1

wikiHow is adopting Guidecentral!

I have an announcement to make today that I’m kinda excited about. Today, a project very similar to ours, Guidecentral, is becoming part of the wikiHow family: guidecentr.al/

What does that mean? I’m not sure yet, since this is the first time wikiHow has acquired another project, but I’m excited about exploring the possibilities of joining forces with a project that shares our how-to educational mission, and I’d love to get your ideas.

Guidecentral has over 18,000 articles, mostly DIY/crafts oriented, started by people around the world (mostly in USA, Ireland, Italy, Russia and the Philippines). Guidecentral was started in Ireland in 2012. Most of the staff at Guidecentral will not be joining wikiHow, as they will be moving on to other opportunities.

For now, nothing has really changed except that we have the keys to the Guidecentral car and are going to be driving it for a while. We’re planning on keeping the projects and brands mostly separate but would be interested in ideas of ways we can make interesting combinations here.  Guidecentral has a vibrant collection of projects, and a crafty community of makers behind it. I’d encourage you to visit, poke around, and maybe even post a new tutorial. I’m excited to hear what you think. Some questions for you:

* What do you think of their apps? (Try them here for iOS: itunes.apple.com/us/app/guidecentral/id566332826 and Android: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=guidecentral.howto.diy.crafts )

* How does the browsing and writing experience compare to wikiHow?

* What are some really cool articles you found on GC that we don’t have on wikiHow yet?

*What can we learn from what GC is doing, and has done, in encouraging people to share their knowledge?  

* Do you have any ideas for how we can overlap with GC in the future to share community, content, technology?

You might also notice some GC community members doing the same thing, getting familiar with wikiHow. If you do bump into someone from GC, let’s be our usual friendly selves and welcome them to our project:slight_smile:

Eager to hear your thoughts!

Welcome, Guidecentral!

2

Congratulations; and welcome Guidecentral!

Here are some of the things I like about Guidecentral:

  • I like the way they present information, both, on their Android app, as well as their website. They focus (or want us to focus) on pictures. Their app and website looks clean and beautiful (I’m not saying we don’t have a good website/ app; I just like theirs better). While we have a lot of articles (much more than Guidecentral), I think we can learn from them how to present it better to our readers.
  • Their app has an option to “select an additional language”. I haven’t used this option yet, but I’m assuming it lets users read the guides in other languages. I really think this would be an amazing addition to the wikiHow app.

Overall, I think their app/ website looks “cleaner” than ours. And I really like the browsing experience. It just feels more organized than our design. That’s something we can learn from them. With their vast collection of articles (especially craft articles), I think that this acquisition would be a big step forward towards our mission.

3

I don’t know much about Guidecentral, but this is an amazing opportunity. Welcome!:slight_smile:I look forward to seeing how this goes.

4

Welcome, Guidecentral!:smiley:

@gaurangprasad That’s some really great feedback. I had similar impressions!

If any of you have Android phones, I’d encourage you to play around with starting an image-driven article through with the Guidecentral app. I experimented with it and was very impressed with how user-friendly it was on mobile: https://www.guidecentr.al/fold-a-dollar-bill-elephant

5

I love the idea and registered so I hope to contribute to it soon.

I found the site very easy to navigate, in fact the site seemed very simple, possible over simple compared to wH.

Browsing and writing also seemed very simple, however I wondered who checks the articles for grammar, spelling and accuracy issues?

Does the site allow advertising?  I noticed a lot of users advertised their blogs site etc, but then so do wH contributors on their userpage.

The users are sharing their knowledge, however I think wH crafting articles are more in depth with more steps.

I checked out a sample of the categories and they seemed to cover all those that wH had only the steps seems very much simplified compared to wH which contained more content.

I guess there are no talk pages like we have at wH which cuts down on the patrolling, but it doesn’t look like anyone patrols the articles, who are the admins and people who keep things running smoothly?

Overall I really liked the site and found some very interesting articles, and @Krystle , I am following you!

6

I made a short visit to Guidecentral and it seemed like a nice, easy to browse and use website. Welcome to them! Let’s hope their visitors enjoy wikiHow as much as I do. It’s also interesting to see that this acquisition has been covered by some major media outlets, including Forbes and The Irish Times (as seen on wikiHow’s Twitter account).

@SarahB : There aren’t talk pages, but there’s a comments section at the bottom of article pages. I figure this is their equivalent of our talk pages (though for the most part, the comments are compliments for the articles rather than the suggestions for improvements or comments related the article’s content seen on wikiHow talk pages).

7

Well, first of all a warm welcome to Guidecentral. Probably, @ Gaurangprasad added everything here. They try to explain the process through majority of images and do not have lengthy texts. Basically, the articles are related to craft work. Perhaps they have less categories as compared to wikiHow.

They do have a great and beautifully designed website(I haven’t though browsed the app). Plus, they have Trending and Popular Categories of guide manuals. I found that once the guides are written, they can’t be edited or deleted as in wikiHow. They have to contact the administrative people through e-mails for that purpose. Everyone can’t freely edit the manuals.

