I thought it was be cool to list some of the places that I like to frequent on the web. Of course, I won’t list Twitter or Reddit — none of those billion page view sites. I’m more interested in helping you discover those places on the internet that are a bit less traveled.
Music related
We all know about Spotify, Google Music, and Tidal, but where do you go when the discovery algorithms don’t line up with your mood? I visit a site called Album of the Year found at aoty.org.
They show recent releases, best albums in genres, and some really good lists. They’re aggregating critic data from around the web to compile their best of lists. Definitely worth a look if you’re trying to find some new artists.
News and Blogs
I’ve been using Feedly for a while now and really enjoy it. I’ve found a number of new sites to include every day and I almost don’t have enough time to sift through all the good content. I’d say it’s better than Medium, after Medium introduced their pay model — their content seems driven for dollars not quality now. With Feedly I get to curate the blogs that matter and be introduced to new content with their suggestions.
Reading
If you’re looking for a good short story site, especially in favor of flash fiction, you need to take a look at EveryDayFiction.com. They have been running the site for a number of years and literally publish a story a day. Writers should also take note, as it’s a great way to get in front of an audience and to try out new ideas.
Programming
I can say without doubt, that Laracasts helped me immensely in my search for help learning PHP. I say that as a full-time web application developer, having worked in the field for more than five years now. I started my Laravel journey in 2015, and now have a lifetime membership to the Laracasts site. I go there at least once a week to catch up on new tutorials and to learn about what’s new in Laravel. The discussion forum is also a great place to get help when/if I’m stuck on a project. I’ve also tried to give back to help myself understand concepts better. We keep what we have by giving it away, after all.
Swift caught my attention when version 4 came out. I have always wanted to get into mobile development and chose iOS as the best possible avenue to learning it. I have a few ideas for applications that I want to build, but never had the stamina to learn a new language. That is until I ran across @twostraws on Twitter. The user behind handle, Paul Hudson, has a website called Hacking With Swift where he guides users through the intricacies of the language.