Tutorials

[Xlphos]

Hi I have just been looking at the tutorial section and noticed their is very little there.

I would like to see more stuff up there, who can write the tutorials?

Anyone any views on this?

[jbennet]

There was a lot before, but the were all of poor quality, so most were pruned and the rules were changed. Users can submit tutorials to staff members for consideration and editing, but no longer are able to upload them themselves

[WaltP]

Hi I have just been looking at the tutorial section and noticed their is very little there.

[RANT] What is it about there/their/they're that no one seems to know that the words are not interchangeable! Are the definitions that ambiguous? [/RANT] :icon_rolleyes:

[jbennet]

there = a place e.g "over there"
they're = they are e.g they're going to the shop
their = posession e.g "their homes were burnt down"

[Xlphos]

Okay I see but it would be more helpful is there were instructions on how to make them or a button to submit a tutorial for review.

Is my Grammer okay? Any punctuation missing? I think I put the full stop in the correct place.

[WaltP]

Sorry, Xlphos. After all the posts that can't get the correct word, that one more pushed me over the edge. I'm OK now.

By the way, it's grammar :icon_wink:

[Xlphos]

Ha, Ha, Ha... I know.

But seriously think about what I said.

[serkan sendur]

Hi I have just been looking at the tutorial section and noticed their is very little there.

I would like to see more stuff up there, who can write the tutorials?

Anyone any views on this?

i like to post some tutorials, as jbennet said it is hard to submit.

[jbennet]

just PM them to happygeek and he will tell you what to do
There is also a (hidden) URL you can use for submission i think, but youll have to ask dani about that

[WaltP]

I don't think it's appropriate to tell someone about hidden URLs. They are probably hidden for a reason. :icon_wink:

[John A]

They're not hidden, they're just deliberately cumbersome. Anyone with a little bit of logic can figure them out.

[William Hemsworth]

I don't see why it should be so hard to post your own tutorials. Presumably it was posters with a low post count / bad reputation who flooded the tutorial section with bad tutorials. How about restricting the tutorial section for members with a certain amount of (useful) posts and reputation. I guess you could also use the number of solved threads as a variable.

It may require a little extra moderating, but I think it would be worth it.

[~s.o.s~]

> How about restricting the tutorial section for members with a
> certain amount of (useful) posts and reputation

Two points:

• useful is subjective term.
• (Reputation + Post count) =/= (measure of ones' technical expertise)

Reviewing technical content is time consuming and can't be done by *anyone*. Heck, some people get paid to review third party technical content. The expertise and time required for reviewing a tutorial [lets say around 3-4 pages] doesn't come cheap.

It's better to have no or very few tutorials rather than a lot of substandard tutorials which eventually might bring down the name of Daniweb.

[happygeek]

What he said. :)

[William Hemsworth]

>It's better to have no or very few tutorials rather than a lot of substandard tutorials which eventually might
>bring down the name of Daniweb.
With that logic, it would be sensible to disable the whole code snippet section. There's a countless number of awful snippets which are regularly viewed and used, but I don't think that means it should just be totally closed off.

>(Reputation + Post count) != (measure of ones' technical expertise)
Maybe not entirely, but its better to go off that than nothing. I somehow doubt there would be people with 50+ solved threads, a high post count and a good reputation who would submit a tutorial which would be less than helpful to newbies. Obviously you could also allow members to rate tutorials and leave comments, thus meaning people will have an overall idea of whether or not the tutorial is reliable to use.

I don't mean to sound stubborn, I just don't think disabling it all together is the right choice ;)

[Xlphos]

Okay how about this, I have used an ubuntu forum and they have a 'how to' section. You write the how to and submit it , that then gets reviewed by a moderator.

We could have something like a submit section on tutorials. Submitted tutorials can then be published when they are reviewed.

Could something like this be done, after all i read earlier that you have to contact someone to do it. This way we wouldn't need to contact anyone just wait for it to get reviewed/checked.

[~s.o.s~]

> but I don't think that means it should just be totally closed off

The code snippet section of Daniweb is very much similar to other online code snippet repositories like Dzone snippets wherein members can submit snippets with a brief description. Such repositories can have snippets ranging from extremely helpful to obviously useless ones. As long as it isn't spam, the code snippet section can contain any sort of code snippet out there; hence the ability to create language categories or tags on fly when submitting them. There is a difference between a public "code snippet or repository" and a tutorial; you're comparing apples to oranges here. :-)

> I somehow doubt there would be people with 50+ solved
> threads, a high post count and a good reputation who would
> submit a tutorial which would be less than helpful to newbies.

