[Bf-docboard] Blender Proceedings

[Raindrops From Sky]

The Blender website already has links to various sites that host Blender
tutorials.

The controversy comes because it also has links to individual tutorials as
OUTSIDE sources. That is because multiple people will claim a given spot.
This is especially true of tutorials that use multiple techniques, rather
than dealing with one Blender topic. Multiple videos would qualify for any
given spot.

*Proposed solution*:

   1. Blender site can create specific spots for each topic in the wiki's
   TOC, and then invite artists/educators to submit videos for any of those
   spots.
   2. Each submitted videos must meet the *scope* criteria for that spot.
   For example, a video on *rigging* must not cover *animation*.
   3. A moderator must check whether the incoming videos are suitable for
   the spot.
   4. Multiple videos can be accepted for any given spot. The simple trick
   is to rotate the thumbnails of all videos every few seconds (using a
   "switch"), If the user clicks on any thumbnail, he is taken to that video.

Thus everyone is accommodated, and the website becomes richer through
healthy competition. Use of the switches ensures that the list EXACTLY
mirrors the TOC, rather than becoming a long meandering laundry list.
*
Alternative solution:*

   1. Allow only one video per topic of the TOC.
   2. Ask all contributors to submit their videos (separate submission for
   each topic)
      - Except for the speaker's voice introduction, the videos must not
      contain any personal identification or links or any kind of
self-promotions.
      (Best example are videos made by Neal Hirsig)
      3. Let a panel select the best candidate that covers each topic.
   4. Make the Blender website totally self-contained
   (no links to external individual videos allowed.).

*****
I think professionals would prefer the first solution above, as there is
self-promotion involved.
The users also get a much larger range of tutorials that are sorted to match
the TOC.
So they get everything in one place: Theory->User Manual->Video tutorials.

Although having multiple tutorials on a given topic means a little
duplication, no two tutorials are exactly alike, and so the users can watch
multiple videos on each topic to strengthen their understanding. After some
time, they are likely to develop their preferences for a particular
creator's video, and they may watch only those.
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