[ubercat]

Hi. New member here. I wanted to D/L the refcard for Netbeans, my IDE of choice, but am required to fill out the most intrusive profile I've ever seen (in terms of minimum information).

I am NOT a professional developer. I've taken two Java classes and I'm currently studying on my own, with a goal to making my own application which will eventually go commercial. In order to complete my profile I'd have to make up a lot of information, which would violate the terms of service.

Does this website really reject those who are still learning? If so, I can go elsewhere, but it would be a shame since the RefCards looked to be very useful.

[rick]

Hi ubercat, and welcome!

I won't spend much time to discuss whether you should or shouldn't complete our registration form. Nearly a million DZone Refcardz have been downloaded by people who did. DZone is a business, and we offer the world's largest collection of prefessional developer cheat sheets, but we require registration to download. It's pretty simple.

Even for those who do not wish to register, DZone Refcardz are still easily accessible. We publish every single Refcard on scribd.com, which makes them instantly available to almost everyone, registered or not.

I don't see why you would suggest that students are not welcome, but I assure you that all students are openly invited to use any DZone resource. We genuinely hope to help increase developer access to useful knowledge resources, and we care a lot about students.

If you're really having a problem, then contact us at support@dzone.com, and we'll do what we reasonably can to help you.

Cheers,
Rick

[ubercat]

Thanks, Rick. My issue was that I had to complete a registration form which could not be completed without lying. There simply are no options available for those who aren't already professionals in the field. Ie. students. I skimmed the terms of service and failing to give completely accurate information in the registration is a violation.

In any case I will check that other website you mentioned. I'm not comfortable giving my address and phone number as the registration required. I've never had to give that information before unless I was buying something.

Thanks again for your reply.