HowStuffWorks

It is terrible! I got way too frustrated trying to work with this horrible website. Do not visit at all costs. Whenever I scroll too far down, it loads and loads until the screen goes blank.

Many of you have seen the TV show How Stuff Works so if you haven't googled it and stopped by the shows website, you might want to give it a look.

They've got quizzes, (including one on identity theft) and blogs and other fun stuff there. A good way to kill some time or if you're bored. You can even ask questions on how stuff works. Pretty cool site in my book.

Note: If you do nothing else, stop by and take the Dollars and Sense Identity Theft Quiz. It's very informative and will give you an idea of how much you really know about identity theft.

This website reminds me a lot of Wikipedia. While much of the information given is useful, and much of it accurate, it isn't well researched. In fact, Wikipedia is better researched, more accurate, and less biased. Wikipedia usually lists multiple references. HowStuffWorks typically lists a single reference, if that. A single reference isn't a reliable method for accuracy. Furthermore, HowStuffWorks is packed with opinions. Unlike Wikipedia, there is no way for readers to comment on inaccuracies, let alone get them corrected.

While HowStuffWorks is handy for novices to get a general idea, the text should not be taken as a literal fact. You can learn the gist of things, but don't count on the text for thoroughness or accuracy.

Tons of good information! I have frequented this site over the years when I wanted to know how something worked. They have quite a few more advertisements than they did in the beginning, but there is enough content to make up for it.

Articles are split up into sections and labeled so you can skip right to the parts you want to read rather than reading one long page of information. Videos compliment the information and the quizzes are fun.

REASONS TO USE:
[1] You want to know how something works!
[2] You want to read interesting articles
[3] Navigation is intuitive

REASONS TO LOSE:
[1] Slightly annoying advertisements

I joined the site and found loads of mean girls on here reporting anyone who does not agree with them. I talked about an herbal tea that was helping me recover from my health problems and because they hadn't heard of it in western countries I was attacked viciously and I mean viciously. I was reported to the site by multiple mean girls who mobilized to shut me up and some women became downright hysterical. It's like being in high school and the site is run by the mean girls. Even long time members who saw what was done to me admitted it was extreme and they were considering leaving. I got nasty messages from members and from the site administration. I left. I was sharing my experience to try help others and that's not allowed.

Second, the site is watching everything you write about saying that it worked for you so they can develop products to sell to you later. This is simply a very large market research site and we give them all the data they need to make money off of our medical or mental health issues. I found the site predatory.

You watch. They owners of this site will sell you "cures" and "treatments" later on down the line under a different company name. This isn't a site setup just to help. They need to make money somehow and this site is their market research arm.