Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested
Wanted to ask you about this article, how do you remember the early days of the internet (I was sadly too young at that time). Do you wish it back? And do you think it can ever be like that again? I would be very interested
I miss written tutorials. I hate how every tutorial is a YouTube now. I don’t want to watch 15 minutes and forget to pay attention for the second that has the detail that I am missing or it just doesn’t show. Even short tutorials are 3 minutes when it could have been a ten second read. I want to skim a page and go directly to the point. Has writing really become that hard to do?
Video title: “How to unlock the demon door on the fourth level of Demon Smasher Elite”
“Hello, video game fans! Don’t forget to like and subscribe! Last week I posted a video that isn’t relevant to this video, but I need to drag out the time on this one to game the algorithm, so I’m going to rehash and plug that video. I’m going to shout out to my Patreon subscribers with ridiculous usernames I won’t pronounce well. Now let’s get to the part you’ve waiting for: I’m going to play through the entire thirty minutes worth of level four before you get to the demon door and I will stop to make useless commentary on the bad guys you encounter. Okay, now you’ve skipped forward to what looks like the area before the demon door part of the stage, but I’m going to talk about some unrelated anecdote about this game or maybe the game devs, and then plug my Patreon account and mention a completely different game that I’ll be streaming next. Oh and here’s the five seconds of the video you wanted to see when I tell you to click the right mouse button on the hidden lever next to the demon door in order to open it, except you aren’t seeing it because you skipped forward too far and gave up. Don’t forget to like and subscribe! This video has been brought to you by Nord VPN.”
Drives me crazy when I see this kind of format for things like programming. Nothing like pausing the video and trying to see what their code says.
1996 is on the latter end of what I consider the early internet, but I really miss the Video Game FAQ Archive (GameFAQs) which was murdered by a thousand cuts culminating in the death of the gamefaqs.com domain. FAQs used to be so good, these days the same information is dispersed over 50 pages of an HTML “guide” that is more ads than information, and often for less complete information, if it’s not just a YouTube video that’s even worse and shows you things but doesn’t explain them at all.
Wikihow is pretty good. Most offer a written and illustrated article as well as a video
Same. I missed those days where you can just control F to the part of the page and get the info you wanted. Now it’s wait for 2 ads to play, scroll through the intro and then a bunch of scrubbing to find it.
It’s probably more to do with discoverability and monetization. I’m generalizing a ton, but I feel like there isn’t even a ton of super useful YouTube tutorials outside of beginner content because that gets the most views.
YES, this is such a peeve for me!!! I’ve developed an aversion to viewing video content unless it’s for something I truly need to see done. And even then, I’m more likely to check wikihow and endure their gifs than I am to watch someone’s video. It’s just so overdone.
@bstix Yes. Also when you’re blind, software tutorials in particular are either 15 minutes of nothing but music, or someone going “to do x thing, all you need to do is click this button, drag this slider to here, click this until it says this, type this into there, and you’re done.”
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@bstix @Provider Strongly endorsed. For me, watching a video is possibly the least-effective way to learn how to do something. Learn to write or find someone to write for you if you want me to use your stuff.
@bstix @Provider 👏👏👏👏
I have resorted to going to the YouTube video page and reading the garbled bot translation underneath because it’s still better than sitting through a video with a bunch of filler.
@bstix soon will be very hard to find written ones that aren’t done by AI and full of dubious info.
@bstix damn, I thought I was alone with this. It’s incredibly frustrating that everything is a bloody YouTube. My theory is that people dream of those €€€s coming in from viewers.
@bstix
YES. And when you find a written version you have to scroll past a mile of backstory to get to the point.
@bstix @Provider same for most other written content. Everything is a Podcast these days … very annoying as you can’t search for content in those …
@bstix @Provider
Well, we write detail rich, history filled, alternative versions presented tutorials and how tos all the time on CoffeeGeek.
They can be found here:
https://www.coffeegeek.com/guide/howtos/
@bstix @Provider Writing was always hard for most technical people. Technical writing was always a nightmare to read. Noone has ever cared about language.
Bad Videos are just easier to produce than bad written docs, and they don’t reflect back to you as bad as bad written docs do.
@bstix @Provider Chances are three video doesn’t contain the answer anyway. It’s all about monetizing your tech support needs.
@bstix @TechEnthusiast 100% This is especially annoying when I’m trying to find out how to do something in Python or whatever programming language I happen to be playing with. I am blind and use a screen reader. If the text is written, I can review word by word, line by line, character by character, ETC. This is important when trying to learn programming.
@bstix It’s that writing doesn’t earn money like YT does. :(
I love Whisper for this. Turns these videos into nice transcripts that I can search through.
@bstix @Provider
Totally agree, it’s awful. I recently noticed that the YouTube android app seems to have built in auto-transcription that is often (but not always) searchable. I haven’t been able to find this on the desktop webpage, only on the mobile app.
@bstix Yea, searching is basically slow, and unsearchable.
However, a proper setup tutorial has the virtue of being complete. People will typically forget to write ‘import random’ in their python docs, or ‘systemctl restart transmission’, because they think it’s obvious.
With video tutorials, you get the whole thing, and you can literally see where you’re deviating from the script.
Of course that’s possible with written text, but I seldom find it.
