eHow

Seriously, do they "research" their "authors"? There is so much BAD information and advice! My opinion is don't rely on 90% of what you read there.

1) information is frequently incorrect
2)"how to" articles are usually too brief and simplistic to be useful
3) often multiple articles covering same topic
4) directions are interrupted by advertising blocks and pop up ads

EHow should really be called "How-to for Morons". The articles are apparently written by the same folks who prepare those assembly instructions that come with cheap furniture kits. They're clearly paid writers who are copying information from other unreliable sources on topics that they know nothing about (click on the contributer's name to get their bio and you'll see what I mean). I've looked at dozens of topics on that site and the info is usually incomplete, inaccurate, or irrelevant to the question addressed. When it is accurate the instructions given are typically so generic and obvious as to be insulting; "to replace the battery in your remote control, remove the battery cover, insert new batteries, then replace the cover" - D'uh! Overall, I'd say eHow is even worse than message board sites like Yahoo Answers where at least you get several unreliable opinions to choose from.

I'd SO like to write a glowing review of this site. The member-contributed articles cover an astonishing range of topics, ranging from how to repair a computer to how to address an envelope, and the site is well laid out and looks thoroughly reliable.

But it's not. I recently sought instructions on how to upgrade the CPU in my laptop, which I hadn't previously opened. Having a step-by-step guide to which screws need to come out and which don't is a great help, and I found the appropriate article here and printed out the instructions, which were clear and concise.

Unfortunately they were for an entirely different laptop, as I discovered immediately, so I ended up just doing the upgrade with commonsense and a willingness to overlook the odd screw or two that was left over at the end.

The site is definitely worth seeking out if you're interested in trying something new or getting a refresher on something you've now forgotten how to do, but don't use it as your sole reference if you're doing something that needs to be right the first time around.

Some of the articles are a bit flaky and seem to have been written simply because the writers are claimed to receive $15 - $20 an hour for them. I don't need to be told that the best flowers to use in my room as an air freshener are the ones that smell nice. I really could have figured that one out for myself. And the community aspect of the site doesn't seem to have got off the ground, with a sparsely populated forum and groups that mainly seem to have only a handful of members and postings at the rate of one a month.

Ehow tries, but could do a lot better.

A lot of these people are not experts.
I look at the dance instruction videos, tango, rumba swing etc.
These experts look like intermediate level students.

Not all of them, there are a few gems, but not many.

I'm just peeved that no one notices my site...

Grumble..