Recessed Refrigerators for Dummies - The Freelance Files MMCCXLIX

Typical built-in refrigerator

Around Antisocial Network HQ we long ago realized that there are people out there who are perfectly happy to pound out any amount of bullshit necessary to pick up a few pennies. The self-appointed "expert contributors" to eHow.com have always been a prime example. Where else do you find a "state-tested nursing assistant" with a BS in "communications/public relations" pretending to know "How to Recess a Refrigerator"? Trust us: once you start reading the tripe uploaded by eHowian Nicole Brown, you just won't be able to look away...

Draining Your Washer for Dummies

front-load washer drain filter

There are few habits of highly ineffective freelancers that drive us bonkers more than the "rehash what someone else already said, only with less information (because I don't understand it)" trick. Unfortunately, that's probably the most common shortcoming of the vast landscape of j-school and English Lit grads who hacked their way through millions of "titles" for the erstwhile eHow.com, including self-proclaimed "professional writers" like Shaunta Alburger. Shaunta visited her version of "How to Get Standing Water Out of a Washing Machine" on eHow back in 2014; the company has since moved it to Hunker.com.

Washing Machine Repair for Dummies

Maybe they wanted to know how to do this, Lacy

Some of the most doofus content posted to the internet has been pounded out by freelancers "answering" questions by performing (at best) perfunctory research and glomming onto anything that they think might be pertinent. Clearly, if those writers know nothing about a topic, their judgment about what is pertinent is highly suspect. Today's nominee is one such clueless freelancer, a multiple award winner who has blasted her ignorance across a wide variety of categories. Let's give another Bronx cheer to the one and only Lacy Enderson, here attempting to write a "Stackable Washing Machine Repair Guide" for eHow.com (now at HomeSteady.com).

Converting Natural Gas to LP for Dummies

Natural gas and LP orifices

When it comes to performing DIY repairs on household appliances, some tasks are more likely to lead to disaster than others. We're not talking about a washing machine hose coming loose and flooding the basement here. No, we're talking about DIY work that ends up burning down the house. Any time you mess with electricity or combustible fuels like natural gas, you need to be working from well-written instructions composed by a professional or at least an experienced DIYer. In other words, you do NOT want to follow the useless instructions Allanah Dykes pumped out in the Hunker.com post, "How to Convert a Kenmore Gas Stove to LP."

Washing Machine Repair for Dummies

typical top-loader drive belt

In the information age, the first thing most people do when anything in their lives "misfires" is to google the symptoms. If they're smart, they'll know which sources of information to trust and which to avoid. Unfortunately, not enough people are smart... the ones who are in trouble are the ones who depend on the likes of Meredith Jameson. After all, the history student had to google "How to Know if Your Belt Needs to Be Replaced on a Washng [sic] Machine" herself before she wrote the eHow.com post, now at Hunker.com.

Cooktop Installation by and for Dummies

Cooktop cutout dimensions

No matter how many times we say it, it bears repeating: if you want instructions on how to do something, ask someone who knows. Take, for instance, today's nominee: if you want to know, "How to Install GE Cooktops," it's in your best interest to ask someone who installs GE cooktops for a living. At the very least, you would be wise to ask someone who's installed a cooktop at one time or another. We can't be certain, but it's pretty likely that HomeSteady.com author Daniel Holzer does not fall in that category.

Window Air Conditioners for Dummies

Window AC installation - NOT!

The sad fact about the content at eHow.com was always that the contributors who wrote it often knew as little about the subject as the person who'd asked the question in the first place. Apparently, that's about what you can expect when you pay out-of-work J-school and English Lit grads to write instructions for making synthetic rubies or building a router table. Sometimes, the "answers" border on the dangerous, as in "How to Secure an AC Window Unit,"¹ eHow content by Jocelyn Kerr (aka Aubrey Kerr) at HomeSteady.com.

Hot Tubs and Electricity Costs for Dummies

hot tub

Depending on where you live and your personal lifestyle, you may consider owning a hot tub or spa a little luxury or a near necessity, though most people would fall on the "luxury" end of that particular spectrum. In addition to the cost of buying and installing the tub, you also need to factor in the running costs, one of which is the cost of electricity. If you want to know that cost, you probably shouldn't be looking at eHow.com: if you do, you would find Bibiana da Silva and her ignorant Hunker.com post, "How Much Energy Do Hot Tubs Take?"

Drop-In Stoves, the Dummies Version

This is a drop-in stove

All the terminology about stoves and ranges – about appliances in general – can be confusing. That's why, when it comes time to replace our appliances the staffers at the Antisocial Network look for help from professionals. If we're going to do any online research, we want to get our info from appliance manufacturers, remodeling pros, and appliances vendors. We definitely don't want information to come from the likes of Naima Manal; not after looking at her dengarden.com post "Replacing a Drop-In Stove with a Slide-In Range." No-siree, Bob!

