I was reading Seth Godin's blog today:
Staffed by mimes
He speaks of things that come with no instructions or pictorial only instructions with no prose."After wasting hours trying to figure out the proseless instructions for a fancy lamp I purchased from an Italian company, I wrote a narrative for the company, in the vain hope that perhaps they'd save other people the trouble."
This bit is what made me think of this little idea.
Seth, you are not at their mercy. Post the narrative you wrote up on your own site for people to find even if the company chooses to ignore your offer. Your desire to help is not tied to their response.
Then I went further. Anyone can do this and we probably should.
At first I thought of a central site.
Then my mind ran on the Distripedia idea I had years back.
"First thought is to tag it something like this:
[distripedia:science:physics:gravity:(authors:author1:author2)]"
So, could we incorporate better manuals into a distripedia?
[distripedia:betterinstructions:item]
Or does this not belong in a distripedia?
Should it be simply:
[betterinstructions:item]
Feedback please.