given code. As the fine print on nearly every site says and as it states on the general site usage notes, use of any code is at your own risk.

I use the discussion forums. Do I need to create a new user name for the main site?

Absolutely not! If you are already registered in the forums, then you are already registered for the site. A single ID works for everything!

I'm a past author. How do I get my existing articles into my profile?

If you have articles and you are listed in the List of Gurus, then you will want to make sure we link your articles to your sign in name. We had no way of knowing the sign in IDs of our authors, so we couldn't automatically assign articles. To get your articles assigned to your user name, send us the name you wrote the articles under (see the list of Gurus if you are not sure). Also send us the user name you are using. We will then shift all of your articles to your user name.

Once your articles are shifted, you will be able to access them from your profile. You will have a My Articles link that lists your published articles.

I'm a past author. I can't create a user name because it says my email address is already used. I'm not registered though!

We have created unusable, temporary IDs for all the existing articles. If you listed an email address in your published article for people to contact you, then we used that email address. Register with a secondary email address. Once we merge your existing articles, we delete the temporary ID. You will then be able to change your new profile to your preferred email address. If you don't have a secondary email address you can use, then drop us an email (submit@codeguru.com) and we will work with you to get you registered.

Note that unlike the old system, we are not putting your email address on the Web page for spiders and bots to find. Rather it is stored in our database and accessed using a dynamic form so as to not be exposed unnecessarily.

Is the site complete?

No! Phase I of a large redesign was completed in the summer of 2004. It was a big change as you can see. We still are still making a number of changes and improvements to the site. We have future phases planned as well.

I found a problem with the site. What should I do

Please let us know. We would rather hear about a problem twice than have someone not tell us. You can tell us in the Feedback discussion forum, or you can send an email to me (Brad!) webmaster@codeguru.com.

What are the "reputations" in the forums

The CodeGuru site allows for a number of different ratings. Reputations is one of these ratings. Reputations are points gained or lost on individual posts within the discussion forums. Because these are tied to individual posts, they reflect back on the person who made the post, thus giving them a reputation.

Your reputation can have positive and negative changes. Better yet, as a member of CodeGuru, you can add to others' reputations. If someone gives you a great answer, you can give them a positive reputation point(s) as a thanks. If someone blasts a thread with an off-topic post or with negative comments, you can give them a negative reputation. With time, these reputations will help the "star posters" rise and the people who only provide noise to become visible as well. Is it possible to cheat the system? Yes, but as it was in the old days, the forum moderators and I are aware of many of the ways to cheat the system and will take appropriate actions.

Reputations are indicated by a small graphic. The more positive your reputation, the more visible the graphic will become. This will be displayed by all your posts and in your profile. To add to someone's reputation, you will click a small scale graphic on the upper, right area of the post. It looks like a scale or balance. This will result in a pop-up window as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Reputations window.

In this window, you can either give a positive point (approve) or negative (disapprove). You should also add a comment on why you approve or disapprove. If this is your post, you'll be able to see the reputation points you have by clicking on the scale:

Reputations come with rules. You only get a certain number of points each day, so use them only for the best postings and responses. Right now, this is 6 times per day that points can be given.

There is reputation POWER. Power is the number of points you give each time. This starts at 1 point, but increases based on a number of criteria such as posts, tenure, and your own reputation. When you give negative points, they are at half of your power level.

Here are some other rules and settings for reputations(which are subject to change):

• You must give reputations to a number of different people before you can come back to the same person again. No giving just one person all your points!
• For every 1000 posts at CodeGuru (that are counted—so not including chitchat), you get an extra point of reputation POWER.
• For every year you have been with CodeGuru, you get an extra point of repuation POWER.
• For every 1000 points of reputation you receive, you get an extra point of repuation POWER.
• While you can use reputation points today, your reputations will not be applied until the following conditions are met:
• You must have posted at least 10 counted messages to CodeGuru.
• There was a rule that you must have 5 points of reputation yourself before your points will count (you start with 5).

I have other questions about the site. How do I get them answered?

Ask us. Send an email to submit@codeguru.com. As always, general technical questions should be asked in the discussion forums.

This page is construction. Last Updated July 29, 2004.

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