4 ms·

Actually can we stop writing tutorials period. When you search for something I always get a bunch of old tutorials by people who are learning something and writ

Actually can we stop writing tutorials period. When you search for something I always get a bunch of old tutorials by people who are learning something and writing as they learn. If the official docs aren't great, contribute to them.

kevincox 6y ago
Official docs are great, but there is also a place for tutorials. They generally cover different styles of learning. For example the official docs should probably contain a bunch of "hello world" tutorials for using the features they offer. But often times once you are combining a couple of different tools it isn't clear if it should go into the official documentation for any one of them. ..and I especially don't want the maintainers of the official documentation acting as gatekeepers for what combinations of tools are "useful" enough to be allowed into the one source of information.
entitlementgl 6y ago
People like op don't want to contribute to things, they just want others do it and benefit from their time and skill for free.
andybak 6y ago
Are you genuinely arguing that the world would be a better place if there were only official docs and no tutorials? You must have a very different experience to me. I'd say the value is about 70-30% in favour of unofficial tutorials for the tech topics I've learned over the years.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  It sounds like the OP was complaining about the bulk of tutorials out there are written by people without any real experience with a subject. It's a blind-leading-the-blind situation where you don't know enough to realize that these people have significant knowledge gaps.
- blunte 6y ago
  But it is getting increasingly more time consuming to sift through the either outdated and misleading guides or the incomplete, inaccurate, or simply bad ones to get to a useful one. Even StackOverflow is reaching the point of net-negative value; far too many of its questions and answers are outdated, but the nature of their system means the older (first acceptable) answers tend to be promoted as current answers.
  - andybak 6y ago
    > But it is getting increasingly more time consuming I'd dispute "increasingly" - twas ever thus to some degree. Spotting whether a tutorial is still valid is a skill that can be honed and it's part of learning how to learn. Your argument has some merit but your solution of "let's stop writing tutorials" seems a trifle extreme. Wishing something was better isn't a great argument for it's extinction.
    - blunte 6y ago
      I missed the part where I said we should stop writing tutorials. I do believe people should be responsible for content they publish, periodically reviewing and removing outdated, irrelevant, or immature/incorrect articles.
      - andybak 6y ago
        Ah - sorry. I assumed I was still talking to the first person I responded to. I've made that error in the past of not looking at the username.
  - gremlinsinc 6y ago
    I think it's easy... I ALWAYS filter tech searches by date, anything over a year is outdated, usually. Esp. framework related as they change frequently.
    - blunte 6y ago
      Yes, but on StackOverflow, repeat questions are very strongly discouraged (or locked/deleted); the reader is pushed back to the older or original question which may be very much out of date. There are often useful comments or additional answers on those old questions, but it's a slower process to wade through the old content in hopes of finding a useful new nugget. With general Google/DDG searches I often do filter to past year, but I've noticed increasingly that some sites have been republishing old articles with new dates, or minor updates (apparently to bump them up in search results?)
ReactiveJelly 6y ago
If anyone reading this does write a tutorial, _please_ put the date on it. Or at least the year.
- theandrewbailey 6y ago
  I can't count how many times I've gone to a blog and it's only given the month and day of a post, like "Oct 30". Is that 2020? 2010? I look around the entire page, but I can't find a clue.
- duckmysick 6y ago
  Or perhaps the software version.
- gls2ro 6y ago
  This is a great great advice. I think - in case of tutorials about programming languages/frameworks/libraries the bare minimum should be: - Date - Language Version - Framework Version
vmchale 6y ago
Outdated tutorials (often misguided if by someone who is learning) are worse than nothing.
rikroots 6y ago
> Actually can we stop writing tutorials period. No. If I don't write tutorials for my Javascript library thing[1], who's going to bother using it ... or even looking at it? [1] - Obligatory spam link: https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/learn https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/learn
criddell 6y ago
That sounds like an opportunity for a search engine improvement.
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
That's a chronic issue. It's even worse, with printed materials. Things move so quickly, in tech, that something is out of date, almost as soon as it's published. I've been training for years, and setting up a syllabus/course is a big job. Often, my subject matter may be "old hat," by the time I am ready to give the course. That often means that I don't teach "bleeding edge" stuff. When I take those courses, they tend to be mighty "scruffy," with ill-prepared instructors, and lots of "Well, it worked this morning..." stuff. The same goes for topical material in walkthroughs and tutorials. If they are relevant, they are likely to be "scrappy." If they are good, there's a fairly high degree of confidence that they will be out of date by the time I see them. Nonetheless, I have gotten fairly adept at translating "dated" stuff to my current circumstances.
LandR 6y ago
I write my own blog posts as I learn something, it's a great way to reinforce my learning. Sort of, If I can write it down in such a way that I can explain it, then I'm more confident I actually understand it. I then look at it and think what would someone who doesn't know any of this ask if they read this or if I was explaining it to them. Sometimes I don't know the answer, so I have to go off and research to allow me to fill in those knowledge gaps. I find this really helps me. I just don't publish the bloody thing to the internet! Because I know it would just be clutter when people are looking for an actual experts explanation of the thing. It also means I have quite comprehensive notes I can go back to, again private though.
franzwong 6y ago
The major audience of my tutorial is myself. People have different learning styles. I like to go straight to the code first and learn the concept from there. Some people like to do that in a reverse way.

