I want to know where is the tutorial section located in this forum. I am interested in seeing what kind of information they have. I am experienced in web hosting but there may be some things I still have to learn.

They're sub-forums of the Main forums (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/index.php).

EXAMPLE:
Web Hosting Forum (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1)
Discussions on all aspects of web hosting including past experiences (both negative and positive), choosing a host, questions and answers, and other related subjects. Host Down?

Sub-Forums: Windows Hosting Forum (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=126), Web Hosting Tutorials (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=68)You might want to look through the wiki (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/) as well. Because I think tutorials are naturally going to migrate there (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/).

You might want to look through the wiki (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/) as well. Because I think tutorials are naturally going to migrate there (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/).
Greaaat, more confusion for people
The wiki is disorganized, and has no place for "tutorials". Yes, you can create an entry anywhere, but that's just a messy situation.

Greaaat, more confusion for people
Having discussion (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/index.php) and collaborative reference content (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/) separate but connected should be useful. But perhaps the wiki (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/) is confusing for some people because it's still new, and people aren't used to using it.

As we explain on the About (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/WHTwiki:About) page:

Why have a wiki in addition to a forum? Because both are useful for what they do best. If you want to ask questions or take part in discussions about web hosting and related topics, go to the WHT forum. On the other hand, if you want to help build and update a quality web hosting resource, or to browse such a resource, that's what WHTwiki is for.

The wiki is disorganized, and has no place for "tutorials". Yes, you can create an entry anywhere, but that's just a messy situation.
The wiki has content organized into categories (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Special:Categories). Categories are good. To create a category (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/Help:Categories), you add the category name at the bottom of the page, which makes it difficult to create categories until you have content for them.

New content is welcome and will help us develop the wiki structure. If you have content for the wiki but don't know what category it should go in, just add it, and we'll get it in a category later. If you see a page without a category, you can add a category yourself or use the Report this page (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/WHTwiki:Participate#Report) link to let us know, and we'll take care of it. :)

We're working on more ideas for the wiki, which will be ready to implement soon.

Suggestions for the wiki are welcome. You can post them here or open a helpdesk ticket (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/helpdesk/) with them. :)

Thanks!

Lois

No thanks, I'll just stay 100% clear of there.
The last thing I want or need is to have to go through yet another area to figure out where this or that should go, spend time writing something, only to have it edited by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, and the like. Sorry, but no.

The wiki might help out SOME, but , as it is now, there is really no organization, or rhyme or reason to it. Instead of taking tutorials and putting them in one place, they're placed wherever someone feels like it, and can be edited by whomever feels like it. That's just wrong and disrespectful of individual's time.

The last thing I want or need is to have to go through yet another area to figure out where this or that should go
Can you suggest how to make it easier to see where things should go?

spend time writing something, only to have it edited by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, and the like.
Being able to edit your and other members' content is an advantage the wiki has over the forum for tutorial-type content. Consider these situations:


A member writes a tutorial and wants to change it later.
A member writes a tutorial, and other members point out that something isn't correct or suggest additions to the tutorial.
A tutorial is good when it's published, but the information becomes outdated.

In the forum, changes to address the above can be done only by posting in the thread (and some people might not read that far) or asking the moderators to edit the post. In the wiki, OTOH, members can change tutorials they started and correct and add to other members' tutorials. Collaboration can result in better content than any one member could create.

As for people who don't know what they're doing editing the content, yes, that could happen. And if that happens to an article about something that you're knowledgeable about, you can correct any errors. If an edit war (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/WHTwiki:Wiki_terminology#E) takes place, members can use the talk page to discuss the content, and if necessary, a wiki admin can step in and lock the page until a consensus is reached. Most of the time, members can develop the content without this step.

A feature similar to subscribing to threads in the forum is to add wiki pages to your watchlist. You can opt to be emailed whenever a page on your watchlist is changed, or you can view your watchlist online. Click on "Watch" at the top of a page to add that page to your watchlist, and go to "My watchlist" under "Personal Tools" at the right to view changes to pages on your watchlist.