Overall, it seems to be quite similar to our project and way of dealing with things and has a good amount of content. Welcome Guidecentral!:smiley:

8

Sweet! Gotta say I love their simplicity, and how they’re so visual-based. Tonight for dinner I made benderikis from the GC recipe ( https://www.guidecentr.al/stuffed-pancakes-called-benderiki ) and they tasted delicious. So far GC seems like a pretty sweet site.:slight_smile:

9

I visited their website, and they have a great way of sharing information. I like how they are a little similar to our website, and how they give out helpful information to other readers, where they can find it easily. Hopefully they feel that they fit into here!

10

I think it’s kind-of cool with the craft section, for example, that you can just go page by page to find an idea for something interesting to make (reminds me of pintrest). It does seem very navigable. Maybe I’ll join and try writing something to compare it to wikiHow.:slight_smile:

Can we have the same articles on wikiHow as on Guidecentral? Could I write an article on there that I’ve already written on wikiHow?

11

I was going to start an article but I didn’t have the photos on hand to write up the article. I think this is a great idea (in the sense that all of them have pictures that really guide the reader) but at the same time, I would have liked to add the photos in afterwards.

12

Joined GC. Let me move around a little.

13

Good question!  We’ll have to figure out our policies on this as we go.  

Since our plans with GC are so unsure right now, I don’t have a crystal clear idea on what the best approach would be yet. 

14

@JackHerrick @LeahlovesGod

I think for now the best approach is to try to start a brand new topic on Guidecentral. It’s good to avoid duplicating articles in general, and it’s also a better learning experience to try writing a fresh topic on Guidecentral (rather than importing an article you already wrote).

I’ve also been encouraging the people I talk to at Guidecentral to try transferring one article over the wikiHow, and we can delete the Guidecentral version, just so they can dabble and see what it’s like to have one of their guides up on wH.

15

I was reading through Guidecentral’s Terms of Use and came upon this:

  • We own the process, including, but not limited to, all the software code which is on and/or available through the apps and/or website and as part of our services. When you use the app, website and/or any of our services, we give you a limited, cancellable, non-exclusive, non-transferrable licence to use the app, website and our services according to these Terms and Conditions, our policies and any special terms and conditions which we may agree in writing specifically with you. In consideration for your use of the apps and/or website and in us facilitating your ability to create a guide, you agree that ownership in any guide or part thereof will vest in us. This means that we can make any additions or changes as we deem necessary to get a guide published and marketed. This will also enable us to use or sell your guide and, for example, create a PR campaign or sell advertising on it and, unless we have agreed otherwise with you, we will be entitled to 100% of any revenue generated by such activity

  • However, because we will own the guide, you specifically agree that we have a non-cancellable, exclusive, worldwide, and payment and royalty-free, sub-licensable licence of unlimited duration to use, broadcast, upload and to edit, modify, adapt, translate, exhibit, market, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, and otherwise use your upload or any part thereof as necessary. You also waive all moral rights you have in the content to the fullest extent permitted by law. Furthermore, you agree at all times to co-operate with us so that we can have full use of the guide and our licence.

So as it stands, Guidecentral is saying that if you submit content to them, you are essentially giving it to them. They own it, they can change it, sell it, do whatever they want with it. This is concerning to me because a big part of what draws many people to wikiHow is the Creative Commons licensing that is non-commercial in nature. I personally would never consider submitting content to a site with terms like those currently listed on Guidecentral.

Beyond that, the “approval” process is a bit odd, in that their staff has to manually approve all submissions. This would be extremely cumbersome if the site ever gets popular. Also, it is quite odd that users cannot edit or add to their submissions once they’ve been accepted, only except by emailing the staff?

In short, while it seems that Guidecentral is kind of similar to wikiHow in that they allow DIY guides to be posted, several of the core values of wikiHow are not currently present there, including editability and non-commerciality. I would have no interest in such a site unless big changes were made in those areas.

16

^True. I don’t like how you cannot edit the content after it’s published and how the staff can do whatever they want with it.

17

Ah yes, I feel pretty spoiled by the wiki model too:slight_smile:Guidecentral’s terms of use & model are pretty standard. It’s a good reminder of how progressive we are!

18

I’m still not entirely sure what this entails, and from what I understand, the wikiHause crew doesn’t know quite yet either? For people like me who really don’t get what this means, could you provide a little guidance?:slight_smile:Are the sites and information moving? Is guidecentral being moved, deleted, remaining under the same managers but under the wikiHow name, changing to be more like wikiHow…? Just a bit confused!

19

@Marina We really aren’t sure! Just taking baby steps right now learning about how GC works and how the two projects might best complement each other. This is a good time for suggestions and brainstorming:slight_smile:

20

Yup.  This is still a learning process for all of us.  We aren’t really sure what we will develop (if anything) with Guidecentral. The best answer might be to leave the two projects completely separate and continue focusing all our efforts on wikiHow.