[documentation] A New Approach to Drupal Tutorials

[Nick Lewis]

Boris Mann wrote:

>
>
> On 1/14/06, *Nick Lewis* <nick at smartcampaigns.com 
> <mailto:nick at smartcampaigns.com>> wrote:
>
>     Here is a really nutty idea. I regularly write drupal tutorials at my
>     blog, and file them under the term "drupal tutorials":
>     http://nicklewis.smartcampaigns.com/taxonomy/term/177
>     <http://nicklewis.smartcampaigns.com/taxonomy/term/177>
>
>     I've been asked a couple of times to publish some of them at
>     drupal.org <http://drupal.org>,
>     but I am a busy and lazy person and haven't really figured out how
>     to do
>     that. I suspect many of my fellows who write drupal tutorials are in
>     similar situations. However, we now have some handy modules like
>     aggregator2 that allow us to take a creative alternative approach:
>
>
> My suggestion about a million times now is to just use the core story 
> node -- which is currently unused -- for this type of material.  End 
> users (not just developers who have a "Drupal" category) could easily 
> post as desired.

That is a very good idea. However, I think it is a different means to a 
different end.

While I'm all for democratizing content, in the case of tutorials, I 
think the vast majority of end-users have neither an interest, or 
knowledge to write a tutorial. Actually, those who are motivated to 
write tutorials -- I think -- are a different animal than the general 
term "end user" refers to. Regardless of level of experience.

For the most part, I'm mainly interested in helping end users find 
answers -- and a problem that seems evident is that our base of end 
users who crave answers is growing much faster than our base of seasoned 
veterns. At the same time, there are lots of great articles on specific 
drupal challenges that are spread all over the place -- mostly from the 
same people who are listed at places like drupal planet. And more and 
more are being written everyday. Most of these articles -- might I add 
-- are not anywhere to be found on drupal.org except the unorganized 
streams of drupal planet, and the aggregator, and random links in the 
forums.

I hope that me saying this doesn't make me look like a second head with 
sharp teeth and horns has just popped out of my neck, but... one of the 
huge incentives (maybe the most powerful, actually) for writing 
tutorials is self-promotion, and greater visibility to potential 
customers. No joke, my drupal related content is the best personal 
marketing I've ever done. I suspect a lot of other developers who 
provide resources on their site do so with that in mind. The "pay off" 
for publishing tutorials at drupal.org is not quite as material, and 
directly connected to me paying my rent every month.

That said, I love to help people learn drupal, and my sense of ownership 
rights is zilch. Its all drupal's for all I care.  Really, the only 
thing that prevents me from contributing them regularly is all the red 
tape that is involved. Not to mention, I have no idea where they'd go in 
the current organization of drupal.org documentation. (again, a good 
reason for a regularly updated section articles and tutorials section 
that is organized by general subjects that could be expanded as needed).

This idea just strikes me as good because the content is there, its 
increasing every day, and this could greatly accelerate the process of 
getting the best of it into the library of drupal.org Then again, I 
drink a lot of coffee and am a big believer in pull strategies.

Best,
Nick

> -- 
> Boris Mann
> http://www.bryght.com
> Vancouver 778-896-2747 / San Francisco 415-367-3595
> IM boris_mann at jabber.org <mailto:boris_mann at jabber.org> / SKYPE borismann
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>--
>Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
>List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
>