There are a number of problems with that approach, some of which have already been mentioned by others.

1. There would have to be limitations of who could and couldn't add or modify content. As has already been said, the question of who is given access to modify content and who doesn't receive that access would be an immediate cause for complaints both in the public forum and filling my inbox. I received grief when I removed the ability to score from one user--that user even tracked down some alternate email addresses I use that have nothing to do with 8052.com in an attempt to make his case.

2. I'd have to code the thing to allow content modification. This would not be a trivial effort, especially since we'd have to have the ability to "undo" changes that were wrong or mailicious.

3. I'm not convinced there'd be much interest in contributing content. The FAQ area has given the ability to members to submit their own FAQ entries and in the 2 or 3 years that ability has existed, I think we've had something like 10 user-contributed FAQ entries. It was scarcely worth the programming time I invested considering the extremely low number of contributions. If simple FAQs are not contributed, how many people are going to contribute full-on tutorials or articles?

4. Even with something as simple as FAQs, and with big text that reads "THIS IS NOT A PLACE TO ASK QUESTIONS", I've received literally DOZENS of "contributions" to the FAQ section where the person is asking a question. Apparently they don't understand what a FAQ is and don't understand that the FAQ contribution is to ask AND ANSWER the question (even though the site explains that in a huge font prior to submitting the FAQ). I shudder to think at what kind of damage these types of people could cause to established content when they don't know what they're doing and refuse to read instructions.

5. If two or more people had strong opinions on some aspect of content, each day we could see that content changing as each side tries to modify the content contributed by the other. Assuming changes would have to be reviewed, this would add to the amount of content the moderators would have to review as it is constantly updated and re-updated.

Now if there are errors in the current tutorials, please bring them to my attention. Yes, I move slowly to correct them because I *am* busy and because I need to verify that the corrections are actually correct before I just change the tutorials without thought. But I also thought I was pretty much caught up on corrections at this point so if I missed any, please let me know.

Also keep in mind that a couple of the tutorials were written by others and when I've received corrections to those tutorials I've actually had to go in and really think about the code/text to make sure the correction is accurate. It's one thing looking ta my own code and text and realizing a correction is accurate--looking at someone elses code and text and deciding there's an error requires I spend a bit more time on it to be really sure the correction is appropriate.

And finally, if the problem is with "stale content" (i.e. no new tutorials in a few years) then by all means submit content to me. Others have done it and I've added it to the tutorial section. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered in the tutorials, write up a tutorial and send it in. I'll add it to the tutorials section with full attribution given to the author.

Regards,
Craig Steiner
8052.com Webmaster