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| owner = wikiHow
| owner = wikiHow
| author = [[Jack Herrick]] and [[Josh Hannah]]
| author = [[Jack Herrick]] and [[Josh Hannah]]
| alexa = {{Increase}} 287 ({{as of|2013|6|5|alt=April 2013}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikihow.com |title= Wikihow.com Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2013-04-22 }}</ref><!--Updated monthly by OKBot.-->
| alexa = {{Increase}} 271 ({{as of|2013|6|17|alt=June 2013}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikihow.com |title= Wikihow.com Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2013-04-22 }}</ref><!--Updated monthly by OKBot.-->
}}
}}
'''wikiHow''' is a web-based and wiki-based community, consisting of an extensive database of [[how-to]] guides. wikiHow's mission is to build the world's largest and highest quality how-to manual.<ref name=aboutwikihow>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikihow.com/About-wikiHow |title=About wikiHow |publisher=Wikihow.com |date=January 1, 2012 |accessdate=January 27, 2012}}</ref> The site started as an extension of the already existing [[eHow]] website, and has evolved to host over 150,000 how-to articles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Community-Portal |title=wikiHow: Community Portal |accessdate=May 1, 2011}}</ref> In January 2012, "wikiHow had 35.5 million unique readers from over 200 countries or territories. These 35.5 million different people visited it a total of over 44 million times in the month."<ref>[http://www.wikihow.com/WikiHow:Statistics Statistics – wikiHow]. Accessed April 13, 2012.</ref>
'''wikiHow''' is a web-based and wiki-based community, consisting of an extensive database of [[how-to]] guides. wikiHow's mission is to build the world's largest and highest quality how-to manual.<ref name=aboutwikihow>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikihow.com/About-wikiHow |title=About wikiHow |publisher=Wikihow.com |date=January 1, 2012 |accessdate=January 27, 2012}}</ref> The site started as an extension of the already existing [[eHow]] website, and has evolved to host over 150,000 how-to articles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Community-Portal |title=wikiHow: Community Portal |accessdate=May 1, 2011}}</ref> In January 2012, "wikiHow had 35.5 million unique readers from over 200 countries or territories. These 35.5 million different people visited it a total of over 44 million times in the month."<ref>[http://www.wikihow.com/WikiHow:Statistics Statistics – wikiHow]. Accessed April 13, 2012.</ref>

Revision as of 06:44, 17 June 2013

wikiHow
wikiHow Main Page
Type of site
Wiki format How-to Manual
Available inEnglish, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Hindi
HeadquartersCalifornia
OwnerwikiHow
Created byJack Herrick and Josh Hannah
URLwikihow.com
CommercialYes ("hybrid organization")
RegistrationOptional

wikiHow is a web-based and wiki-based community, consisting of an extensive database of how-to guides. wikiHow's mission is to build the world's largest and highest quality how-to manual.[2] The site started as an extension of the already existing eHow website, and has evolved to host over 150,000 how-to articles.[3] In January 2012, "wikiHow had 35.5 million unique readers from over 200 countries or territories. These 35.5 million different people visited it a total of over 44 million times in the month."[4]

All of the site's content is licensed under the Creative Commons (by-nc-sa);[5] and the site uses a modified version of MediaWiki 1.12,[6] which is open source.[7]

History

On January 15, 2005, the two owners of eHow, Jack Herrick and Josh Hannah, started wikiHow—a collaborative writing project 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 28, 2006, eHow was sold to Demand Media and wikiHow was launched as an independent site on its own www.wikihow.com domain.[8]

wikiHow reached 50,000 articles on January 27, 2009.[9] On March 11, 2011, the number of how to articles hit 100,000. 112 users are administrators, and three are bureaucrats.[10]

As of November 2011, there have been over 7,224,751 page edits, there are over 127,479 articles, 387,490 users, and 1,099,137,196 page views.[10] As of February 2013, there are over 150,000 articles.[11]

Content and article format

Workshop on women on wikiHow at Wikimania 2012.

wikiHow is a wiki, which is a website that anyone can 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 ingredients (if any), steps to complete the activity, along with tips, warnings, required items, links to related how-to articles, and a section for sources & citations. Pictures may be added to the articles to illustrate important points or concepts. Once the page is submitted, other visitors can edit or improve 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.