@bstix
OMFG this so much. Especially since most tutorials are ponderously slow and tedious. At the other extreme, are the ones with no subtitles and no sound where you are expected to follow a cursor flying around the screen clicking on things and are supposed to understand what happens. Those in particular should die in a fire.
@bstix 💯 embedded videos forced to fit into 256x256 pixels where you can’t read shit.
@bstix @Provider @gvwilson writing is as hard as it ever was, but monetization of ad-hoc tutorial content is far easier and more lucrative on youtube. People are literally being paid to pollute your search results with video.
I’m actually optimistic; I think eventually youtube will face too much flak for this kind of garbage, it’ll start affecting viewership, they’ll tweak the algorithm or the partner program to punish bad tutorials and there’ll be a renaissance of the written stuff.
@bstix @Provider This! I’m not sure who is more at fault. Is it that writers don’t want to write or that readers don’t want to read (causing writers to shift from writing)? Either way it is torture. I’m a fast reader. Videos go at their own agonizing pace. Who thought this was a good idea???
Yeah, you could skim pages, or read thoroughly, search in the text, easily jump back to the previous paragraph to skim a bit again, google (or DDG) for terms you remember from an article to find it again, etc.
Not just tutorials, I enjoyed reading tech or product reviews, like the original Anandtech when Anand was there, that all seems to be going the way of obnoxious youtubers.
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@bstix @Provider
I hate YouTube tutorials. Because I can read a lot faster than the tutorials can speak.
I am also perplexed by the rise of audio books. It is not a good idea for a driver of an automobile to listen to an audio book. Otherwise I do not see the point
@bstix @Provider I love Instructables.com
@bstix @Provider I was trying to work through an online class on Python, and every hour video included ten minutes of encouraging the viewer to keep at it, and five minutes of lame puns. The actual instruction was fine, but text would have been much easier.
@bstix @Provider I’ve been a programmer for over a decade. I inevitably spend part of every day searching the web for very specific or very general problems. Not once have I watched a video to find those answers. There is nothing more boring than watching someone else write a todo list app (seriously, stop making these) for exactly 10:01 minutes.
@bstix
I know what you mean. “-site:youtube.com” has become part of a lot of my Google searches.
@bstix @Provider it really makes it hard to learn at your own pace. Rewinding the same part of a tutorial video over and over again to get what a particular section is saying is just tedious compared to a quick Alt+Tab to reread a paragraph.
@bstix @Provider I read considerably faster than people talk, so written information is a lot faster for me to get. Written tutorials are way better too because you can easily re-read difficult parts.
@bstix The ones that annoy me are the youTube videos that are text on the video but just a music overlay… no verbal instructions at all and since Ic an’t see the video period it is useless to me.
@bstix A friend once said “videos are for marketing; text is for instruction” and it made it all make sense.
@bstix @Provider @benjiweber
You also can’t “copy and paste” code from their video screen.
@bstix @Provider I can’t see any of the responses (must be a mastodon thing) but I can tell you that this not the first time I’ve seen this complaint and it has had an impact: I had several tutorials to produce this summer and planned on doing them as videos. As the summer approached I saw comments like this and switched to blog posts instead. So, I just wanted to let you know you’re not shouting into the void.
@bstix @Provider Same. I hate video tutorials. I play a lot of video games and sometimes I need to look something up, which sometimes means I get lucky and someone has written a decent walkthrough down, but often times means I have to start and stop a damn video over and over and over to get the information at the pace I need.
@bstix@feddit.dk @Provider@feddit.de
Written tutorials are not hard to do, but before I tell you what they are, just a reminder to like and subscribe to this post, it really helps me out.
Now let’s dive in!
Written tutorials are just not as easy to “monetize”
@bstix couldn’t agree more!
Most of my students preferred video, even if with very few exceptions slides + text was better for them (for the stuff we did).
Also *good* video takes forever to make, good text+image tutorials slightly less forever but the search is much easier!
@bstix @Provider sometimes I want a video to walk me through it and *still* get irritated by trying to drop it in exactly the right spot 50x to execute the steps. . . Give me written instructions any day. And link to the damn video.
@bstix @Provider
It seems so, and this is not good because many times written tutorials (including technical ones) are better.
@bstix @Provider
Heard on NPR this morning, that UNESCO has declared “computer learning” ineffectual. It goes with a study I read some years back that showed that retention is poor when reading from a computer screen instead of textbooks containing the same information. Physiologically speaking (brain function), a textbook provides tactile and spatial memory “hooks” that the sameness of a computer screen does not, that enable superior recall at a physical level. “Muscle memory” if you will.
The cynic in me says yes.
@bstix @Provider hear hear. Fucking video tutorials… they always skip over the one tiny thing you need to know …
This is one oft the longest Threads I’ve eher Seen in lemmy.
@bstix @Provider it drives me insane that I can’t type text into a box and have an article come back to me. I’ve found videos that explained a thing beautifully, and then I can never find it again because the phrase I remember wasn’t in the tags.
@bstix @Provider not to mention the dreadful wait to see whether this tutorial is even applicable to your situation 🥴
or when something is updated but you still only find videos about the old version because videos can’t be edited after the fact 🥴🥴🥴
@bstix @Provider oh god I hate it when I try to look something up and the only thing I can find is some awkward person going “so uh, you uh, click on this and then, uh, type uh that.” Like why can’t they just type somewhere in a blog or forum or something “type X in a console”?
