Serious question; all of these tutorial sites.. are any of them a reliable source for web dev or are they just another Smashing Magazine where people get paid to write about things they don't understand?
IMO, Smashing is mostly typical blogspam with very occasional nuggets of good content. If you browse HN and some of the Reddit web/programming subreddits even somewhat frequently, both Smashing and tuts+ are pretty useless.
Yeah, I'm still trying to find the good dev subreddits. You get downvoted in /r/webdesign over some really pathetic crap but it seems to be the most active - any suggestions?
Honestly I don't think their tutorials are half bad and I enjoy reading Smashing Magazine. Mainly for fluffy stuff. For security & scaling stuff go elsewhere.
I guess half-bad is subjective. I don't feel like a site that allows such a vast array of decent information vs. downright terrible/wrong is worth my time trying to decipher between the two.
I know what I read on A List Apart is quality material from quality writers and people who have spent years and years in the field. Tommy the 17 year old graphic designer that only has mom-and-pop Wordpresses under his belt shouldn't be getting paid to tell thousands of people what's hot right now.