Blogger questions: What if someone else wrote about the same subject?
8February 3, 2016 by Kenneth Fisher
I have a moderately popular blog. In part because I syndicate but largely (in my opinion) because I write a lot of posts (twice a week for > 3 years). Over 340 of them in fact. Because of this a friend asked me what I do if I write a blog and then discover that someone else wrote about the same subject, but did it better?
Since I’ve heard this question in a few different forms I thought I’d answer it.
Answer: It doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Seriously, what different does it make? With the number of bloggers out there it’s highly unlikely that I’m going to write about a subject that no one else has or will. It gets even worse when you throw in answers to questions on various forums. The idea is to put my own spin on it. When I describe something in my way it may resonate better(or worse) than someone else’s take. Also just because someone else wrote about it doesn’t mean that you read their version. And the people who read the other versions won’t necessarily see mine.
Just for proof I took 4 random blog entries and did a google search for other blogs/forums/etc on the same subject. Here’s what I came up with.
SQL Studies: Amusing SQL Trick – Hide yourself from SQL Server
Heh, I’m actually pointing out someone else’s blog in this one.
- Connect to Server (Additional Connection Parameters Page) – A BOL entry on the subject, go figure.
- How do I permanently add additional connection parameters in SQL Server Management Studio – A forum answer.
- Connecting to an Availability Group Listener with SQL Server Management Studio – Blog post. Different use for the same thing.
SQL Studies: Impersonating a server level permission
This is one of those rare cases where I think I was actually one of the first one’s to write about this. Lots of people writing about impersonation but I didn’t see anyone mention using TRUSTWORTHY to get server level permissions.
- Customizing Permissions with Impersonation in SQL Server – Another BOL entry.
- How to impersonate the privileges to create a login using the Stored procedures using “EXECUTE AS” clause
- SQL Server Impersonation – Hey, they mention TRUSTWORTHY, just for a different purpose.
SQL Studies: TSQL Tuesday #68: What is my configuration?
For this particular T-SQL Tuesday I talked about documenting your configuration settings .. gosh what an unpopular subject.
- Documentation: It doesn’t suck!
- How to Document and Configure SQL Server Instance Settings
- Document SQL Server instance settings/objects
- Document Your SQL Servers
SQL Studies: Which user function do I use?
- The Mystery of the SUSER_NAME() and SUSER_SNAME() functions
- SQL SERVER – Difference Between ORIGINAL_LOGIN() and SUSER_SNAME()
- Understanding different ways to extract Logged In User/Login in SQL Server using TSQL
Hopefully I’ve made my point. It doesn’t matter if you write about the same subject as anyone else. As long as you aren’t plagiarizing someone else go for it!
SQL Studies 
From an avid tech blogger reader it is great if a subject is extensively covered. This is especially true for trickier subjects where it may take reading about something a couple of different ways with a couple of different examples before it sinks in.
Absolutely! The more people write about a subject the better coverage you get. Not just the number of people who will read about it but the number of viewpoints on the subject you will get.
Hey, this gives me a great idea for a new blog post.
Great! Just make sure that no one else has written about it before you start. :p
Nice! I’m still new to blogging and this question has been in my head a lot. It’s caused me to go down some very niche alleys in a couple of posts that may only be of interest to a small set of people.
Yea, even on a simple subject your way of describing it may be what makes it click for someone. And funnily enough that someone may be you in a few months. You’d be amazed how often I refer back to my own stuff.
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