JavaRanch
www.JavaRanch.com

JavaRanch started out as a community website to help Java developers pass Sun’s Java certification exams. It has since evolved into a generic site featuring eight certification study groups and more than two dozen vibrant discussion groups that cover every aspect of Java technology, as well as major Java products. Compared with other developer communities, JavaRanch is especially friendly to beginners. Volunteer moderators (a.k.a. bartenders) often take the time to answer even the most basic questions.

In addition to the lively discussion forums, JavaRanch also features mock exams, an informational monthly newsletter, book reviews and weekly book giveaways. Most impressively, JavaRanch offers all these features with nary a corporate backer in sight. The volunteer moderators’ elbow grease, inspired by a strong sense of community, has helped JavaRanch maintain its vendor neutrality and friendly, educational atmosphere. Mosey on up sometime, pardner.

—Michael Yuan

BEA Dev2Dev Online
BEA Systems

BEA’s Dev2Dev Developer Network has been successful in rallying their 500,000-member developer community round BEA’s WebLogic platform. The results? A wealth of knowledge and resources available in this easy-to-navigate and useful site.

The free membership includes webinars, technical presentations, code libraries and samples, downloads and white papers, as well as discounts for training, magazine subscriptions and technical books. A plethora of user and news groups is available, as well as resource libraries including tools and utilities. If you’re a web developer working with WebLogic, it’s in your best interest to sign up for Dev2Dev.

—Sue Spielman

QAforums.com
BetaSoft

So your company just decided it was time to get serious about bugs and QA, and you’ve been appointed to wield the swatter. Where do you start? Surf over to www.qaforums.com, where you’ll find more than 50 moderated forums covering many of today’s important specialties in the testing and QA profession. The forums are much broader than simply application testing: You can choose from among tutorial sections for beginners, reviews and user experience with many of the popular testing tools and discussions of problems specific to various platforms, as well as security and usability topics. And, of course, you can post questions. Finally, the site is not just theory: Avail yourself of the downloads of ready-to-use testing scripts. Got a bug? Add some zip to your zapper at this site.

—Roland Racko