eHow and their eHow Many People Can They Make Angry?  

The eHow publishing website is home to many "how to" type of articles, ranging from the most simple way of doing one thing to giving a very detailed step by step on how to do the exact same thing.

Yesterday eHow made public their decision to turn the user publication system over to their parent company Demand Studios. Demand Studios requires the typical user information and also asks for a phone number and resume with related writing experiences to be detailed. Some eHow users were pre-approved to join Demand Studios while others were told to apply.

Here's where the qunadry comes in.... Some ehow writers that were pre-approved were people who were just recently turned down to write at the Demand Studios website. The decision to pre-approve eHow writers was based on a percentile of written articles vs. approved articles before March 31. However, beginning in early March the eHow site began having difficulty with their publishing system and many authors were not able to get their articles published in a timely manner or before March 31, and were therefore excluded from the pre-approval stage. Demand Studios has a higher criteria, does not allow writers to retain the rights to their work, and does not allow writers to supply their own images unlike eHow did before April 5, 2010.

eHow has done a MAJOR "article sweep" removing articles written by members that did not meet their standards. I had an article called "How to Choose the Right Shampoo and Conditioner" that was removed supposedly for being "Common Sense". However, I did a search on the ehow site. MANY "common sense" articles remain such as ... "How to Tie a Shoe", "How to Boil Water", "How to Boil an Egg" and "How to Shop at a Pottery Barn". That is not how to CHOOSE an item at a pottery barn, but how to navigate, select the item, and how to pay for the purchase. All but one of those articles lists the author as "eHow Contributing Writer". Are those not also "Common Sense"???!!! I believe that the articles written by "eHow Contributing Writers" do not participate in the site's now closed Writer's Compensation Program, although I cannot verify that as fact.

The site also had a bustling forum system where users could discuss the platform switch with eHow staff and other users. While many questions were repetitive, many users were voicing their concerns, anger, and questions. Many questions were given an unclear generic answer. That forum thread was created yesterday but has been removed or unviewable to ehow members sometime during the last 15 hours.

While eHow terms of service does state that they can modify their WCP and remove articles, does anyone else find their lack of discretion in the issue to be of bad taste?