The wiki might help out SOME, but , as it is now, there is really no organization, or rhyme or reason to it.
Don't the categories look like organization to you? If not, what type of organization would work for you?

Instead of taking tutorials and putting them in one place, they're placed wherever someone feels like it, and can be edited by whomever feels like it. That's just wrong and disrespectful of individual's time.
Actually, we are putting them in one place -- the wiki. :) As we add more content and features to the wiki, the organization will be more apparent. If a page is in the wrong category, or in no category, that's easy to fix.

Personally, I see it as very respectful of members' time to give them the ability to edit content. As with the forum, we can block members who cause problems if we need to. We haven't had to do that, and we haven't had edit wars (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/WHTwiki:Wiki_terminology#E) either. Wikis have been around for years, and the collaborative approach works well for them.

WHTwiki (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/wiki/) gives members a lot of flexibility in creating content for and about the industry. Staff is available to handle any problems that arise, and we're working on new developments for the wiki. Suggestions and participation are welcome. :)

Lois

Can you suggest how to make it easier to see where things should go?

Things were fine, just as they were.


Being able to edit your and other members' content is an advantage the wiki has over the forum for tutorial-type content.

So, being able to screw up someone's entry is an "advantage"? No thanks, I'll take my tutorials somewhere where I can maintain control over their content, rather than have someone else be able to go in and edit it whenever they feel like it. That's completely disrespectful to the user themselves.


Don't the categories look like organization to you? If not, what type of organization would work for you?

Again, things were fine as they were, there is no reason to make things more scattered or confused than they already are.

The way things are is disorganized, messy, and all around disrespectful to authors and people who put good time in to write things like tutorials. I'm certainly not going to put something that took hours for me to write, or put together anywhere where an individual can simply just "click" and edit it. Allowing comments on things is fine, and that works around every one of your scenarios .

Things were fine, just as they were.
Some people don't like change. Nobody has to use the wiki. :)

So, being able to screw up someone's entry is an "advantage"? No thanks, I'll take my tutorials somewhere where I can maintain control over their content, rather than have someone else be able to go in and edit it whenever they feel like it. That's completely disrespectful to the user themselves.
"Screwing up" tutorials may happen, and if it does, it's an easy problem to fix. But with that small possibility is the option for collaborative content, where more people participating allows for higher quality content. Tutorials are much more likely to have more and better information when numerous people can share their knowledge in them.

As for control, many of us have some work that we don't want other people to change, and I agree that such content shouldn't go in a wiki. But so much can go in a wiki and develop into more useful content because of the collaborative nature of wikis.

Allowing comments on things is fine, and that works around every one of your scenarios .
Comments are one option, but people have to read the whole thread instead of one article that's been polished and updated by collaborators.

If we look at the wiki articles so far, most of us can think of ways to add to them. We might not know exactly what needs to be added, but if we view the history of a page with multiple collaborators, we can see how each member helped develop the article into something better than it was before. You have a reputation as a technical expert, and not many people could add to what you can write about. But for the most part, collaborative writing works very well. If it didn't, wikis wouldn't have become as popular as they are.

Thanks for your feedback. :)

Lois

Some people don't like change. Nobody has to use the wiki. :)

It's not about liking change or not. Wiki is good for some things, but it's NOT good for tutorials, ESPECIALLY in a larger environment such as this, where individuals can, and WILL take over someone's "tutorial" on certain things.


As for control, many of us have some work that we don't want other people to change, and I agree that such content shouldn't go in a wiki.
Such as things which take hours to develop, such as tutorials, and howtos, and things that will get taken over by someone who thinks THEIR way of doing things is better.

Want proof? Look in the TS&I (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=73) tutorial section for "how to secure a server". You'll see dozens of articles, some by individuals who have no clue what they're doing there. With the proposed "system", those clueless individuals could simply edit a pre-existing entry, remove everything and post their own content, with NO respect to the other writer's content. Think it won't happen? It WILL. Come on, you've seen the size of this community, and how ridiculous people can be here. Why should an author have to re-post or re-check their tutorial every 5 minutes because they're worried someone has edited it?

So, we need to bring back a realistic way of handling tutorials, where the author has control over what is posted, and their own content.