@bstix
Worst I remember was a printer Manual that explains the error codes. As Slides, in a video. So you cannot even really google it.
@Provider
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@bstix @Provider video is better for certain things, but does not replace a written tutorial at all. If anything, they complement each other.
@bstix @Provider I’m dyslexic and even I can’t stand these Youtube tutorials. The irony is probably that the script they write to make said tutorial is likely many times more useful than the tutorial itself, just because it’s a video…
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@bstix
I couldn’t agree more. I want a manual. A text. But I don’t think it’s writing that’s become hard to do - a lot of people just really hate to read.
@bstix @Provider I wish the videos would all simply have the written directions in the description so regardless of how a person absorbs best it’s there.
@bstix @Provider Trying to copy snippets of code to try / adapt out of the video sucks as well. I often don’t need/want to download an entire sample project from a link in the description.
Plus, given time constraints, I occasionally try to grab a few moments for tutorials while hanging out with family, sitting at a restaurant, or whatever else, so I’d have to watch videos muted as well.
Definitely always look for written form.
@bstix @Provider
Oh gosh, this! I am way better at picking up what is relevant to me in a text article while scanning a text than waiting for thing to happen in a video. It’s so infuriating sometimes. Also, video streaming is using so much data that I would rather not do it when I am using mobile internet… So yeah, bring back text based tutorials…
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@bstix @Provider I was one of the guys who used to write those, for Microsoft and others. I was at Microsoft when the boom dropped and most and most written documentation projects in favor of minimal on line help files and CBT (pre-video scripted feature demonstrations. The project (the Word for Windows technical manual) was shuffled to Microsoft Press, which didn’t want it, leaving me in the middle. Fun.
@bstix best example ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ZTGpRMU04
@bstix @Provider Agree, provisionally. I mean, I do a lot of stuff where the visual element makes a great big honking difference & if someone tries to describe it in words & aren’t absolutely amazing at it, meaning can get really lost in written directions.
On the other hand I absolutely adore the printed how-to book that came with my 50’s sewing machine & it is, in fact, very meticulous in describing the physical situation (OK, it also has some drawings) 😊
@bstix
@Provider @bursaar Agreed! There’s no CTRL+F on a video, either!
@bstix
And wondering why you need X or Y that doesnt relate to what youre doing only to find out it was a commercial 🙃
@Provider @rhinocratic
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@bstix everyone wants to be a movie star
@bstix @Provider I’m guessing a big part of it is that writing blog posts doesn’t pay ad revenue these days. Also most text tutorials are drowned out by algospam and your content will probably get scraped and reposted with better SEO and worse ads the moment it’s out. :/
@bstix @Provider God yes. I recently bought a bottle of rum that has a ridiculous ball valve built into the neck so my first attempt to pour it yielded nothing. Googled it & a YT video came up—something ridiculous like 7 minutes or longer—that could have been handled by a single sentence on the label. (Or better yet, not using a ball valve)
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@bstix @Provider this ^
@bstix not hard, just hard to monetize
Yeah I hate that shit. I think it has something to do with monetizing on YouTube, has to be a certain length or somesuch
@bstix @Provider This and onobstrusive javascript.
@bstix @Provider I cannot express how much I agree with this :D
@bstix @Provider dumbed down from the “Pivot to Video”.
@bstix @JenWojcik Agreed, life’s too short to watch people’s tedious meandering videos.
@bstix @Provider I couldn’t agree more. Stop wasting our time with videos when well-written tutorial is way better.
@bstix @Provider it’s harder to stuff ads in written docs 🤮
@bstix @Provider I feel like they’ve caught on because cookie notices/inline ads are more annoying than youtube ads
@bstix @Provider A 3 minute video where someone shows you how to change your car’s headlights does tend to be better than a text description.
But it’s no longer a 3 minute video. It’s 25 minutes with a 5 minute sponsor segment, 15 minutes of faffing about, 3 minutes to plug pateron, 1 minute of intro and outro, and then 1 minute where they show the changing of the lightbulb but they cut away to a wide shot so the host can be shown clowning around and you can’t tell what he did.
@bstix @Provider it’s easier to monetize a YouTube channel?
@bstix @WideAperture true that. “I’m a visual learner “ is all well and good, but why not cut to the chase, with your eyes? 🤷
@bstix you’re absolutely not the only one
@bstix @Provider I also prefer text tutorials too. Only this way I can skim through the contents and find what I need quickly.
@bstix @Provider “Has writing really become that hard to do?” Yes, reading is harder now for them, so you can imagine how hard writing is. Not only that, for the newest generations even watching a long video can be hard, what would explain the success of tiktoks, reels and all that crap.
Even worse, in a short time, if not already, AIs will read for them and will explain as if we were 5 year-old kids.
@bstix @Provider
Ugh yes I completely agree.