Those who do wrong aren't necessarily aware of it. So even if there would be no spam if such a rule is enforced, the fear of sub-standard tutorials turning up would be still there. You've got to realize that any technical content posted in the name of a tutorial or book if not reviewed is FAIL. Though I agree that if Daniweb can afford substandard tutorials which improve over time with user feedback, this clause would be a good starting point.

> Submitted tutorials can then be published when they are reviewed.

Re-read my previous post, esp the part about tutorial review.

Anyways, given that Dani is the final authority for these sort of things, it'd be logical to wait for her reply after she finishes up dealing with the server migration issues which are keeping here busy these days.

[William Hemsworth]

>There is a difference between a public "code snippet or repository" and a tutorial;
>you're comparing apples to oranges here.
Users learn from both snippets and tutorials. For example, a lot of what I know in coding came from reading other peoples code, and it's things like this which make 'void main' so popular. Even though snippets aren't exactly intented for learning, people still use them and learn from them.

It sounds like im against code snippets now, but im using it as more of an example as to why we shouldn't worry too much about small flaws that might occur in tutorials. I guess this is the sort of thing im talking about. [link]

I used to be an active member of that forum, and I was probably the age of twelve when I submitted my first (and only) tutorial. Now not surprisingly, there were some small problems with my tutorial, but people still liked it and learnt from it. Other members commented on some problems, but from there on, pretty much everybody managed to learn something from the tutorial.

You may think it could bring down the name of Daniweb, I think it could promote it.

>Anyways, given that Dani is the final authority for these sort of things, it'd be logical to wait for her reply
>after she finishes up dealing with the server migration issues which are keeping here busy these days.
*Awaits Dani*

[~s.o.s~]

> Users learn from both snippets and tutorials.

Here you're speaking from the end users' perspective and not from the site owners' POV.

> I guess this is the sort of thing im talking about. [link]

How is spam handled on that site? What if I just do a copy-paste of someone elses' work and paste there? Are tutorials reviewed before they are made available to public? Is any sort of review done, ever, on that site? How long does it take for the tutorial to be reviewed and accepted? How credible is the reviewing committee?

> You may think it could bring down the name of Daniweb, I think it
> could promote it.

Then it should have happened on a large scale already since the user submitted tutorial feature was brought down a few months ago. Plus there are a lot of other implications the site owner needs to take care of like content stealing etc.

Though what you suggest sounds good enough it can't be done "just like that". Maybe trying it again for a limited time period might just give us idea whether the suggestion really works or not.

[~s.o.s~]

[a new post since I can't seem to edit the original one]

> Users learn from both snippets and tutorials.

Here you're speaking from the end users' perspective and not from the site owners' POV.

> I guess this is the sort of thing im talking about. [link]

How is spam handled on that site? What if I just do a copy-paste of someone elses' work and paste there? Are tutorials reviewed before they are made available to public? Is any sort of review done, ever, on that site? How long does it take for the tutorial to be reviewed and accepted? How credible is the reviewing committee?

[William Hemsworth]

>Are tutorials reviewed before they are made available to public?
You have to become an author before you can post any tutorials on that site, which requires you to write a quick biography before being accepted.

>Are tutorials reviewed before they are made available to public?
My guess is that they are looked at briefly. When I posted mine for the first time, I got warned about code tags but there was no thorough review, it was up to the comments to decide if the tutorial was good or not.

>How long does it take for the tutorial to be reviewed and accepted?
It was pretty fast for me :P

It's been a long while since i've looked at that site, but the tutorial section was something I liked and used.

>[a new post since I can't seem to edit the original one]
Same happened to me on my previous post, I deleted it and reposted it.

[Dani]

Sorry about the inability to edit posts for 2 days, folks. That's been taken care of. As you're aware, I've been busy dealing with server migration issues that have just been KILLING me!

That being said, DaniWeb forums are for peer-to-peer support. Code snippets are a peer-to-peer repository where members can contribute code snippets and other members can vote on them based on their usefulness and use them accordingly.

Blog entries and tutorials are primarily not meant to be peer to peer as much as driven by an editorial team.