New Window Screens for Dummy Camper Owners

truck topper window screen

Our founder used to have a boss, we'll call him "Rich" (probably because that was his name), with whom you could never have a simple conversation. Rich's conversational style was basically stream of consciousness: halfway through a sentence he'd become distracted, and by the end of that same sentence he's veered 90 degrees from the original subject. That being said, he was a heckuva nice guy, if a little tough to follow. Today's DotD nominee, Charlie Rainer Gaston, seems to suffer from a similar conversational malady: Trails.com asked her to explain "How to Replace a Window Screen on a Camper Shell,"¹ and by the end of her post she had changed the topic entirely.

Bike Racks for Minivans, the Dummy Version

hitch-mounted bike rack on minivan

Antisocial Network HQ is in a fairly good location vis-a-vis road cycling and, for that matter, getting in a little off-road work as well. Not everyone is so lucky, and not everyone is comfortable with even a short stretch of busy streets – especially if kids are involved. Many minivan owners prefer to truck their bikes to a park or trail where the little ones can stop crosswise in the trail and not be hit by a car (other trail users, not so much). New minivan? You might ask "How to Install a Bike Rack on a Minivan,"¹ but trust us: you don't want to "learn how" from eHowian Breann Kanobi and her article at ItStillRuns.com.

Engine Hours to Miles for Dummies

Engine hour meter

Our research staffers occasionally come across questions that seem perfectly reasonable, but can't be answered without a lot of qualifications and some mumbo-jumbo. If they happen to find someone who pretends to have the absolute answer, however, they toss the URL in the candidates bin and wait for the nomination committee to pick it out. Well, today's the day for Thomas King and the eHow.com post "How to Convert Hours on an Engine to Miles" (now living on ItStillRuns.com).

Stupid Questions Answered by Dummies

cover a brick fireplace

We're often amazed at some of  the bizarre DIY questions people ask on the internet... but that's only until we look at the kinds of answers come of our self-appointed "expert" freelancers concoct. A case in point would be the quite ridiculous question, "How Do I Drywall Over a Brick Fireplace?" snagged out of the ether by eHow's title-grabbers, and the even more ridiculous answer on Hunker.com that sprang from the keyboard of one Josie Myers. It's a pretty safe bet that the OQ just wanted to dress up a boring brick fireplace surround, not "cover" the whole thing – but you go with your gut at eHow.com, even when your gut knows squat!

Myers claimed to have gotten her information from an offline book, where we're pretty sure the writer (who claims to own an MA in English) didn't find this information. Oh, sure, there was probably something about installing drywall over a brick wall, but over a fireplace? Bushwa.

Pony Walls for Dummy Remodelers

pony wall with cap

It's been a while since our staffers looked over the oeuvre of one of the most prolific of our DotDs, so just out of curiosity we sent an intern in search of internet dumbassery from the keyboard of homeschooling mama Naima Manal. It never takes much searching to find something the woman had written that would make her eligible for yet another award; this time it's the rather oddly titled "How to Turn a Full Wall Into a Half Wall," originally posted at eHow.com and more recently moved to Hunker.com during the Leaf Group niche-apalooza.

Education and the Internet for Dummies

We didn't spend much time around WritEdge.com or its sister site, DailyTwoCents.com, mostly because the overwhelming amount of advertising made both sites almost impossible to read. We did get by every once in a while, though, and on one trip one of our researchers came across a marvelous example of dumbassery. It was written by someone who called herself LivelyAurora, and was entitled "Internet vs. School."¹ We'll be honest: it's pretty much the quality you'd expect from someone who brags, "Im [sic] just a random nomad writer. I can write an 700-word article in 15 minutes!"

Front Doors for Dummies

Entry door

Back in the bad old days of content farms, we met a woman who was riding that particular wave. She explained that she increased her income by writing a series of "linked" articles on the same topic, sometimes breaking a simple subject into three or more posts. No, that woman wasn't EzineArticle's Britney Kalo, but she might as well have been: Kalo milked said execrable site for a series of articles on doors, including today's DotD winner: "Replacing a Door." She also wrote, naturally, advice on choosing a front door; all, it's a safe bet, after watching a local handyman replace the door to her abode.

By way of explanation and introduction, Britney explained,