Especially when you have to pause the video to see the exact command being typed, and then you have to manually re-type the same (complex) command, rather than being able to cut-and-paste. ☹️☹️☹️
@bstix @Provider @stuartl yes unfortunately.
https://flameeyes.blog/2021/10/05/reader-is-dead-but-what-about-writers/
(Don’t get me started on bad video tutorials https://flameeyes.blog/2017/11/29/are-tutorials-to-blame-for-basic-it-problems/)
@bstix @Provider
I’m with ya here. I should have the option to, not HAVE to, watch a video on something. I’d rather skim text.
@Provider @bstix I’d add that for some topics, most of the top results on YouTube are poorly edited spoken versions of the docs. = audience traps
@bstix @Provider
Do both.
A written tutorial is quick to skimm for those that know, what they don’t know.
But if you don’t really know, what you need to know, a video can be life savior. I’m sure you’ve tried desperately to figure out, where that exact setting is located, when the written tutorial is a bit vague about it. Or the system has changed, since it was made.
@bstix @Provider People are still writing, but that isn’t what Google wants to show you.
@bstix @Provider SAME!
I don’t want to watch a video. I want something I can read in 60 seconds so I can move on.
@bstix @Provider I don’t mind some video tutorials. When you’re learning a specific technique or it’s a more thinky thing, sure. When I’m trying to configure a device/program, or doing builds for characters in a game, yeh, it’s bloody annoying.
I’m just thankful the cooking world still relies on written recipes. To the point that almost all recipe articles have a “jump to recipe” button these days. Hell, any video of a recipe worth its salt has a link to a written recipe 😆
@bstix @Provider And you can’t Ctrl-F a video to quickly find relevant bits.
Chances of the creator utilising the chapter markings (just edit in timestamps in the description) are slim for these things.
@bstix I have watched some very good video tutorials on how to do stuff in Excel and how to make things in wood. But I agree that it does depend a lot on the person doing the video, and the majority are really bad and to be avoided
@bstix @Provider
Such an incredibly loud AMEN to this!! 😡😡😡
@bstix @Provider beside the adv’s I love these tutorials on YouTube as this is the perfect way for an Dyslect #youtube # tutorials #dislexia
@bstix @Provider same here.
@bstix @Provider Totally agree. And the bad vocal cords hurt my ears. 👂 🙉
@bstix ☝☝☝☝ THIS!! THIS!! THIS!! THIS!! THIS!! THIS!! 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
@bstix @Provider
Or how they waste your valuable time begging you to subscribe, click the bell, become a patreon supporter, which really is just padding to get the time past a certain point for monentization, and they also need the subs to achieve that goal.
@bstix @Provider Half of it is SEO garbage and no substance. The other half is written by people who’re apparently completely incompetent.
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@bstix @Provider Agree. However, written manuals don’t generate revenue for the maker (and Google).
I used an installation technicians’ manual today to troubleshoot one of my heating/cooling thermostats. The manual was smaller than A4, printed double-sided in a small font with small pics. It contained a busload of useful information. For the makers of such devices, enabling technicians to use and troubleshoot them easily, massively improvers their market adaptation and number of support calls.
@bstix @Provider Flip side: I started a project to teach people obscure skateboard tricks (blatant plug: www.freestyletricktips.com). I wanted to cover both sides, so I made videos, took screenshots from them, and made a website to write detailed information that was easily skimmable, searchable and translatable.
Something like 90% of the audience go straight to Youtube - and then ask questions covered on the website! It’s maddening.
@bstix @Provider 😂👍
@bstix I usually run youtube tutorials through https://github.com/obra/Youtube2Webpage to convert them to a usable format.
@bstix @Provider For a number of years I went into writing those after market user manuals but the market for those collapsed too. Nobody wants to pay for written docs any more, ESPECIALLY the people who make the software. YouTube is the major outlet now.
@bstix @Provider Totally agree!
@bstix I agree, but note that YouTube pays people who create popular tutorials, something that was never as lucrative for people writing
@bstix @Provider Yes!
YES!
@bstix @Provider I miss the writing, too.
@bstix @Provider no, writing has always been hard. However, a video is easily monetized whereas a text post is not.
Welcome to late stage capitalism.
@bstix @Provider I always skip those. Indeed terrible and useless.
@bstix God, I feel this. It doesn’t help that many written tutorials have been ceded to sites with sketchy or flat out wrong information.
@bstix @Andrewhinton So say we olds.
@bstix @Provider
“Has writing really become that hard to do?” According to Grammarly, it has! 😒
Other video peeves: background music too loud, person in vid trying to be a comedian, insufficiently rehearsed (“Umm, er, uhh, now take this wire and uhh … what was I doing? … umm … how come this isn’t working? …”), etc.
@bstix @Provider Yes, this! Youtube tutorial starts with music and graphics, then some mumbling around, “don’t forget to subscribe and like the channel,” then some trying to be funny, THEN the information starts to come but I’m already mad by that point.
@bstix i totally agree with that. videos are ok if they demonstrate how to do manual things like repairing a bike chain or drilling holes or even cooking things. but with cooking the usefulness of videos ends. mostly a written receipt is much better, more informative and faster to get than a 20 minute video of how to make pancakes. and videos that imitate computer tutorials are absolute nonsense. maybe for repair work like switching ram or installing some hardware, but even then i’d prefer a written instruction. you can’t really fast forward videos but you can easily skim a text or search for special words in it.
