20 replies to this topic

[Adrian.]

Hey,

I'm not saying P2L is bad, it's a great site for any Developer.
Though, i'm starting to see more and more poor PHP tutorials.

I mean, some are just code.
They don't explain, they don't teach security, patters, structure, WHY to use a certain function.

Alot of Tutorials just seem to be for hits, they don't even teach nomore, just show.

I'v started to notice this more with coding tutorials.

I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on this?
Do you think Tutorials are getting worse, a easy way for hits?

Adrian

[Stu]

i would say thats more of a problem with the tutorial writers than p2l. there are still alot of good sites out there with quality tutorials which are indexed here.

people just want to be 'known' so much these days, it drives them to bash out these tutorials to such a crap standard in short periods of time, in hope thier site will take off due to a high amount of (poor quality) content.

[Adrian.]

It would be cool if P2L added somesort of "Bury" feature, like Digg.

So, we could bury tutorials for poor standard, and such.
Once it gets so many burys, it gets sent for Approval again.

Edited by Adrian., 20 May 2007 - 05:55 AM.

[Stu]

not a bad idea actually... although i guess they will argue that is kind of the point of the rating feature.

[Bug]

although i guess they will argue that is kind of the point of the rating feature.

Yeah, I was just about to argue that point

What you're saying is very true, Adrian.. -- But there are still an overwhelming amount that have the decency to put their quality standards higher than that. I just skip the ones that don't tell me what the heck they are doing... but that isn't too many. I think P2L does an alright job with filtering them out

Edited by Bug, 20 May 2007 - 06:50 AM.

[Adrian.]

I kinds wasn't talking about P2L, specifically.
(I know the title may seem so, my mistake)

But i mean, as a whole. The Web Development Community.

[Case]

I think a bury feature would be good, but when it his say 20 bury's its deleted from the listing. That would help get rid of the poor tutorials. The rating system at the moment isnt really used as the view count is a much more reliable guide to how good a tutorial looks.

[knedl]

I agree that there were some really bad tutorials about PHP but I don't think that it killed the web developers. Like Bug said just ignore those tutorials and search for better ones, there's enough PHP tutorials here so that won't be a problem at all.

[Stu]

the bury feature might be abused if it worked like that. sinking a competitors tutorials for the sake of it!

(yes people are that sad)

[Tirus]

while i do believe that the quality of tutorials has declined (php, photoshop, others), i really think that its due to the fact that people are searching for simple, faster, easier ways to get traffic. I don't think P2L or any other tutorial indexing site are directly responsible as they really are the middle-men. I mean, they do need to filter out the terrible tutorials but what else can really be done. Things in general have shifted from teaching and learning to traffic, hits and ad revenue.

so basically, yes, i do think that in general they are declining in quality for the simple reason that people want more traffic and that they want to work less for it.

[Faken]

Yep that's what the rating system is for... You guys need to rate the tutorials and leave feedback so that the author sees that people don't like their tutorials. If you guys don't leave comments on the tutorials, then you can't expect the tutorial writers to change can you?

Btw, for every 1 PHP tutorial that is accepted, 10 are declined so you can imagine how much I filter them out. Believe me, I decline WAAAAAY more than I approve. Just check out the pending list and you'll see what I mean.

And for tutorials that are all code, I decline those constantly... you'll very rarely see a tutorial that is approved now that is all code and we're stricter now on what we approve. In fact, usually when people complain about this stuff, the only examples they can show me is from 2004, like that other guy that was complaining about something with tutorials (I can't remember what t was). I asked for examples and every one was from 2 years ago.

I also know we are stricter than most because I get a lot of people writing me about how stupid I am that I declined their tutorials when "site so and so" accepted them.

Yeah I think a bury feature would be abused... I've seen people lynch sites with bad ratings, so this would be a bad thing lol!

Dan

[Faken]

Oh and to touch on something else, it is EXTREMELY obvious that people are submitting garbage to try and get quick traffic on their ad laden sites. It's definitely gotten worse too in the last year and I have been decining more and more because of this. It sucks, but that's the world we live in a I guess.

We got something coming up that will hopefully clarify to authors that trying to recycle the same old crap isn't acceptable and I'm definitely not afraid to dial up the QA level another notch if people feel that it's sliding. But do realize it's getting harder to find people willing to put in the effort of creating quality tutorials for free because everyone is chasing a buck. Personally I enjoy making tutorials, that's why mine are usually short novels with 50+ photos, but not everyone is like that.

But I still don't get the logic that the original thread starter uses to ask his question? I don't get why anyone would question that P2L would kill the web design community, which is thriving. We certainly don't encourage lax tutorials, hence why we are declining more than ever, so I'm confused by that one.

Dan

[Nick]

But I still don't get the logic that the original thread starter uses to ask his question? I don't get why anyone would question that P2L would kill the web design community, which is thriving. We certainly don't encourage lax tutorials, hence why we are declining more than ever, so I'm confused by that one.

Dan

I kinds wasn't talking about P2L, specifically.
(I know the title may seem so, my mistake)

But i mean, as a whole. The Web Development Community.

[Faken]

But I still don't get the logic that the original thread starter uses to ask his question? I don't get why anyone would question that P2L would kill the web design community, which is thriving. We certainly don't encourage lax tutorials, hence why we are declining more than ever, so I'm confused by that one.

Dan

I kinds wasn't talking about P2L, specifically.
(I know the title may seem so, my mistake)

But i mean, as a whole. The Web Development Community.

Even if you don't mean P2L specifically, I still don't get it.

[Hayden]

I see your point Adrian but the only problem I have is...


Why not try giving back and doing something about the quality of tuts?

[Adrian.]

SpatialVisionary, i'v actually wrote a few in my time.

Some i don't submit, some i do.
When i have, i guess i wasn't logged in, using my forum account.

[Faken]

It's cool... 99% of the users here don't use the publishing system, but that doesn't mean their opinion is any less valid to me.

Dan

[l3lueMage]

I noticed theres some tutorials that you have to PAY for that faken accepted >.> Check the star wars 3ds max tutorials. A couple are PAY and some are also not even a tutorial they say "Buy this model" blahblah >.>

[Faken]

I noticed theres some tutorials that you have to PAY for that faken accepted >.> Check the star wars 3ds max tutorials. A couple are PAY and some are also not even a tutorial they say "Buy this model" blahblah >.>

I've never accepted a tutorial that you have to pay for to view, what are you smoking? ROFL I looked at the stars wars X Wing tutorials that you can buy the 3D model they used, but you don't need it to follow all their video tutorials, which kick ass and are free. Are people going to start complaining that we have Photoshop tutorials on sites that tell you you have to buy photoshop next?

[Bug]

Are people going to start complaining that we have Photoshop tutorials on sites that tell you you have to buy photoshop next?

ROFL!!