eHow and their eHow Many People Can They Make Angry?

@zoey7879 (3092)
Quincy, Illinois
April 6, 2010 11:44am CST
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?
4 responses
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
7 Apr 10
I certainly do. But now days companies do alot of such things. I wonder if these other articles you mentioned were checked yet. Really does make a person wonder. I haven't been over there in a while. I will have to check it out. See if any more of my articles have been taken. They went through afew months ago and did some of this same thing you are talking about.
@zoey7879 (3092)
• Quincy, Illinois
7 Apr 10
It appears that it was primarily user accounts that were wiped, not "contributing writers". lol.. go figure.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
7 Apr 10
Interesting. I read the email that came to my box and I was excepted and they said it is business as usual. They options they spoke of sound interesting. Now I need to find some interesting writing topics.
@zoey7879 (3092)
• Quincy, Illinois
7 Apr 10
Wow I didn't realize that my articles on ehow.com would be mirrored onto ehow.uk.co ... VERY aggrevating! I noticed that they updated their terms of service today. Even though current participants of the WCP were assured that the program would continue, the new TOS of course included a bit that they could end the WCP at any time. Im quite glad that I removed all of my content!
1 person likes this
• Philippines
6 Apr 10
That's unfair what they did to you. I think your article was one of those that're removed cuz of the system failure. I dunno but it seems like it, cuz other common sense how to's were retained.
@zoey7879 (3092)
• Quincy, Illinois
6 Apr 10
They did an article sweep on many writers' articles, including some quite popular writers and articles. The remaining "common sense" articles I saw, most of them were ones that eHow does not pay out for through the WCP.
• United States
6 Apr 10
I was pretty upset with ehow too. I had only written 4 articles and all of them were accepted. If I had written one more and it had been accepted I would have gotten to go automatically with the new site. So I guess I just lose my money that had accumulated there? I'm glad it wasn't much! I was pretty mad though and don't plan on ever doing business with them again!
@unique16 (1529)
• United States
6 Apr 10
Hello zoey7879, I only have one article on Ehow. I never got around to doing more because the process and long and sometimes hard to make the article work. I just recieved a e-mail from them about Demand Studios and of course I did not qualify since you need at least 5 articles to see if Demand Studios picks you up! How do like that. I tried before to join demand studios but was not good enopugh to join this is before I found eHow etc... I wish there was a better process to this website. It takes me long time to long in and approve friends or get to my e-mails on questions etc... I guess that is why a lack of writing for them. It took me while to get my pennies to show up for the one article because I did not hit or enter the article under WCP so I got like over 1000 views and no money. But since I accepted WCP for the 200 views since then I got my pennies. I am glad you are doing good there. Thanks and have a Great day Sincerley Unique16