@bstix @Provider i think i like a mix of both, a written tutorial with a video just in case you cant understand something, tho yeah it’s becoming harder and harder to find a written one, thats why usually i just go to the comments and seek if someone has the same problem as me LOL
@bstix @Provider it would be great to have the best of both worlds: written instructions supplemented by short videos of the most complicated steps. By short, I mean a minute at most— probably no longer than 30 seconds in most cases, only illustrating a single step.
@bstix Sometimes it really is easier to show than to tell. Video tutorials make a lot of sense for navigating complex bike maintenance procedures. Much easier than reading the documentation provided by SRAM, for example.
@bstix
As a technical writer, I can’t agree more. Video tutorials are time sinks for most topics. I absorb a lot more information if it’s text I can refer back to.
@bstix @Provider Yes, but you can slap 4 ads on a 8 minute YouTube video that should fit in a toot
@bstix @Provider
channel intro
sponsor message
some facts
like & subscribe
more facts
outro
@bstix this, but also sometimes I do need the video tutorial for certain things
@bstix @Provider As someone whose brain makes no sense of visually presented information, I empathize; as someone who tries to teach writing to college first-years: Yes.
@bstix I don’t think it’s because writing things is hard but people have become increasingly passive. Why sit down and read for an hour when you can just have someone explain it to you in only 15 minutes
@bstix @Provider The Advantages of #Text-Based Information Versus #Videos, #Audio or #Images
https://karl-voit.at/2022/01/08/text-vs-video-audio-images/
#youtube #insta #podcasts #tiktok
@bstix @Provider I’m going to guess it has to do with monetization, but I 100% agree.
@bstix totally agree… transcripts are like the only other option or setting the video speed playback really fast…
@bstix @Provider I really dislike video tutorials, when I can read the same content in much less time. I always wind up taking notes, since that way I can remember what was said.
Other thoughts (from the days of tape)- fast forward, or speed up play time. Then pause, and take screenshots.
@bstix @daviddlevine 💯 And you didn’t even include text searchable!
@bstix @hugo has AI not yet reached the point where it can watch video tutorials and provide a written summary. I mean, not just a transcript, but actually *watch* it describe the visual aspects effectively in the form of a step-by-step howto?
@bstix That’s the wrong question. Putting tutorials online instead of providing printed tutorials is one of the ways organizations cut corners and cut costs. Now, watch people normalize their experience by responding to you, “YouTube provides transcripts!” And they do (go to a video, click the three dots icon under video on right, see “Show Transcript” link) but a transcript isn’t usually written by a professional tech writer.
@bstix @Provider
Then there’s the utterly bizarre way that people feel compelled to have lift muzak playing in the background while they speak…
@bstix
This!!
I read faster, than I show video.
@Provider @boris
@bstix @Provider Not hard to do, but hard to monetise.
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@bstix @Provider I’m so glad I’m not the only one!
@bstix @Provider This is why I almost always have a written version on my site and a Youtube video.
@bstix @Provider I agree 100% , I hate watching long videos for everything instead of a short read.
@bstix @Provider
@bstix @Provider for programming/ game dev / graphics, check out https://blog.demofox.org :)
@bstix @Provider
I try to play YouTube videos at 1.5 speed for this reason.
@bstix @Provider writing isn’t any more difficult, but the switch happened when YouTube views started paying more than banner ad impressions.
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@bstix @Provider agreed. I think it’s an overused format for material that can be more efficiently and still be accessibly presented in text, but it does get the views (and by extension, ad revenue).
Still, Ctrl + F FTW.
@bstix I HATE written tutorials. They have their place but I’d rather someone physically show me something than me reading up on it and oh I did it wrong cause I don’t understand what they meant.Videos can be slower but they are more clear on what to do and how to do. I can’t get a frame of reference from a text description.
@bstix I MUCH prefer to read tutorials/manuals that watch videos, for pretty much similar ratings to those you raise.
@bstix @Provider writing doesn’t monetize as lushly as videos
The worst are the videos that are little more than a Windows desktop and a syntesized voice of a tutorial that could be written. Additional negative points for instructions writen on Notepad on the screen on that video.
@bstix I use YouTube for product reviews sometimes but I almost always prefer the worn manual for ‘how-tos’
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@bstix @Provider
I generally prefer written instructions over video, too. Talking heads especially, no thanks.
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@bstix @Provider I tend to put the subtitle on. It’s easier then to find the relevant piece of information.
@bstix @Provider
I’ve gotten very frustrated with Blender YT tutorials for this very reason. There are a view good tutors out there who also provide written, internally linked e-books for a price that I’m happy to pay. Also another few tutors whose narration is clean and fully documents every click, that provide transcripts.
A pox on the #meshwithme types that speed through complicated builds at 2x speed with music and no screencast keys.
@bstix @Provider There are times & situations when a video demonstration of how something is done is very useful, but for the most part clear, well-written instructions w/ a clear illustration/diagram or two beats having to watch someone sell their YouTube channel for 10 mins before they breeze thru 2 mins of poorly filmed instructions.
(Also: why do people think it’s necessary to insert painfully unfunny animations, sound effects, etc to keep viewers entertained in a video <10-mins long?)
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@bstix @Provider Absolutely this.
