pre-written essays became obsolete because of Turnitin.
There was never a reference made by @TonyV that would indicate that he was encouraging students to use the information provided by the studentshare as an actual reference point in a current research paper. I think there are two ways of understanding his ESL statement of:
if you get the experience and transform it in doing own work, but more efficient.
What i think he is trying to do is entice the students to use studentshare as one of the early reading materials of a student for his current research topic. Yes, their database essays are so old, most of it is irrelevant to today's society and learning environment. However, all students, in my opinion, are students of history. Therefore, if they desire to learn more information and write a well educated essay based on facts and other data, then historical considerations are important to the discussion. That is not to say that the student should use that old information in his essay. Rather, the old information will help him understand where the new information is coming from.
Turnitin has nothing to do with is as long as the student does not use the old paper for a grade by simply trying to revise the content. Their database, as I mentioned in a different post, is nothing more than an academic essay / research paper form of Wikipedia. It is good for a starting off point. Don't take all of the information provided in the essays seriously due to the age of the information provided. Additional research will be and still be required for the writing of the new essay that will then be submitted for a grade.
So I believe that studentshare should be viewed this way:
Studentshare for basic understanding of a research topic = Yes
Studentshare paper paraphrased and submitted for a grade = No