kevincox 6y ago

Official docs are great, but there is also a place for tutorials. They generally cover different styles of learning. For example the official docs should probably contain a bunch of "hello world" tutorials for using the features they offer. But often times once you are combining a couple of different tools it isn't clear if it should go into the official documentation for any one of them. ..and I especially don't want the maintainers of the official documentation acting as gatekeepers for what combinations of tools are "useful" enough to be allowed into the one source of information.

entitlementgl 6y ago

People like op don't want to contribute to things, they just want others do it and benefit from their time and skill for free.

andybak 6y ago

Are you genuinely arguing that the world would be a better place if there were only official docs and no tutorials? You must have a very different experience to me. I'd say the value is about 70-30% in favour of unofficial tutorials for the tech topics I've learned over the years.

mywittyname 6y ago
It sounds like the OP was complaining about the bulk of tutorials out there are written by people without any real experience with a subject. It's a blind-leading-the-blind situation where you don't know enough to realize that these people have significant knowledge gaps.
blunte 6y ago
But it is getting increasingly more time consuming to sift through the either outdated and misleading guides or the incomplete, inaccurate, or simply bad ones to get to a useful one. Even StackOverflow is reaching the point of net-negative value; far too many of its questions and answers are outdated, but the nature of their system means the older (first acceptable) answers tend to be promoted as current answers.
- andybak 6y ago
  > But it is getting increasingly more time consuming I'd dispute "increasingly" - twas ever thus to some degree. Spotting whether a tutorial is still valid is a skill that can be honed and it's part of learning how to learn. Your argument has some merit but your solution of "let's stop writing tutorials" seems a trifle extreme. Wishing something was better isn't a great argument for it's extinction.
  - blunte 6y ago
    I missed the part where I said we should stop writing tutorials. I do believe people should be responsible for content they publish, periodically reviewing and removing outdated, irrelevant, or immature/incorrect articles.
    - andybak 6y ago
      Ah - sorry. I assumed I was still talking to the first person I responded to. I've made that error in the past of not looking at the username.
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  I think it's easy... I ALWAYS filter tech searches by date, anything over a year is outdated, usually. Esp. framework related as they change frequently.
  - blunte 6y ago
    Yes, but on StackOverflow, repeat questions are very strongly discouraged (or locked/deleted); the reader is pushed back to the older or original question which may be very much out of date. There are often useful comments or additional answers on those old questions, but it's a slower process to wade through the old content in hopes of finding a useful new nugget. With general Google/DDG searches I often do filter to past year, but I've noticed increasingly that some sites have been republishing old articles with new dates, or minor updates (apparently to bump them up in search results?)

ReactiveJelly 6y ago

If anyone reading this does write a tutorial, _please_ put the date on it. Or at least the year.

theandrewbailey 6y ago
I can't count how many times I've gone to a blog and it's only given the month and day of a post, like "Oct 30". Is that 2020? 2010? I look around the entire page, but I can't find a clue.
duckmysick 6y ago
Or perhaps the software version.
gls2ro 6y ago
This is a great great advice. I think - in case of tutorials about programming languages/frameworks/libraries the bare minimum should be: - Date - Language Version - Framework Version

vmchale 6y ago

Outdated tutorials (often misguided if by someone who is learning) are worse than nothing.

rikroots 6y ago

> Actually can we stop writing tutorials period. No. If I don't write tutorials for my Javascript library thing[1], who's going to bother using it ... or even looking at it? [1] - Obligatory spam link: https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/learn https://scrawl-v8.rikweb.org.uk/learn

criddell 6y ago

That sounds like an opportunity for a search engine improvement.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

That's a chronic issue. It's even worse, with printed materials. Things move so quickly, in tech, that something is out of date, almost as soon as it's published. I've been training for years, and setting up a syllabus/course is a big job. Often, my subject matter may be "old hat," by the time I am ready to give the course. That often means that I don't teach "bleeding edge" stuff. When I take those courses, they tend to be mighty "scruffy," with ill-prepared instructors, and lots of "Well, it worked this morning..." stuff. The same goes for topical material in walkthroughs and tutorials. If they are relevant, they are likely to be "scrappy." If they are good, there's a fairly high degree of confidence that they will be out of date by the time I see them. Nonetheless, I have gotten fairly adept at translating "dated" stuff to my current circumstances.

LandR 6y ago

I write my own blog posts as I learn something, it's a great way to reinforce my learning. Sort of, If I can write it down in such a way that I can explain it, then I'm more confident I actually understand it. I then look at it and think what would someone who doesn't know any of this ask if they read this or if I was explaining it to them. Sometimes I don't know the answer, so I have to go off and research to allow me to fill in those knowledge gaps. I find this really helps me. I just don't publish the bloody thing to the internet! Because I know it would just be clutter when people are looking for an actual experts explanation of the thing. It also means I have quite comprehensive notes I can go back to, again private though.

franzwong 6y ago

The major audience of my tutorial is myself. People have different learning styles. I like to go straight to the code first and learn the concept from there. Some people like to do that in a reverse way.