@bstix @Provider Writing’s not harder to do - rather, publishing good video content requires a bunch of expensive equipment and editing software _in addition to_ the writing (you can’t publish decent video content without writing a script…).
But writing is harder to monetize.
I miss when people put their stuff out there without angling for ad revenue.
@bstix YouTube offers free hosting and a social network with a powerful search engine. I don’t know of any coding website that offers free tutorial hosting for any level of programmer/developer with anything similar to the robust visibility of YouTube. Stack Overflow is the closest analog, but it’s a question-based website, not an answer-forward tutorial website.
@bstix @Provider Amen!!!
@bstix @Provider As somebody who creates both, marketing definitely wants the video engagement. Search engines and social media algos promote video more.
You should have both. Video linked to article, and article with embedded video. You don’t always have time for both, but tools are getting better to convert video tutorials ito written .
Also, some need to build connection with the audience. Harder to build that through text. Still possible, but many folks trust easier when seeing a face.
@bstix @Provider THANK YOU!! I am NOT a visual learner!
@bstix @Provider So much this! I miss being able to scan a page and see, at a glance, whether it actually addresses the issue I’m having!
@bstix @Provider s/do/monetize/
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@bstix this trend makes me crazy. There are some cases where video is quite useful but they are few. Apart from how painfully slow the video versions are, there’s also no way to watch them if you happen to be in a public place (coffee shop, airport lounge, etc) without earphones. I mean unless you’re one of those sociopaths with no respect for those around you. I hate it.
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@bstix @Provider
Many YouTube tutorial videos include the transcript in the “comment” or “description” areas of the video. (I agree with you.) Reddit is also a good source for this kind of info.
@bstix @Provider When I do a written tutorial no one pays much mind. The two YouTube tutorials I’ve done have gotten in the 5 figures in terms of views. I prefer doing written content but it is what it is.
@bstix @Provider I think that it is that a lot of people don’t want to read (they’d rather be read or talked to). Back in the day, I created written notes to all my classes, courses, and design tutorials. It was a feature! But it is only valued by a few.
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@bstix @Provider I agree. When I look for operational information for cameras that I might buy, all I find are gushy reviews and dopey YouTube videos.
@bstix @Provider
✔️ (yes)
@bstix @Rose_On_Mars I agree, but as a creator, I also understand why: You have to sit down and do the thing anyway.
With a video, you basically record & publish that (with some editing, which is often done by a second party, or not at all).
In written form, you only start there. You now have to take notes and screenshots (and hope you took all of them), and then write the whole thing.
So if you don’t have much time, a video tutorial is the quickest way to at least get the info out there.
@bstix @Provider Welcome, I’m $name, thank you for watching this video, if you like my content, please subscribe and also check out my other videos… 🤬🤬🤬
@bstix on this, if anyone has any tutorial writing needs, hmu. I have vast experience in creating, verifying and editing written tutorials, and that’s part of my sidegig at the moment. Info*at*jetfoil.org.
@bstix @Provider
I could say the same about flowcharts. Having produced many process maps in my time, I still feel a written manual can be more logical and easier to understand.
@bstix @Provider Even better. 99% of the ones you do find are LLM generated nonsense.
@bstix @Provider this!
@bstix @achisto I guess the monetization on YouTube is a given but ads on blogs are not welcome or blocked away therefore the Author has to use patreon or something to regain some of the invested time, not every person does it out of pure enjoyment nowadays
@bstix @Provider I support that. In any case, the right arrow key is your frield :)
Most 15 minutes youtube tutorials could also be condensated in 20 seconds, but you know… advertisement…
@bstix @Provider
Writing hasn’t become that hard to do. Plenty of writing still occurs. The old writing still exists. However, it gets constantly harder to find written content with search engines, which make their money off ad content.
Videos monetise much, much better. So does wasting more of your time.
@bstix @Provider @Textzicke so true
@bstix @Provider I think they’re still there but the steering to the video is more aggressive
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@erik Meine Rede, am liebsten dann noch mit 2 Minuten Intro nur um danach mit “Hey Leute willkommen zurück” begrüßt zu werden. 🤣
@bstix @Provider
Written /reading is a slower way of comprehension. People can actually get more information by listening and at a much faster rate than Youtube. We actually understand speed talkers pretty well.
@bstix @Provider What’s *so* good is a synchronized transcript. Find the bit, click it, and video gives you exactly what you’re looking for. Need it again? Click the transcript.
@bstix @Provider I completely agree.
@bstix @Provider text land is flooded with generative garbage (ex: recipes), so videos are now the only way to be sure you’re looking at human content … for now.
@bstix @Provider SO MUCH THISSSS! 😵
@bstix been using a new piece of software, and its documentation is entirely video-based. That said, they’re much better than average — no like-&-subscribe nonsense — and they’re generally short (2–3 min).
BUT I COULD GET THE SAME ANSWER IN 10 SECONDS’ READING.
I get the engagement/metrics argument; maybe they could post the video transcripts, too? This would be a win for everyone — the hurried/impatient and those with accessibility needs.
@bstix @Provider When I do use a video to learn I am a fan of the double speed option or sometimes 1.5x if they speak a bit faster.
@bstix @Provider
This!
