4

Quite often I go through pain to discover how to do something useful, in this case how to get PHP running on Google App Engine without the 'resin.jar too big' problem, but I have nowhere to let people know. In this particular case, the web answers were incomplete, outdated or plain wrong.

I could create a blog, but it's overkill. I just want let programmers know a quick solution/approach. I'm not sure it's the done thing to ask a question and then answer it.

In short, it'd be nice to be able to just dump a sort of combined question/answer/snippet, then let others comment as usual, shoot it down, like it, whatever.

How do the rest of you approach this?

Shane
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5 Answers5

16

I could create a blog, but it's overkill.

It's actually the best option.

You will write whatever pleases you and nobody will bug you about "not-programming-related", "duplicate" etc.

Set up a simple blog (on your own domain), enable comments and get writing.

Will also help in polishing your writing skills.

Ah yes, and it will give you a bit of promotion, something positive as well.

UPDATE: In case you're worried nobody ever finds your tutorials on an unknown blog then that's what the Google is for.

13

Stack Overflow is a good place to start. Ask a question, wait for others to offer some solutions and, if your version is better, answer your own question. This will let others in the community find your answer easily.

Another option is CodeProject. There's quite a lot of useful stuff there, including tutorials. I'd think this would also get your solution quite a lot of exposure.

Also, I'm not the biggest blog fan. Yes, they're nice, but they're hard to find; it's easier to remember searching for a question you once saw on Stack Overflow than it is to search for a random blog with 3-4 blog posts (harsh reality of blogs: most people stop blogging after a short while).

alex
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2

This is an excellent question and one that I've often struggled with myself. Keeping a blog up to date can be a massive undertaking; however, it's really one of the only ways I can think of to get information out.

One possible solution could be to link to the original content in your blog, and then describe the changes you made. Not having to repeat the entire process may be helpful to not only clarify the problem with the original set of instructions, but also you get the advantage of not having to write a novel.

You can also leave a comment on the original poster's blog linking to your solution, with links between both your blog and her/his, it might also have the added benefit of improving both websites' SEO.

jmort253
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1

I used to post solutions that I discovered on PasteBin-type services, and shared the URLs (often via Twitter or IRC, depending upon the situation).

However, I've recently began to just dump bits and pieces into Google Docs for later reference, with the intention of creating blog posts based upon them - but a lot of content tends to languish there, due to either lack of time or terseness (i.e. I sometimes omit minor details, and later find that they're actually fairly critical).

Tyson
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0

How about writing a blog. Whenever you solve a complicated problem or found out something useful you post it and everybody can find it. It is not overkill. there are lots of free blog providers and setting up a blog is easy. Use it as your personal notebook for solved problems.

EricSchaefer
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