PairMe

As developers, we understand that feeling lost or needing guidance is an integral part of the development process. Sometimes you need to leverage other people’s eyes, ears, and brains to get you out of a coding funk. But it’s not always easy to find the help you need, when you need it.

Our mission is to provide you with an easy way to request and offer help on challenges that arise in the curriculum, as well as seek guidance on individual projects. Through the PairMe bot, we automatically pair you with someone who's either able to help you or is looking for your help! The process is simple:

Say you’re being introduced to React for the first time. You’ve watched the lecture video, tried some online resources, and put the StackOverflow servers under extreme load trying to understand lifecycle methods. It feels like you’re slowly going crazy, stuck in isolation, and just want someone to talk this through with you.

Another student finished learning React a few weeks ago, and loves to bring other fledgling developers into the light of component-based architecture. Now instead of trying to find someone proficient enough or writing long winded messages to the #React channel, all you have to do is send us a DM! The PairMe bot accepts commands in the `help react` or `assist react` format. You are put into a queue and paired up with someone who typed the opposite command.

Once you DM the PairMe bot with `help React`, the bot will recognize when there are two people that can be matched for a topic and informs you and the person who volunteered to help you that a match has been made. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of trouble-shooting inquiries and we hope it will encourage new programmers to reach out for help when they need it.

We automate the process of finding face-to-face code instruction so that your calls for help don’t get lost in the Slack stampede. And as for helpers, no good deed goes unrewarded! Rack up points to keep track of how many debug dragons you’ve slain, so you can show off to all the other devs your skills in collaborative problem solving.

Coding is fun. It’s challenging. Sometimes, it’s really hard, but it’s always a little easier when we work together.

PairMe puts programmers together, because more important than learning to code, are the friends we make along the way.