Deletion policy

wikiHow's deletion policy[12] prohibits articles on topics that are advertisements, spam, inaccurate, jokes, potty humor, sarcastic, sexually charged, hate/racist-based, mean-spirited, impossible instructions, social instructions impossible for an individual to accomplish, universally illegal, copyright violations, below character article standards, focused on recreational drugs, political opinion promoting or criticizing a particular political party/candidate/official, vanity pages, or extremely dangerous and reckless.[13]

Business model

The site's initial start-up costs were to some extent financed from Herrick's sale of eHow. It is now funded from advertising on its pages, on the grounds that "...tasteful advertising is the most unobtrusive way to fund our operations."[2] It does not seek contributions, asserting that solicitations are annoying, and it is run as a "hybrid organization" – a "for-profit company focused on creating a global public good in accordance with our mission".[14]

Licensing

wikiHow's content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike (by-nc-sa) license, which means that the content can be modified and reused for non-commercial purposes as long as the original authors are attributed and the license is not substantially changed. The authors retain full copyright to their content and may publish it elsewhere under different licenses. They grant wikiHow an irrevocable license to use the material for any purpose.[5]

Opt-out ads

wikiHow is one of only a handful of major websites to allow readers control over whether advertising appears alongside content. Readers can block ads for 24 hours by clicking the "hide ads" button.[15] Those who are registered and logged in do not see ads,[15][16] unless it is an external video provider.[17]

Criticisms

Prior to adopting the Creative Commons license, wikiHow had been criticized for initial content policies that sought to make a profit from volunteer contributors.[18] The site has also been criticized about the reliability of articles written by non-experts, such as "How to stop cutting yourself", or the relevance of articles written about such obscure subjects as "How to taste dark chocolate".[19]

As wikiHow continued to grow, it began to attract more media attention. Columnist Mark Patinkin from the Providence Journal wrote an article about wikiHow in late 2009, commenting that he found many interesting articles on a variety of different subjects.[20] In the same article, he said [regarding some of the article topics]:

Some were too dicey, like How to Mount a Unicycle. Others had daunting titles: How to Change a Partition Size Using Easeus Partition Manager. Some were too long, like How to Be Organized. Others too obscure: How to Care for Sea Monkeys. Some too hard: How to Play a Glissando on a Wind Instrument. Others I didn’t want to know about, like How to Cook a Snake. Some simply grossed me out: How to Cure a Cat of Constipation. Others demoralized me: How to Check out a Library Book. Do people no longer know?[20]

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Wikihow.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "About wikiHow". Wikihow.com. January 1, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  3. ^ "wikiHow: Community Portal". Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  4. ^ Statistics – wikiHow. Accessed April 13, 2012.
  5. ^ a b Terms of Use, wikihow.com. The licensing section links to Creative Commons – Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Generic.
  6. ^ Herrick, Jack (September 8, 2008). "Forum post: Upgrade to Mediawiki 1.12 on Wed at 10 am – 1 PM GMT". wikiHow. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
  7. ^ "wikiHow Source code distribution". Src.wikihow.com. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  8. ^ Herrick, Jack (2006). "History of eHow and wikiHow". wikiHow. Retrieved October 26, 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ "wikiHow Statistics". Retrieved January 22, 2009.
  10. ^ a b "wikiHow Statistics". Retrieved March 13, 2011.
  11. ^ "Rally to 150,000 articles". wikiHow.
  12. ^ How to Understand What wikiHow Is Not wikiHow
  13. ^ "wikiHow Deletion Policy". wikiHow. Retrieved March 8, 2007.
  14. ^ "Hybrid Organization". wikiHow. October 5, 2010. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  15. ^ a b wikiHow:Why Hide Ads – wikiHow.
  16. ^ Taylor, Marisa (January 30, 2009). "Turning the Ads Off". The Wall Street Journal.
  17. ^ wikiHow:Video Curation#Video Curation Tips
  18. ^ Ernest Miller (June 3, 2005). "wikiHow: Thanks, But No Thanks". Retrieved January 25, 2008.
  19. ^ Addelman, Rebecca (October 16, 2006). "How to do absolutely everything". MacLeans.ca. Retrieved March 2, 2007.
  20. ^ a b Mark Patinkin (December 6, 2009). "Columnist Mark Patinkin: 'Wiki' site tells me the how, but not the why". projo.com. Retrieved December 1, 2009.

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WikiHow&oldid=560259377"