Tutorials- Sometimes one isn't enough.

I'm not sure this is the right place to post such a comment, but I will be discussing tutorials so I figure this is the right place.

Recently I've seen in a number of tutorial threads people commenting on searching before writing a tutorial to see if the subject has already been covered. Although most of these posts are not meant negativily, some are.

Learning for one person is not the same as learning for another. Some people learn by doing, while others can learn theory and concepts strictly from text. For this reason I do not think that the AntiOnline community should discourage people from writing tutorials on subjects that have already been covered. Some people need to absorb information from mulitple sources in order to gain understaning of a subject.

Think about when you were in school. Most of us could not learn a subject strictly from a teacher's lectures. We had to listen to the lecture, read the text book, do the homework, and then suplement the information with special projects such as research papers.

Currently on my book shelf I have three begenners books on C++. While no one book is clearly better than another, they all tell the same thing but in diffrent matters. Why one book may explain variables more clearly, anohter may handle the subject of classes better.

I believe having many user written tutorials on a similar subject is a benefit to the entire AntiOnline community. While the tutorials may cover similar subjects, they may say it diffrently (not necessarly better, just diffrent). This redudency ensures that all members of AntiOnline can find a tutorial that makes sense to them.

So in short I encourage tutorials on subjects that have already been covered, I might just walk away with something that I missed in another tutorial.

Just my thoughts.

DeafLamb

EDIT: If this post isn't in the right area, would a moderator please move it. Sorry.

I don't think the community necessarily dicourages this. I think as long as the tutorials are different they can be on the same subject without a problem. I know I've written a basic java tutorial even though there were already one or two, but I did it because I felt that the other tutorials didn't grasp the concept of java and weren't elaborate enough. So I say If you think you can ad something to a subject, do it. And by the way, this probably would have been better off in general chit chat. It will probably get moved there anyway.
Just my 2 cents.

H3r3tic, i agree if you are goiing to add stuff to what is already there, but IMHO, if you are just posting the same thing, then there really shouldnt be another one...


slick

Deaflamb- I follow your line of thinking. Nothing you have said is "wrong" but you should understand that tutorials aren't like regular posts. Tutorials are something that one should spend a long time preparing and should be virtually flawless. Part of preperation is making sure that you are adding something and not just restating what already exists. I've seen a lot of people writing tutorials just for the sake of gaining a few useless green dots. In a lot of these cases, there already existed a tutorial that was written by someone who did a better job and had better reasons for writing it. In these cases it is important to let the person know that tey should have at least researched this site to see if someone had already written something of better value. In h3r3tic's case, he researched the site and determined that he was capable of writing a tut that had more to offer and could put a different and often better spin on the subject. In that case tutorials of the same topic are fine. It is the quick and dirty tutorials that people write and often plagerize that get negative responses by the community. I remember reading h3r3tic's tutorial on Java and remember that he got a good response from people because he honestly did a better job than those before him. It is better to write on an orginal topic but if that isn't possible, at least make sure that you are adding something that wasn't already there. :)
-NeuTron

Neutron and h3r3tic'

I totaly agree with the points that you have mentioned. I don't believe a tutorial should be a half-assed attempt to win green points, but a well prepared work that the author has put real time and effort into. The point that I am trying to point out is that some members instantly write "Next time try doing a search on the subject, this subject has already been covered" when they see a tutorial about a common subject such as begenning programming tutorials. While I agree that some tutorials are not well prepared, some tutorilas offer no new information, but add to the tutorial forms.

As long as the information is well prepared, I don't beleive it should matter if it has already been covered.

DeafLamb

In some of my tuts I have even quoted from other exsisting tuts on the site - or in the case of my most recent a tut on a dif site altogether......so if they have been done before why do them again? well i dont see it as doing them again normally i will take up from were the person left of - expand upon it or perhaps introduce something completly different which is linked slightly to some of the previous information :)

heh hopefully with the way I'm going with flash tuts some day soon someone will be able to gather all the tuts together and build an entire site ;)

v_Ln