Anna
1
I get asked this question from time to time by people both online and offline, and it always gets me pondering.
Of course, the essence of being a how-to manual means that my current “favorite” wikiHow tends to be whatever article solves the problem I have at the time, hah… This morning, I put How to Harvest Parsley
to use on our new parsley plant, so at 8:15am today, that was my favorite
But persistent, all-time favs? Harder to pick. I really love How to Enjoy Being a Teenager
because of what a neat collaboration by teenage wikiHowians it was (by @MissLunaRose
@Galactic-Radiance
@Darkfrost
@XxVxX
@LeahlovesGod
@ItsHelen
and others). And for articles I started, I have a soft spot for H ow to Make Coffee Filter Flowers
because it was a project I did for my own wedding, and then it was pretty rad to see @Colie
build upon it and add images when she made decorations for her wedding, too.
Since we don’t have an achievements post this week, I thought it might be fun to see if anyone wants to share their favorites, too. What’s your favorite wikiHow?
My favorite wikiHow is “Be Preppy (in Middle School)”! It’s the first article I read and edited back in 2015! I’ll cherish it forever!
My absolute favourite and a complete stunner is https://www.wikihow.com/Start-Your-Own-Country
because I hadn’t a clue this was even thinkable. Thanks for this discussion Anna.
Caeiia
5
I have never read the “enjoy being a teenager one”, but the one that made me giggle was How to Be Verbose. Yes, to me, it’s even better than the one where you do math with hotdogs on floors.
Anna
6
@Aizo
Nice! An old favorite - that’s got staying power for you, after all these years
@Vishshua
@TheArtsPerson
I dig the country and language ones as examples of education that comes from wondering “what if” and “how would I…” In other words, while many of our topics are hands-on and focused on getting a task done right then (like harvesting my parsley), others are catering to people pondering how something would be done and seeking off-the-wall knowledge that they’re not necessarily going to follow step for step, but are speculating about. A whole niche of wikiHow for the Ultra Curious
@Caeiia
Hah, 87% helpfulness on that one - not too shabby! With Be-Concise at 84%, clearly longwinded-ness is the way to go
Keep 'em coming… it’s cool to see these gems. I’m saving myself a master list for when people ask me for other favorites, hah.
Hahaha I love this line <3. If I get some ideas about this tomorrow, I’ll write them. Till then I’ll just enjoy reading it again and laughing. ;p
@Anna
Yeah… I stumbled upon it on accident! Ever since I read and edited as an anon IP, I fell in love. I was skeptical of wikiHow at first when I thought it was just like Wikipedia. I was very wrong!
Honestly, I never gave this discussion real thought. It seems like I’m editing more than I am just reading a set of directions to build on to something to make it even better. But I like the thought.
Anna
10
@Byankno1
Ah yes, getting in there and editing can definitely change your perspective on the topic. I like the mindset of building, building, building! If you come up with one, do share. Maybe a fav one you’ve worked on, instead
Caeiia
11
How to Calculate Pi By Throwing Frozen Hotdogs wins best title.
I agree that articles that are useful in the moment are good. How to Take Care of a Russian Tortoise is memorable because it was my first wikiHow article that I remember seeing and editing as an anon. Right after that, I made an account, and here I am now!
The unpublished and deleted titles. Why? Because most of them are funny and cringy. For example, how to abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
. What was the writer thinking? Is it possible to abc…xyz? I guess so, so here we go.
system
13
My fave thing to do is click “random article” and just see where it takes me.
For those of you who enjoy the deletion worthy “joke” articles? Check out www.wikihowl.com
Some absolutely hilarious rejects got saved over there. (personal fave: How to get into a girls pants)
Very recently published: https://www.wikihow.com/Drive-a-Car-if-You’re-Autistic
. It’s useful to me as I haven’t yet learned how to drive.
Caeiia
18
The teenager section contains great advice now that I look into it. Much more deep than what I thought some of it would be - I think I have read too many articles online that basically sum up to: be yourself. Off to edit that section…
How to Know if Someone has Depression was also very useful.
The whole genre of “how to be weird” is surprising. I think there are more variations of that simple title than “be normal”!
I recently found this article, and I thought that it was too funny! wikihow.com/Quit-Wikipedia
I especially like step 3.
