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WikiHow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The correct title of this article is wikiHow. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.
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| URL | http://www.wikihow.com/ |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Wiki format How-to Manual |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | wikiHow |
| Created by | Jack Herrick and Josh Hannah |
wikiHow is a wiki-based community with a database of How-To guides. All of the site's content is licensed under Creative Commons (by-nc-sa); and the site uses a heavily modified version of MediaWiki 1.6. The site started as an extension of the already existing eHow website, and has evolved to host over 16,000 How-to articles. wikiHow's mission is to build the world's largest How-To manual and help it grow. In November 2006, wikiHow had 3 million unique readers. [1]
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In January 2005, the two owners, Jack Herrick and Josh Hannah, of eHow started wikiHow - a collaborative writing project striving to build the world's largest how-to manual. While eHow already contained instructions on how to do thousands of things, wikiHow allowed a community of volunteer contributors to build something even bigger and better. On April 28th 2006 eHow was sold and wikiHow was launched as an independent site on its own domain, www.wikihow.com [2]
As of December 2006, the number of registered wikiHow users stood at slightly less than 37,000.[3]
wikiHow is a wiki, which (similarly to wikipedia) is a website that anyone can write on and edit. wikiHow operates on open source software and an open content licensing model allowing free use and community ownership of the content.
Any visitor to wikiHow can create a new page and write about how to do something. Articles posted to wikiHow follow a standard format consisting of a summary, followed by steps to complete the activity, along with required items, warnings, tips, and sometimes links to related how-to articles. Pictures may be added to the articles to illustrate important points or concepts. Once the page is submitted, other visitors can edit, improve, or change the page. Anonymous contributors and the wikiHow user community work together to improve the quality of information provided on the site, fix or remove incorrect instructions and revert vandalism.
While wikiHow does contain a wealth of information, some criticize the validity and usefulness of a number of these How-to's. [4]
Examples of questionable articles include:
Critics have attacked wikiHow's staunch censorship policy[5], which is in place to maintain a "family friendly" atmosphere. [6] Prohibited topics include those that are "sexually charged", illegal activities, drug use, and potentially destructive things (unlike Wikibooks, which has manuals for synthesis of potentially dangerous chemicals). Critics argue that by promoting censorship, one undermines the very idea behind an educational resource.
- ^ Herrick, Jack (Nov. 2006). WikiHow Site Traffic Statistics. wikiHow. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
- ^ Herrick, Jack (Sept. 2006). History of eHow and wikiHow. wikiHow. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
- ^ wikiHow Statistics. Retrieved on 2006-12-22.
- ^ Addelman, Rebecca. How to do absolutely everything (English). MacLeans.ca. Retrieved on 2007-03-02. “Relevance is an even bigger issue ... wikiHow's advice is too niche and fragmented for most people to find useful.”
- ^ wikiHow_talk:Deletion Policy. wikiHow. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ wikiHow Deletion Policy. wikiHow. Retrieved on 2007-03-08.