(Also I dislike video as a medium. It’s too easy to manipulate the viewer.)
The ‘30 seconds of acting like jester’ in the intro and outro annoy me the most. Have a Dislike, I’ll move on.
@bstix @Provider Hey before I tell you the thing you need to know remember to like and subscribe and hit the bell button and now let me spend 2 minutes talking about Hello fucking Fresh
@bstix @Provider Writing doesn’t pay. Youtube does, or at least can.
@bstix @Provider Good technical writing is expensive. Bad technical writing is ineffective. Video is cheap and gives the illusion of being useful.
@Provider @bstix It’s even worse for those of us who can’t see the screen. Oftentimes Youtube tutorials rely heavily on visual graphics and screen grabs which are barely even alluded to in the narration, if at all. This is a serious disadvantage to blind folks like myself.
@bstix this, oh my goodness, this.
@bstix @Provider @kyhwana I wonder if there’s a market for a website that just summarizes video tutorials for you.
@bstix @Provider Absoltely agree with this.
@bstix @Provider agreed. Also online courses like Udemy, often only give you the video content. Would prefer some of the more important bits to be in a handout PDF at least
@bstix Thank you! Same here! I hate those stupid youtube tutorials. Who wants to listen to all that crap if you just need a 3 second detail? And then having to listen to the whole video several times because you miss the detail… arrghhh…
@Provider
@bstix @Provider I agree with this 100%!
@bstix I’m so, so glad I’m not alone in feeling this way. This is why I will always read the transcript of podcasts and videos if
available.
@bstix @Provider I use YT videos sparsely and when I feel lazy
@bstix @Provider Maybe that’s one things ChatGPT would *actually* be useful for (unless it “hallucinates” a lot of fake stuff and people start inadvertently breaking shit.).
@bstix Absolutely agree.
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@bstix @Provider this is part of why I’ve started publishing my own tutorials to the web.
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@simon @bstix @Provider hard to write? no. But most people no longer read. So… tutorials become movies, t seems toe easily attention than written text, sadly
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@bstix @Provider 👍
@bstix @Provider written is bad now too. try looking up a recipe. you are assaulted with ads, and a long useless story while trying to get to the actual data.
@bstix @Provider Yes, here a discussion https://forum.waarneming.nl/index.php/topic,505255.msg2568877.html#new about the document manual
@bstix @Provider
Same, I prefer written instructions for most things. I don’t want to keep pausing, rewinding. That’s fine for work tasks, when I’m learning a new method, technique. Still lame to do the pause/rewind, but that’s necessary when it has to be hands-on.
@bstix
Y.E.S.!
@Provider @Rusty_invader
@bstix @Provider Absolutely, and not to forget, these videos need all the wdf/IDF keywords to rank properly. So they need to blow them up like hell, make it nearly impossible to extract the badly needed information… omg, I hate it too
@Provider @bstix I simply don’t watch Youtube tutorials.
@bstix @Provider this is exactly why I do written tech reviews!
@bstix @Provider My favourite are video tutorials that are about written things, like terminals. Yes, I would much rather squint at your blurry video to figure out what you’re typing at 6:59 than just copy and paste the answer.
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@bstix @Provider Agreed! I have often wished the video maker would take the time to add chapters/time stamps and titles to their videos allowing viewers to skim back and review the sections they want to. As an educational tool, this is essential.
@bstix @Provider
Yes! Amen.
@bstix @Provider I find written tutorials about as useful as videos at this point.
@bstix @Provider
yes, i read an article where an economics professor at Harvard said he wasn’t assigning essays anymore because they’re useless with chatgpt. It can write A,B, and C papers, and with large classes professors have cannot tell if a student’s writing and transitions are their own.
@bstix @Provider I do value youtube videos when it comes to mechanics. Nothing like seeing what I’m supposed to do done by someone else.
@bstix @Provider
As someone who has been paid to create both video and written contents, I think the answer is yes.
Especially in the tutorial space. It’s way easier to simply show you what’s happening on my screen than to break that into actual steps and copy paste screenshots and write accurate descriptions.
@bstix @Provider written has become hard to monetize
@bstix @Provider I almost never will give a video presentation even a smidgen of attention. I AM NOT INTERESTED! Give me something to read, and please make it succinct.
@bstix @Provider I want both. Sometimes I need to see how something is actually done.
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@bstix @zoomar Please. A manual, written by someone involved in the making. An index.
@bstix @Provider From a creator’s perspective that sounds rather ungrateful. Why not be happy that people take the time to create free tutorials at all – in the way they see fit? We look for tutorials because they shorten the time we would otherwise need to figure things out. So it’s weird to say “you helped me save 2 hours of trial-and-error, but it took 3 minutes instead of 1, so damn you!”.
@bstix @Provider I personally feel combo of both works in some scenarios. But I agree, I dread the fact that all tutorials are on site that can remove them any minute.
@bstix @Provider
I felt the same until recently. I find concentrating very hard to the point of leaving the cinema early for about 8 in 10 movies.
However I have become a huge fan of Fireship on youtube where the videos are very short (e.g. 100 seconds) and also amusing. For example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRMPKQweySE
#education #videolearning
@bstix @Provider You can use ChatGPT for written tutorials, which have shown excellent results and, in my opinion, are better than video tutorials and the help sections within the software and hardware. Alternatively, you can skip the videos to view specific peaks, as most people face the same problems.
