Thanks for the ping, Adelaide. This debate has come up in the forums every few months over the years. In general, the consensus has always been to keep this kind of article, and not to amend the Deletion Policy in this area (keep in mind, changing any community-created policy is actually a big undertaking, too, with a relatively formal process to it). I myself happen to agree strongly with this consensus, so perhaps describing a little of my own thinking will help put that perspective in context.
One of the great joys of working on this wiki is also one of the biggest challenges: we have a very diverse community, both of editors and of readers. Our mission is to teach everyone on the planet how to do anything - that means we serve people with all kinds of backgrounds and belief systems from all over the world. Excluding a few key areas covered by the Deletion Policy, we don’t really aim to be topic-based gatekeepers for what people can share and learn about on wikiHow.
The scope of our mission can be hard to fathom, especially for newer wikiHow contributors. Having editors from all over the world means that there is a very wide range of what people think and feel about almost every topic on the site. That diversity, in my opinion, makes us stronger. It makes us better able to serve a diverse community of readers. It also means that there won’t be any one concept of what is “socially acceptable”. Parts of my own lifestyle are likely unacceptable to some of our readers, and parts of their lifestyles may be alien or even unacceptable to me. That’s okay - we’re citizens of a beautifully diverse world, and don’t have to agree on everything
Many of the topics you’ve brought up here involve some fairly mild misbehavior, sure. But it’s clear, like Joel said, that they don’t violate our Deletion Policy, and I’d say the advice they provide isn’t the end of the world, even if you or I don’t agree with it all. As Alex pointed out, it’s unlikely anyone would be inspired to misbehave for the first time because of a wikiHow article; it’s much more likely that these topics just serve as comic relief and entertainment for readers. On the grander scale, any topic on wikiHow can be used well or misused, and that’s not within our control as a community (as Alex also mentioned). I personally also feel it’s not within our scope to decide what’s socially acceptable or not, for somebody else. Communities and cultures differ widely in their day-to-day norms, and these norms evolve over time, so my opinion of what is acceptable won’t necessarily overlap perfectly with someone else’s.
I wasn’t around on wikiHow when the Deletion Policy was created, but I have to take my hat off to the fine wikiHowians who collaborated to craft it. It strikes a very intentional and successful balance, I think, when it comes to what topics can be kept here. Sure, we don’t keep articles that would universally be considered detrimental (universally illegal and hate-based topics, for example), but we do leave the door open to provide education in all kinds of other areas (even in areas of silly misbehavior!). This is great for a wiki in particular, because it means we can grow and change as the world changes. Content that might seem socially unacceptable now could be beneficial to folks in the future (think how the world has evolved in the last few years in areas like LGBT+ rights). We are intentionally not overly restrictive when it comes to what kind of content is shared here, and I think that serves our readers well… and it sets us up to keep serving readers well and pursuing our mission for years to come, even as the world changes around us
