Poll: What are the top 3 blogs for new .net developers?

Question

I've been tasked with a simple request at work:

I want to give our new developers a SMART goal to follow a blog for the duration of this review period. Give me three good ones to let them choose from.

Three Good Ones?!

I follow a ton it seems and whittling my list down to a top three is proving tough. I'm having a hard time picking ones that would be good specifically for a new developer rather than just the ones I enjoy the most.

So, I thought I'd defer to the community to help me out:

Which three blogs would you suggest for new .Net developers?

Answer 1

Somewhere in that list has to be

http://www.hanselman.com/blog

and

http://www.hanselminutes.com

Scott's broad & diverse range of interests and great style really make his site and podcast compelling.

Answer 2

I'd say the following blogs:

1. Scott Guthrie's
2. Scott Hanselman's
3. Jeff Atwood's

Answer 3

It's not a blog, but www.asp.net is essential for new .Net developers. It contains blogs, forums, and free video tutorials, among other things.

Other than that, see Microserf's response.

Answer 4

That's hard, but maybe:

• Ayende Rahien
• Scott Hanselman
• Google Testing Blog

But there are tons of great blogs out there. Like Carl Senguin, Rob Conery, Chad Myers, Bart De Smet .. etc etc etc.. that list goes on and on

Answer 5

1. 4 Guys from Rolla (link)
2. Steve Yegge (link)
3. Google (link)

Answer 6

Phil Haack is always a good read, followed by ScottGu and Hanselman

Answer 7

I personally like Steve Yegge's blog myself.

I thoroughly enjoy his writing.

Answer 8

What's your definition of "good" and what is the focus of their development work? Those answers will determine which blogs are relevant.

There are lot of options to choose from (adding to the list of Phil, ScottGu, ScottHa, and Jeff):

• Daniel Moth: http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/
• Charlie Calvert: http://blogs.msdn.com/charlie/default.aspx
• Sara Ford (VS Tips & Tricks): http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/default.aspx

Answer 9

most already mentioned, to add something to the list (while not always pure .net)

Less than dot: http://blogs.lessthandot.com/

Answer 10

I'm going to be a little different, and not recommended the Evangelist blogs (Haack, Hanselman, Gu)...While they are good, their information is primarily promotion.

Instead, I'm going to recommend a few blogs from Microsoft insiders who aren't afraid to call a spade a spade:

• Dare Obasanjo
• Raymond Chen
• Eric Lippert

Answer 11

dotnetrocks.com

Answer 12

It really depends on what type of .NET development you're doing so I'm going to break these into categories.

Web development

• Scott Guthrie http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/
• Phill Haack http://haacked.com/
• Scott Hansleman http://www.hanselman.com/blog/

Desktop Development

• Daniel Moth http://www.danielmoth.com/Blog/
• Brad Abrams http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/
• Krzystof Cwalina http://blogs.msdn.com/kcwalina/

Of course you limited me to 3 so I just listed the 3 I would recommend through there are many more. I would also recommend checking out the links below as they are a syndication of both MSFT and Community bloggers.

• http://weblogs.asp.net
• http://blogs.msdn.com

Answer 13

All the other blogs suggested here are excellent. I'll add a few more that I read.

• Brad Abrams (WPF, .NET, desktop stuff, just awesome)
• Jesse Liberty (Silverlight)
• Nikhil Kothari (ASP.NET)

Answer 14

For web dev, these three are crucial:

1. ScottGu - http://weblogs.asp.net/Scottgu/
2. DaveWard - http://encosia.com/
3. ScottMitchell - http://scottonwriting.net/sowBlog/

Answer 15

ALL of these blogs are great for .NET focused Object-Oriented Development and Architecture advice and techniques from basic to intermediate, including, but not limited to TDD, BDD, DDD, SOLID:

Jeremy Miller

Jimmy Bogard

Chad Myer

Answer 16

for blogs to follow (vs just use for research) I would pick ones that are updated often with useful developer content. As much as Coding Horror is a great blog, lately it has been lacking developer content. Is Scott Hanselmans' really good for NEW developers.

• Switch on the Code - tutorials
• Michael Shwartz - ASP.Net
• The Database Programmer - database stuff

honorable mention - John Resig - javascript/CSS

It's not all pure .net stuff, but who works solely within .net anyway?

Answer 17

Scott Hansleman's

Raymond Chen's

Dot Net Rocks

Bonus:

Jeff Atwood's

Answer 18

Sara Ford - http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/

You should start learning the tips and tricks of VS immidiately. A good developer should know the in's and out's of their IDE.

.NET Developers Blog - http://www.enderminh.com/netdev/rss.aspx

It's a non-specific (other than .NET) feed from a lot of different .NET developers (some non-english). You find details from WPF to ASP.NET. There can be a lot of junk, but there is also a lot of quality. It's where I found most of the devs I follow.

MSDN Blogs - http://blogs.msdn.com/MainFeed.aspx?Type=AllBlogs

Like the .NET Developers Blog but supersized. You'll also find a hell of a lot of stuff that doesn't interest you but you'll also find a lot of stuff that does. A lot of blogs come in from there so maybe go to http://blogs.msdn.com and tweak the filter (I have over 400 unread in there and that's down from 700 this morning!)

Answer 19

The Region - surprised it hasn't been mentioned. A combined 'Regional Directors' blog. Sometimes not .NET programming, but often it is, and a great way to get some diverse opions.

The VB Team - obviously best for those VB Developers, of which I am one.

ADO.NET Team Blog - infrequent posts, but great content. Recent posts from Tim (Program Manager, LINQ to SQL and Entity Framework), and David Sceppa (ADO.NET Program Manager)

Just three was tough - I love Google Reader for allowing me to keep up with so much amazing content! Hope you like my picks - I have added three or four that others suggested - thanks!

Answer 20

Try:

• Scott Hanselman http://www.hanselman.com/blog
• Joe Stagner http://misfitgeek.com/
• Stephen Walter http://stephenwalther.com/blog/Default.aspx

Good luck.