@bstix @Provider Oh wow, I don’t want to think what my first forays into Linux would’ve been like had it been like this. No longer stacks of HOWTOs printed onto fan-fold, but links to YT… 😔
@bstix @Provider
Agree 100%.
ONLY time video is better is when it’s a navigation guide. Like for a game.
Much easier to find that hidden bonus item if you follow a video than to try to follow a description.
@bstix @Provider
Well said
@bstix @xjki nobody pays for writing. YT pays for views.
@bstix I’m always conflicted on this. I find written instructions hard to understand so I absolutely need something visual. But Youtube videos rarely help.
@bstix
Hard to monetize a 15s read on a forum. Easy to monetize that YouTube video.
@Provider
@bstix @Provider Video tutorials are the thing to do now because they can be packaged into a saleable course, and also because it’s easier to be discovered on Youtube than on the open web. It sucks because coding and related topics definitely work better in written form. Most of us are able to read faster than watch.
@bstix @Provider it mostly comes down by putting it on youtube the writer/presenter can be paid for it.
@bstix @Provider producing a quality video is harder than writing. One reason why these videos proliferate is that for many use cases, showing is a more effective means for teaching than telling.
@bstix @Provider I can only study with music, it is impossible to do with video tutorials.
@bstix @Provider Agreed. There are a few things it might be helpful to see done but mainly I read and scan much faster than people talk and can search for text in a way that isn’t yet common for videos.
@bstix @Provider It isn’t that writing is hard to do, it’s that it’s hard to monetize and get Google to care enough about to suggest people to read it over checking out a video on a platform they own.
I’d love to just do written content 100% for all I do, but it’s becoming sadly apparent that having no video element is missing out on a large audience these days.
@bstix @Provider it’s not about the writing, it’s all about seconds of exposure to get paid by the youtube algorithms
@bstix @Provider writing is hard, recording a stream of random stuff is easy.
@bstix @rubenerd Just on topic: https://phpc.social/@grmpyprogrammer/110780220649682965
@bstix @Provider more money in YouTube videos
@bstix @Provider
@bbak
YT-Tutorials are like Voice-Messages … more important for senders as for the “audience”.
@bstix @Provider I hate YouTube tutorials. I want to process things at my own speed.
@bstix @Provider it’s harder to monetise
@bstix @Provider
Especially given that a good video is scripted, which means that before it was a video, it was…
…wait for it…
…written. It was a written document. Just give us the written document. You already have it. You made it. It must exist in order to make the video. If you still want to make the video, fine, go ahead. It might be fun. People might enjoy it. But you have a written document, so make that available too.
@bstix @Provider I’ve talked with several people who have multimillion follower accounts on youtube, and their experience is just like mine: you can spend x amount of time on writing a detailed blog post with pictures, or you can spend 3x that time making a video, and the video will get at _least_ a thousand times more viewers than the blog post.
One of my videos has gotten approximately a quarter million more views than everything I’ve ever written online, combined.
@bstix @Provider
I created an hour-long tutorial to answer that very question.
@bstix @Provider writing got demonetized
@bstix @Provider yes. Writing really HAS become that hard to do…and it’s difficult to monetize 3 paragraphs.
Kids these days…
@bstix @Provider Too many people’s attention spans are mangled beyond repair by TikTok culture, which is a purposefully brain degenerative thing. I feel so strongly about this stuff I will usually unfollow someone who posts primarily video clips. When I want a video, it’s because it’s something I went looking for on purpose. Not because I can’t follow linear thoughts. (Yeah, color me crabby, but since you brought it up…)
@bstix Worse, you wait through 2 unskippable ads to find out if this is really the video you want.
@bstix Oh my god yes. I spent $60 every few months on one of those thick-ass “How to Adobe Photoshop” books with an included CD, and worked through the tutorials chapter by chapter, and that’s how I learned every computer skill until the early 2000s. Textual tutorials that are well-written and well-edited are POTENT because they deliver skills into your head as quickly as you can absorb it.
Bonus: *paper* books have the advantage of sitting NEXT to your computer and not taking up a third of your screen real estate, which was super important 30 years ago when screens were tiny.
@bstix @Provider
There should ALWAYS be a written version
I never watch the videos or listen to the feeds
@bstix @Provider a thousand times this!
@bstix When I learn something new I write it down and hope to put it somewhere on the web where people find it. Sadly shit like steck exchange don’t allow that. So I have some blog entries and some github snippets and other things. Just hoping the search engines will find that.
Sadly they all return youtube videos because google needs to make money and doesn’t care about search anymore …
@bstix @Provider YouTube provides ad revenue in a predictable way; there is no equivalent platform for written conten
@bstix @Provider Don’t forget that the first minute of the 3 min tutorial is bumpf promoting the channel.
@bstix @Provider Yes! I can skim read for what I want *much* faster than trying to scrub through waffle in a youtube video.
@bstix I feel like the basic unit of communication for young people now is the video and not the written word. IMO it is inferior but so it goes…
@bstix @Provider Over time I’ve seen the willingness of developers to writing _anything_ in natural language absolutely fall off a cliff 😔