Content Overhaul
August 07, 2008 · Filed under: Site Updates.
The past few days I’ve been busy working on the Writing section of the site. I basically went over every single article, opinion, and essay, and made some heavy revisions. A few articles, like Simple vs. Plain and Text and Legibility have been almost re-done, with new examples added. I also converted all of the articles/opinions that linked to a blog entry into actual subpages and edited them a bit so that they read as articles and not blog entries.
Basic Dos and Don’ts, Creating a Layout, and Content Mishaps were completely updated, along with a few resource links, so check those out and let me know what you think!
It was bothering me that some old articles didn’t feel like “me” anymore, some were out of touch, others had spelling/grammar mistakes, and some were not amusing in the least (at least, to me). And really, if I grow, I want this site to grow with me.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go do something that doesn’t require looking at, editing, or thinking about my content in any way.
“How To” Sites Should Die
August 04, 2008 · Filed under: Thoughts. Online.
The other day I googled “How to clean laptop fans” because I wanted to see if there was a correct way of doing it before I dug in and caused serious damage. I google things like this a lot, but this time I realized the How To rape that was on the front page of the results. Two of the How To sites I recognize the most are eHow and Wiki How.
When I first came across these websites I thought “Wow, what a great resource! I can learn practically anything!” But when I browsed a little deeper I found out that some articles were completely pointless and others were way too simple--too simple to be taken seriously. Some how-to articles I read were helpful and inspiring, don’t get me wrong. The bad just outweighs the good in this case.
A few how-to articles I found on eHow while randomly browsing around:
- How to Be a Cool Dad - If you’re looking up articles on how to be a cool dad, you’re beyond hope and should give up now. Stick to being lame and keep your dignity.
- How to avoid looking stupid in a fight - “But when the argument becomes too close to home, it becomes hotter and hotter.. so the best way to avoid this is to simply say your opinion and then listen to his/hers. NEVER say “Oh, i dont agree with you.” Just simply say, “That’s simply my opinion and i respect yours too.” Thank you genius.
- How To be smarter - What does smiling have to do with it?
- How to Appreciate Josef Albers - Who?
- How to eat pie - See below.
- How to Behave in a Movie Theatre - Is there an article on How To Gain Common Sense? Because it’s lacking.
It’s not even the fact that they’re stupid titles/topics. The instructions for these “How To articles” are just as ridiculous. For example, in How to Behave in a Movie Theatre it says:
Things You’ll Need:
Common courtesy
Good manners
Patience
How is this in any way useful? If it’s common knowledge, should there be a how-to article in the first place? And anyway, if you have to read an article like this to finally understand the concept of Common Decency, an article on the internet won’t help you out much.
How To Eat Pie is just as lame. Just take a look at the steps:
Step 1 - grab pie
Step 2 - pick up cutter
Step 3 - cut pie
Step 4 - put pie on plate
Step 5 - take fork or spoon and put in pie
Step 6 - put pie in mouth
Step 7 - chew
Step 8 - swallow
Step 9 - repeat until pie gone
Step 10 - digest
Step 11 - Grab a broomstick.
Step 12 - Find some rope.
Step 13 - Get a stool.
Step 14 - Find a closet.
Step 15 - Spare us.
Articles like these bring down the overall quality of these how-to websites and it sucks because some articles are helpful. But when I tried to subscribe to keep up with the new articles, I kept getting dumb article after dumb article and it got old fast. Sites like these are supposed to help me learn, not make me waste my time browsing until I find a decent article.
Maybe I should submit an article myself: “How To Make Sure Your Website Doesn’t Turn Into Absolute Shit”? And you know, actually help someone.
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