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Ask HN: Is HN a good place to ask for feedback on content produced?

• brudgers 6y ago
  You can try, but Youtube videos with quality issues probably won't do very well. Django tutorials probably won't either. But if you know the audio isn't very good, then you don't need HN to tell you that. Just fix that. That will be hard work because audio is hard. Try a lav microphone and resync the audio. Rerecord the videos to better explain the concepts. Write a script. Shoot the videos again. You don't need HN to explain that either. Learning means working. Good luck.
• PaulHoule 6y ago
  I may be making many wrong assumptions, but I hope you can accept some tough love. I left the Java group on LinkedIn years ago because of relentless spam, a major category of which was "programming tutorial" content that was in broken English, frequently full of errors -- what made it worst was that the authors were completely unresponsive to feedback. (Just because you are asking I know you're much better than that!) Relentless spam like that poisons the well and chases away good content; so it is not just the 10 pieces of spam a day that hurt the world, but the 10 pieces of good content that might have been posted if people saw this was a worthwhile community. I do not know what possesses such a person to make programming content in broken English. It is notorious that it is impossible to make advertising dollars (only pennies) with certain type of content such as anime images and programming blogs. The web is already overloaded with this sort of content -- I wonder if they'd have more success if they made programming content in their own language. Like it or not you are a representative of the groups you are a member of. When a police officer commits an atrocity that has an effect on how people see all police officers. In the late 1980s people in the US started talking to South Asians in call centers. Sometimes those call centers were excellent, sometimes less so. I never thought they were dishonest. A few years ago the US was assaulted from a call center in Mumbai that gave people threatening and false information that claimed to be from the US tax authorities. I would pick up the phone and a south asian would try to to fool me into installing malware on my computer, etc. As a result I am all the more inclined to hang up the phone when it is a stranger with that kind of accent. Is this "racism"? It is by a broad definition. But some yahoo yells at you today and throws a shoe at you because of something somebody "like you" in some ways did 30 years ago. So it is never to soon to model being a good person. On a global forum such as the web where you have nearly unlimited reach you might ask yourself if is worth doing anything that isn't completely excellent, that people don't perceive as a tier higher than anything they've seen before.
  • rasulkireev 6y ago
    I agree about the spamming. Which is why I am asking this question here. I'm trying to put some content out there without it being spam and getting honest feedback in return. Sometimes, it's obvious to myself what I need to improve, but there are multitide more things that other people can direct my attention to. The goal of making such tutorials is not always making money. I can't speak for everyone, but in my case I have two goals in mind: 1. Improve my speaking/presentation skills. Consequentially, improve my writing skills after writing a prep and a follow-up post. 2. Put myself out there. If the content is bad, I'll get a ton of negative feedback and will have no other option but to improve. If I'm good I'll get a chance of gaining a following, getting better job opportunities/higher salaries, etc. There are many more good reasons why a person might want to share his content with the world, even if it is in broken English. Finally, you as a consumer of such content always have an option to walk away, which is very powerful. If I put up shitty content, people don't have to consume it. However, some people might push through an give me some feedback. With each article, I'll get better and therefore attract more reader and feedback, creating this loop of learning. So, advice to not post something, just because it is not good, is a bad advice. I would recommend people share their work, even if it is far from perfect. Big caveat. I am talking about honest people with the best intentions in mind.
    • PaulHoule 6y ago
      I am glad to hear you talk about your motivations because that's the right place to start. Here is what I can share. I am about to restart my blogging after a few years of not doing it. I look at the web today as a post-apocalyptic wasteland with all the ads and bots and trackers and spam, modal and non-modal pop-ups. I have put "getting started" with this off until I have systems in place to give readers an experience that is head and shoulders better than what they have on most of the web. It's not as hard as it sounds because just getting rid of the negatives mentioned above cuts the bandwidth use and loading time dramatically. Still it involves perfecting my tech and getting my head straight and a work that takes a certain kind of inner energy. Good luck!