New Small Basic Content Contest - TechNet Wiki

Question

Read the rules and info here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/10/16/small-basic-new-technet-wiki-contest.aspx

Here are the basics...

I'm going to be holding a contest for the best Small Basic articles on TechNet Wiki. The first contest will be held from now until 10/26/12.

There will be two winners...

• Best Article
  1. I will be a judge along with at least two guest judges from Microsoft
  2. Anybody can compete (including Microsoft employees, although the judges won't consider our own articles)
  3. We'll be looking for articles that are thorough, visually clear (images might help, but aren't necessary), and well written.
  4. Prizes include an interview post on the Small Basic Blog, and a feature post on the blog of your article. You'll also be announced in the forums as well.
• Best Contributor
  1. This is for the overall person who has contributed the most (other than the winner of Best Article).
  2. Same judges (me and at least two Microsoft guest judges).
  3. We'll be taking into account overall number of edits/contributions, quality of additional material added to articles started by others, translations, etc.
  4. This is to acknowledge other important contributions to Small Basic content on TechNet Wiki... spelling corrections, grammar corrections, space formatting, adding tags, adding images, adding sections/scenarios, adding links to other Wiki articles, translating articles into other languages, updating information with current links/product names/details, and more!
  5. Prize is a blog post on the Small Basic blog that features them and their accomplishments. You'll also be announced in the forums as well.

Read the blog post for the rest: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/10/16/small-basic-new-technet-wiki-contest.aspx

Noah, Nonki, and I got us started. You can reply here or comment on the blog if you have questions.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 1

Awesome contest! Here's my first article: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14015.using-the-joysticks-game-controllers-extension-for-microsoft-small-basic.aspx.

Answer 2

Nice idea!

But something wrong in TechNet Wiki?  After push [Save] button of an article, sometimes it is not saved and profile screen comes up.

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Nonki Takahashi

Answer 3

Awesome contest! Here's my first article: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14015.using-the-joysticks-game-controllers-extension-for-microsoft-small-basic.aspx.

Great contribution, Gungan! I added more tags.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 4

I've created an extensions tutorial that is more in-depth that Noah's, and uses C# instead of VB.NET.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14025.microsoft-small-basic-writing-an-extension.aspx

Answer 5

Thanks Liam! I'm going to retitle both yours and Noah's so that there's consistency and so it's clear what the difference is (C# versus VB.NET).

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 6

I cleaned up/added some order to Gungan's article.

Answer 7

Thanks Liam --- looks much better! I have never written a wiki page before, as evidenced by the original version =)

I have uploaded the code to the MSDN Code Gallery, so please check it out at: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Small-Basic-Joysticks-1ad2329a!

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Please mark any answers and "vote as helpful" any posts that help you!

Answer 8

Very cool, Gungan. Thanks!

I added a few Wiki articles, but obviously these don't count for the contest:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14070.small-basic-list-of-extensions.aspx

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14071.small-basic-the-14-keywords.aspx

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14013.list-of-programs-made-with-small-basic.aspx

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 9

This goes in the opposite direction of the other articles, but I gets to the point and motivation behind SmallBasic.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14084.getting-johnny-to-code.aspx

An article on the importance of setting goals as a motivating force to get beginners past the initial frustration of learning to program.

Answer 10

This goes in the opposite direction of the other articles, but I gets to the point and motivation behind SmallBasic.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14084.getting-johnny-to-code.aspx

An article on the importance of setting goals as a motivating force to get beginners past the initial frustration of learning to program.

Great! I changed the title so that someone could find it like searching in a content Library (the wiki has some guidelines for that), but I kept your title at the top of the article. Great article; your experience really helps make your points!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 11

This goes in the opposite direction of the other articles, but I gets to the point and motivation behind SmallBasic.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14084.getting-johnny-to-code.aspx

An article on the importance of setting goals as a motivating force to get beginners past the initial frustration of learning to program.

Also, your content works well for a blog. Do you want me to blog it for you as a guest blogger?

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 12

Yes, please. I would be honored to be a guest blogger.  :-)

Answer 13

Yes, please. I would be honored to be a guest blogger.  :-)

Coding Cat, do you have a bio, site link, or anything you want me to mention? I can just keep your bio mysterious if you prefer.

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 14

See Nonki's new article, "How to Debug" here: social.technet.microsoft.com/.../14121.small-basic-how-to-debug.aspx

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 15

This content contest is coming to a close.

Here are our contestants for the "Best Article":

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13342.small-basic.aspx - Noah

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14015.using-the-joysticks-game-controllers-extension-for-microsoft-small-basic.aspx - Gungan

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14121.small-basic-how-to-debug.aspx - Nonki

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14084.small-basic-how-to-get-kids-to-try-programming.aspx - Coding Cat

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14025.small-basic-how-to-create-an-extension-using-c.aspx - Liam

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14075.small-basic-control-statements.aspx - Nonki

   http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13340.small-basic-how-to-create-an-extension-using-vb-net.aspx - Noah

 

Here are our contestants for Best Contributor:

   Nonki

• 2 Japanese translations: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13871.small-basic-ja-jp.aspx, http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/13867.small-basic-vb-net-ja-jp.aspx
• 63 contributions on TechNet Wiki Small Basic articles in the last 9 days!
• 69 total article edits

   Gungan

• 8 contributions on TechNet Wiki Small Basic articles in the last 2 days
• 18 total article edits

   Luigi

• 1 Italian translation: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14078.small-basic-it-it.aspx
• 3 total article edits (on Small Basic articles) in the last 6 days

Thanks everyone! I'll post the results on the blog!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 16

I just published a tool for Small Basic code block in TechNet Wiki.  There is not Small Basic in language list box of Code block format in TechNet Wiki.  So I wrote it as Small Basic progarm.

Program ID is SKC235-1.

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Nonki Takahashi

Answer 17

Wow, Nonki! Very creative use of Small Basic! We should add this to the Programs Gallery as well and write a Wiki article about it. Do you want to write that article?

Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 18

OK, I'll try to write Wiki article about this tool.

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Nonki Takahashi

Answer 19

I wrote http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/14220.small-basic-how-to-format-code-block.aspx.

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Nonki Takahashi

Answer 20

Thanks Nonki!

The update on the contest is that we're currently judging the articles. Thanks!

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 21

Our winners are announced here... Liam and Nonki... http://blogs.msdn.com/b/smallbasic/archive/2012/11/02/small-basic-contest-winners-technet-wiki-content.aspx

Thank you to everyone who submitted articles! After rewarding the prizes (various blog posts) to the winners, we will continue to acknowledge Small Basic contributions on TechNet Wiki.

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Ed Price (a.k.a User Ed), SQL Server Customer Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

Answer 22

I noticed that my Code Block Generator SKC235-1 can be used also for this forum's article.

Example:

1.' Sample Program

2.For i = 1 To 10

3.  TextWindow.Write(i + " ")

4.EndFor

5.TextWindow.WriteLine("")

Use HTML button of this forum to paste HTML code.

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Nonki Takahashi

Answer 23

nice