Garbage Disposal Leaks for Dummies

Garbage disposal plumbing

One of the reasons we started this blog is that, while researching an electrical project several years ago, our founder came across some alleged instructions that were so ignorant as to be dangerous. The post was, of course, at eHow; and it was gone by the time we started this. We still see plenty of ignorant former eHow posts out there, however, and have no problems pointing them out and correcting the misinformation. That's why we're here today to talk about Damon Koch and his Hunker.com post, "My Garbage Disposal Leaks When Running."¹

Air Conditioners for Dummies

Our staffers here at the Antisocial Network tend to be rather unforgiving of freelancers who prattle on about topics for which they have no training and no experience. Unfortunately, some of them are quite prolific. Today's DotD nominee is one such character a freelancer who boasts that she has "more than 4,000 publishing credits." If, however, others of them are as useless as this SFGate.com article – "Can You Hook Up an AC Unit Without a Window?" – then Michelle Miley has been a significant contributor to the stupidification of the internet.

Garbage Disposal Repair for DIY Dummies

Ashton forgot this step...

We always find it interesting to consider just how disconnected from reality the freelancers at eHow.com were. It's remarkably easy to tell which contributors (as the site called its freelancers) had no idea why someone might ask the questions they "answered" for a flat stipend. Take, for instance, the self-described "professsional journalist" Ashton Daigle, who wandered "out of his lane" to (attempt to) explain "How to take Apart an InSinkErator" for Hunker.com.

Oven Locks for Dummy Cooks

locked oven

One of the businesses near the Antisocial Network headquarters calls its employees "moles." No, they aren't evil spies, they're people who dig, bore, and otherwise build tunnels. Some of their tunnels are big enough to drive through! In a worker for this company, tunnel vision is a good thing... but tunnel vision isn't all that useful when you're trying to answer a simple question; one like, "How to Unlock a Locked Oven Door," posted to Hunker.com by Michelle Miley as a rewrite of an eHow.com post.

Wiring a Wall Oven for Dummies

Sample oven wiring diagram (220V)

A lot of homeowners try to save cash by doing their own home repairs and, in some cases, remodeling work. Some of them are pretty good at it; others, not so much. Most people are confident about tackling carpentry, fewer will take on plumbing, and fewer still have the courage to perform even simple electrical work. You don't need to be a genius to connect wires, but it's a good idea to have some idea of what you're doing. That, unfortunately, was not the case with HomeSteady.com freelancer Martin Adamovic when she posted "How to Wire an Electric Oven,"¹ back in the days when she called herself "TysonG."

Gas Lines for Dummy Installers

residential gas manifold

In our never-ending search for more stupidification of the internet, we regularly run across content farm posts written by people who have only the vaguest, most tangential familiarity with the subject. The posts that claim to be instructions, posted by "professional writers" who have little or no knowledge of the topic, are among the worst. We are reasonably sure that eHow's J. Lang Wood has cooked on a gas stove and benefited from gas water heaters and gas furnaces, but does she know anything about "Installing Natural Gas Lines Into a House"?¹ Based on her HomeSteady.com post, we doubt it...

Gas Stoves for Kitchen Dummies

What "black tube," Laura?

A friend recently had a major kitchen remodel performed on his house. The contractor who did the work flat-out refused to do the dryer and stove hookups because both were gas appliances. While that meant that our friend was faced with hiring a plumber to do the hookups or do it himself, he appreciated the honesty. He ended up doing it himself. After all, he's pretty handy, and he's done it before. That makes him a lot different from eHowian Laura Hageman, who pretended she was similarly handy when she wrote "How to Hook Up a Gas Stove"¹ at HomeSteady.com.

Troubleshooting Maytag Washers for Dummies

washing machine leaks

When it comes to doing research, our staffers tell us that citing oneself as an authority on a topic doesn't always fly. Just because a freelancer has already published on a topic – especially without benefit of peer review – doesn't mean that the previous work is worth reading. Take, for instance, eHowian freelancer Jennifer Blair: that BA in "Writing Seminars" and those prior publications at other content farms don't mean she knows jack about "Problems With a Maytag Top-Loading Washing Machine"¹ (now at HomeSteady.com).

Heating with Oil for Dummies

Oil-fired forced-air heating system

When we looked this morning, the thermometer at Antisocial Network HQ had dipped below freezing again and the furnace was running full bore. We use natural gas here, but several of us have lived at one time or another in homes heated with oil furnaces. That's why, when one of our research team spotted Brenda Priddy holding forth in a HomeSteady.com post about "Oil Used to Heat Homes,"¹ we took a closer look in hopes of learning something. Unfortunately, though, our two-time DotD winner dropped the ball... just as we expected.

Broken Glass Cooktop Repair for Dummies

Glass cooktop

According to the research staff, most of the DotD candidates they find seem to have started out wanting to be useful, and then gotten greedy. That's probably why so many of them start writing in their field of expertise (assuming they have one) and then branch out into topics about which they know darned near nothing. take, for instance, eHowian Melanie Fleury, who penned the pretty useless post "How to Fix a Cracked Glass Cook Top" (now available at SFGate.com, thanks to Leaf Group's nichemania).

Dishwashers for the Dummy Homeowner

Dishwasher parts

Here at the Antisocial Network, we'd like to think that if you asked one of our staffers how something works, the answer would address the principles and processes involved. Say, you ask how scissors work, you'd learns something about levers and something about the wedge shape of the device's cutting surfaces. But, then, our staffers are tech-y, science-y types. eHow.com's Kelly Townsend isn't tech-y or science-y, as is almost ridiculously obvious in the article she penned for HomeSteady.com called "How Does a Dishwasher Work?"