User:Santtus/view on how-to

Few points on my views of how-to content

I have been bothered on certain kind of instructional content which does not seem to serve Wikipedia well, and so I created the template {{howto}} to make it possible to tag such articles.

I have tried to start discussions about the subject matter, so that the editors could agree on the guidelines on what constitutes an unwanted how-to, and by what definitions.

In a year of time, the feedback from the how-to template has been 90% positive. People do generally feel that it is appropriate to tag an how-to article for clean-up, and people also reference the template to cite the relevant policies associated with the issue.

It's just that there's been a year and not much has been achieved in making any constructive consensus about the issue. Here I will state my thoughts about the subject matter after having been followed this topic area for quite some time.

1) In well-defined subject matters, there is a mathematical and logical near-equivalence between instructions and descriptions.

b = a + 1 <==> add 1 to a, and you have the value for b.

2) Despite the logical equivalence of description and a set of instructions, the descriptional style fits an encyclopedia better, and should be preferred over instructional style.

3) Actions that people usually / preferably perform in a given situation may be of encyclopedically significant interest, even if the description of such actions might be used as a how-to. This does not constitute an unwanted how-to, if the actual description of what people do is encyclopedical by itself.

4) When describing what people do, emphasis should be placed on giving encyclopedical value rather than being helpful to people who wish to perform a certain set of actions.

5) When editing a useful but unencyclopedic article, all usefullness need not to be erased. Only the directions, instructions and such need to be erased. After that point, more focus should be placed on describing the content in an encyclopedic style: history, importance, relevance, current situation, criticism, etc.

6) Articles should not be useful only to one narrow group. If an article discussing the merits of a particular electronic gagdet includes much information about what are good retailers, what options are needed in the gadget, what insurance options are available, it's essentially a buyer's guide, and an unwanted how-to. An article can be made less of an how-to if it helps all parties equally.