A while back I read a post on Giant Cypress discussing how online content farms were spitting out useless articles that contained little to no usable information. I have seen quite a few such articles on some of the larger “how-to” sites, where freelance writers – often those with arts and journalism backgrounds – write about tools and methods they obviously never used before.
These sites are often wrought with advertisements. As long as they’re making tons of money, they will continue producing keyword-rich pages penned by people who will write about anything.
There are of course exceptions, but from what I have seen, many of these articles are assembled from information found on Wikipedia and other such sources.
Advertisement
It was an “article” on bending sheet metal that prompted this post. I had been double-checking that form was the correct word for the wooden blocks used when bending sheet metal manually without a brake.
How to Bend Sheet Metal
Step 1: Obtain all the required materials to complete the job.
P.S. BIG ad here, c’mon and click, click, click it.
Step 2: Use a tape measure or ruler to measure the thickness of the sheet metal.
Step 3: Calculate the bend allowance…
Here’s a complicated formula we ripped off the web and won’t explain at all.
Advertisement
Some more vague steps.
Additional ads.
Tips: an online bend calculator is easier than using a traditional calculator…
Is it Just Me?
Is it just me who finds these “articles” infuriating? When I’m looking for something online, I expect for the top search engine results to be informative or at least helpful. I don’t see how the page I adapted the above from would be of any use to anyone looking to learn how to bend sheet metal.
Part of why this bugs me is because I try my darnedest to make each ToolGuyd post informative and helpful. Not that this post is going to really teach you anything, but you know walking in that it’s an editorial and not a review, new tool preview, or how-to.
While I might rarely make Captain Obvious remakes like “gather your tools and materials,” I can understand the need for such a comment. What really got me fired up was where the authors tell readers to go ahead and measure the thickness of their sheet metal with a ruler or measuring tape.
Bear in mind that the article discusses sheet metal, not plates, with further instruction telling readers to use mallets and wood forms to coax the metal into shape.
I don’t have any measuring tapes that will tell me how thick sheet metal is, and although some of my machinist rulers might have fine enough markings, using them to measure sheet metal thickness would be challenging. This just shows me that the author of the article probably never bent sheet metal before in their life.
Other gems I found on another content farm site after searching for “machinist ruler” on Google – How to Read a Centimeter Ruler, How to Read a Machinist Ruler, How to Read a Ruler Measurement in 3 Easy Steps, How to Read a Ruler in Sixteenths, How to Read a Ruler Marked in 16ths, How to Measure Sixteenths on a Ruler, How to Read a CM Ruler, How to Use a Ruler, How to Measure in Eights on a Ruler, and the list of redundancy goes on.
It’s not just because of my efforts to build ToolGuyd that I’m sensitive to this. I don’t mind clicking on a few links when looking something up, but it is extremely displeasing when after clicking on one, two, five links leaves me no better off than I started.
Aaron
To some extent, these only exist because they make the “owners” money. There’s sadly not much you can do about it, but I find that the google chrome extension of the personal blocklist just lets you block a lot of these domains from your search the first time you run across them like all the variations on besttooltips.com, supertooltips.com, easytooltips.com, bestfasttooltips.com, plumbertooltips.com, etc.
mnoswad1
i’ve been frustrated by this also. Ehow.com is the site your obviously referring to and the most useless of them all.
I usually look up my searches on google images instead, you can always tell the illustrations from Family Handyman Magazine, the lighting is perfect and has good labeling……those are the images I click, and then onward to read the whole how to article.
jeff_williams
I think this one was WikiHow but the usefulness of ehow is on the same level. You are spot on with illustrations and pictures from Family Handyman. So easy to ID their stuff especially on something like Pinterest.
Puttsy
Yes! and to Stuart a major YES and THANKS for sharing your frustration.
The two mentioned sites just flat out cause a lot of Google Link spam and, at some times, totally WRONG information.
I have seen the same types and wondered if anyone else gets as frustrated at these useless How-To’s as I do. I browse a lot of odds-and-ends to further educate myself on topics, and articles like those are just utter garbage. If they exist though, you can’t help but fear there are some people that DO think they are worthwhile articles; that is quite a worry-some thought as well.
JeffD
Money grubbing hot links is all they are. Easy enough to spot.
Jerry
Yes frustrating to say the least. I’ve even read some that basically said ‘disassemble, replace broken or worn parts, reassemble’.
Wish I could have thought of that myself, LOL.
Blair
I disagree with the ” Not that this post is going to really teach you anything, but you know walking in that it’s an editorial and not a review, new tool preview, or how-to.” part.
I come here daily, and always come away with some knowledge whether from the post, or the comments.
As to your observations about worthless entries regarding a specific search, I do agree, some can be very frustrating.
Mike
I’d definitely agree with the sentiments on these “content farms”. e-how is probably the biggest pile of dreck, but do-it-yourself also seems a bit stupid. I love reading such gems as “measure the room and add ten percent for shrinkage”. Measure the room how? For what? I know the answers, but that’s a sad commentary. So much of the article is written to just get search engine hits.
Surprisingly, some of the best things I’ve found on line have been youtube postings where a tradesperson demonstrates how to do something, or a supplier has a how to use it video posted. These aren’t real polished typically (especially the “I’m Tony, and here’s how to do …” type videos), but they offer good pointers. Plus the typical content farm liberal arts major never held a hammer in their life types can’t very well “farm” these videos, since they involve doing.
I just wish there were a way to block certain web sites (cough – ehow – cough) from search results so you could focus on real information.
Joe
I commend you on pointing this out. I am rather new to the world of wood-working, being a handyman, owning a home (and therefore my own tools). With no one around to show me how to do something, I often look it up online. Due the dredge I usually find, like what you posted above, I get frustrated and resort to trying to due it by verbal instruction. Recently, I ordered Family Handyman to hopefully build my knowledge (big fan of their how-to stuff).
Obviously it doesn’t have the information month-to-month on the problem I’m having now. This leads me to my next problem, which issue has the information to help me with my current predicament? I already paid for the magazine, and with the web, I should be able to find which issue has the information I need. We need a site which searches through the directories of various journals, magazines, webpages, etc and returns me useful information. I.E. the website only searches credited sources like popular mechanics, family handyman, this old house, and toolguyd 😉
PutnamEco
You can create custom searchs on Google.
Maikeru
Yeah, I had once looked up how a particular type of crimpers (cap crimpers) were used and found one of those article farm sites (wisegeek). Each paragraph was about a very different topic related to a subset of their usage—not about the crimpers, but about items that you’d use those crimpers on (Eg. “Pyrotechnic fuses are typically hollow plastic tubes filled with a combustible mixture that is ignited with a simple flame.”). Utterly useless dreck really.