Welcome fellow Degenerates!

I’m Sharon, a Computing student based in London. Degeneration IT is the product of a couple of years of collected, little, annoying frustrations… Where do I put those little projects that are just not ready enough for my portfolio? Where can I be seen for my work and not my CV? Where can I found a complete (that’s a challenge) calendar of events? And the list just grows.

I sincerely hope that DGIT will be a place where developers, games programmers, digital artists (and all other kinds of IT degenerates) can share knowledge and achievements, can find information and inspiration, can ask for help or provide it. I am a very ‘green’ developer and I would like to be in a place where I’m not ashamed of being still in my learning and experimenting phase, where being a ‘noob’ is not a curse.

Ok now to the ‘technical’ part. I’ll make a list, I like lists:

1. This website has been done by 2 people, there might be little mistakes and there’s room for improvement: LET US KNOW! You can report bugs or file requests here.
2. Every post needs to be approved, that means that once you submit a post, you won’t see it anywhere until the chief editor approves it.
3. The News sections seems a little ‘formal’ now. That’s simply because the website is new. I would love to see some articles done by you here! Not only news about new games or software or the new Oculus Rift, but events you attended, hackathons bloopers, tutorials or guides you made, you being nominated for something or receive a prize… Seriously I want this to be more about our community.
4. The Ask section is for getting help, of any [IT-related] kind. You need a game tested? You need feedbacks on a project, a survey, technical help… ASK! What you offer in return is up to you.
5. Events: we try to put as many as we can ourselves, but there are really a lot. If you’re hosting an event, or simply attending or heard about it, share it with us! We’d like to create a comprehensive, searchable calendar and we need your help to do it (I have a life you know! Well not really, but I have classes). Also, we’d like to take the ethical stance of advertising only events that preserve your Intellectual Property, please try to avoid to post events that don’t comply to this. What you do should be yours (unless you’re paid to do it!). If you see us slipping in one of those by mistake, let us know.
6. Co-authors: If you did one of your project as part of a group, when posting you’ll find an option to put co-authors [they must be registered].
7. It seems I’m only talking to students, but I’m really not. This year I’ll graduate and won’t be a student anymore, but I will still be very green. Also, you could be an established developer, but still have little projects on the side. Nobody is excluded!
8. IMPORTANT!!! We tried to make the website as simple as possible, so we eliminated categories, subcategories and so on. That means that the whole website works with tags. Please tag everything! Be detailed, put as many tags as you can and you will increase the chance for your project/article/event to be seen and especially searched. Our existing pool of tags will grow as you post, so tag tag tag!
9. There will be zero tolerance on rudeness or inappropriateness! 1 strike and you’re out. Everybody should feel safe to share their work, express their creativity and thoughts and to ask ‘stupid’ questions. If you can’t say anything nice [or constructive], don’t say anything at all.
10. Be curious!! Projects are not only for showing off, but also to find inspiration, solutions and answers.
11. Promote yourself! We’re here to be a channel for you to be seen. On your profile or posts/project put a link on your portfolio, Linkedin, Behance, GitHub! We have good contacts, you may get the chance to be seen by somebody important (or better, that has the monies!).

Ultimately have fun and don’t be shy!!

Sharon