Humid Houses for the Dummy Homeowner

sources of water vapor in a house

In the bad old days before the Google Panda update killed off content farms like AssociatedContent and Helium, many a self-appointed freelancer would post content at multiple sites. Sometimes, they'd just rework an article enough to defeat the plagiarism detector, others they'd "craft" new content. The ones who used the same name at several sites amuse our staffers most when they're caught posting dumbassery wherever they go. Take, for instance, Cindi Pearce, first spotted at Catalogs.com, who also wrote at eHow.com as shown by her HomeSteady.com post, "The Reasons for High Humidity in the Home."¹

Lead-Acid Batteries for Dummies

Jumper cable safe attachment

If there's anything that chaps the collective hiney of the Antisocial Network staffers more than freelancers with liberal arts degrees fumbling through technical and scientific discussions, it's people who (at least claim to) have science degrees and then botch scientific discussions. That being said, of course someone with a BS in Botany probably lacks the background to discuss quantum entanglement, while a theoretical physicist probably can't give chapter and verse on the uptake of nutrients in vascular plants. Both, however, should know basic science... unlike eHowian Stephanie Chandler, who forgot some simple chemistry in "What Are the Dangers of Exposure to Lead Acid Battery Gas?"¹ at ItStillRuns.com.

Making a Magnet for Dummies

nail electromagnet

We see a lot of interesting takes on all manner of subjects here at the Antisocial Network. Some of them are clearly written by people who've walked the walk and can now talk the talk. Those aren't candidates for the DotD award, mostly because they weren't written by dumbasses. On the other hand, however, there are the posts that our staffers recognize – sometimes within a few words – were written from a position of ignorance. The Kendra Dahlstrom post "How to Magnetize Metal," now appearing at SFGate.com, fits quite neatly in that second category...

Geothermal Energy for Dummies

simple geothermal system

For some weird reason, all the Leaf Group niche sites are offline today, so we've dug into our (lengthy) file of DotD candidates to find something from another fact -lite or -free website. Fortunately, that's not very hard when there's still content available at EzineArticles.com, content like the rubbish published by Mahfuza Ferdausi Urpa that he called "What Secrets Are Hidden in Our Planet About Geothermal History?"

Planes and Solids, a Dummy Comparison

Common solid shapes

Back in late 2011 when Google changed its algorithm to lower the search placement of "low-quality"¹ content, most of the content farms immediately felt the impact of the Panda update. Many folded entirely within a few months, but eHow.com – the poster child for low quality – soldiered on. The parent company, rebranded as Leaf Group, is now parceling eHow content out to niche sites, but much of the rubbish remains. Take, for instance, the post "How to Calculate Volume" by Julie Richards, which now resides at Sciencing.com. Take it, please...

The Water Cycle for Dummies

Lightning bolt

Every once in a while our researchers run across content-farm content that just plain flabbergasts them; something that just has to be shared with the whole staff. Today's DotD candidate is just such a post: in our first staff meeting of the year the team voted overwhelmingly to present Kienne Pisano of HubPages.com (where she calls herself Newton's Rival – how's that for self-aggrandizing!) for her treatise on "How lightning and rain are created!"¹ [exclamation point in original]. Let's just say, "Wow..."

Dog-Ears for Dummy Fence Builders

No, Jane, they're not "curved."

No matter how many times we say it, this bears repeating: You don't want how-to instructions written by a "never-done-it." That's one of the chief reasons that the quickly disappearing website eHow.com¹ has long been the laughingstock of people who can say, "Yeah, I've done that." The folks who've never done it usually expose themselves through ignorance of terminology, unfamiliarity with the process and tools, or both. Take, for instance, "Jane Smith" (yeah, sure...) and the Hunker.com article she posted called "How to Build a Dog-Ear Fence."²