I can haz .net podcast?
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 12:35 amScrounging my referers in statscounter I just came across the .net magazine podcast linking to my blog post about print magazines having problems in delivering tutorials. Yes, I just bought my first iPod a week ago, I am not using iTunes and in general I do stumble across podcasts by chance and not by subscription.
I was pretty much shocked that the podcast discusses my points – if you can call them that – without any of the people involved commenting on the blog post or actually telling me about it (I do write for .net after all). So here are some more points on this matter, as the blog post was a bit rushed.
- I am not attacking .net magazine, but based my musings on several different publications I have done – even old ones in German for things like Commodore 64 magazines
- I am very much in agreement with the arguments mentioned in the podcast that magazines and books have a professional editorial process and that way come up with higher quality content.
- I stand by my point though that the restrictions of print and this editorial process – if done badly – can be detrimental to the quality of the tutorials. It is all about chosing the right subject. As Paul pointed out, he cannot do tutorials as audio podcasts, either.
- I based some of my points on me spending half an hour in the airport waiting for my rental car to be ready and browsing US publications.
- I am shocked to see that people really seem to read the stuff I write here. This has always been a bit of a braindump for me – much like the pensieve in Harry Potter.
Anyways, I just wanted to point out that my post is not a snotty attack towards print media as a whole, but was meant to point out that some tutorial materials are just not meant for print but are better online, the same way a lot of online material should undergo a proper editorial process before being put out there.