Welcome to the first installment of "Tales from the List," a monthly column devoted to the discussion threads (and their creators) on the ColdFusion Developer's Journal Mail List (CFDJList).

Each installment will examine popular discussion thread(s) from the list from the previous month. On occasion we'll profile an active member of the list, view list statistics, and that sort of thing. As this is the first article, I'll give a brief overview of the list and discuss how you, the reader, can play an active role.

SYS-CON Media's CFDJList began three years ago to support the growing community of ColdFusion developers. From its humble beginnings the list has grown to a current enrollment of over 600 active members. Although the overwhelming majority of the members are from the United States, many other nationalities are represented, including The United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia, France, China, Canada, and India. There is no cost for membership; simply send a blank e-mail to join-CFDJList@mailbox.sys-con.com, or visit www.sys-con.com/coldfusion/list.cfm and follow the instructions there.

List members exchange ideas and post questions and answers on a wide range of topics related to tasks commonly performed (and challenges encountered) by ColdFusion developers in today's workplace. On average, between fifty and a hundred e-mail messages are sent to the list on any given weekday; fewer are posted on the weekends (yes, there is life beyond programming).

Relevant topics include JavaScript, SQL, Web server configuration, ColdFusion Application Server administration, and, of course, CFML application development. Likewise, the level of expertise of list contributors ranges from newbie developers to some of the most seasoned Web developers in the business. Recently, the list archives section of the CFDJ Web site was overhauled. Old software was discarded, and the list now has a (FuseTalk-powered) Web-based forums interface, which allows nonlist subscribers to read and post questions. The archive also serves to make past and present list threads fully searchable.

For quite some time now, my involvement with the CFDJList has been that of a frequent contributor. When I began working with ColdFusion back in version 1.5, there really weren't many resources available to help developers new to the CFML language hone their skills. I began contributing to the list as a way to offer the sort of advice to CF newcomers that I wish had been available when I began my Web development career. Over time, ColdFusion and its development community have grown in size and popularity (as did list membership). At the request of Robert Diamond, CFDJ's editor-in-chief, I have become the official list administrator. He also requested that I use this column to share popular discussions and interesting discoveries contributed by list members.

As a certified Macromedia instructor, I try to leave each finished class with a few important pieces of advice to aid students in the workplace. The most important of which is never to spend more than 15 minutes on any development problem. The odds are that if you don't see the answer in the first five to fifteen minutes, you're probably not going to find the answer anytime soon - so stop banging your head against the wall. When you do encounter a problem (don't worry...it happens to the best of us), the best thing to do is seek a second pair of eyes or get advice from someone who's been down that road before. This help might be in the form of an online knowledge base, a co-worker, a favorite reference book, or maybe the CFDJList.

I recommend that any of you who aren't active members of a mail list now subscribe to one. If you don't find yourself banging your head against the wall very often, great...your insight will be invaluable to members of the list who need advice. If you're just learning, find yourself spending long hours debugging code or doing research, or just have a lot of questions or ideas you'd like to bounce off other developers, then you'll likewise find that you can serve an important role on the CFDJList. We're all part of a community, and it's only through supporting one another that any of us can become better at what we do.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say "thank you" to all of the current members of the list who make being part of the ColdFusion development community so rewarding and so much fun, and "welcome" to those of you who haven't yet joined the CFDJList but plan to in the future.

Look for this column next month when we examine recent popular list discussions and their resolutions.