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The Future of iFixit Content

iFixit’s emphasis on electronics

iFixit started out by creating repair guides for Mac laptops, and over time expanded to iPods, iPhones, and iMacs. We’ve established a strong repair guide foundation in Apple products, as well as a solid reputation for being the first to tear down the latest electronics on the market.

Last week we released our open repair manual wiki for everyone to utilize. It might seem like a fair assumption that content on iFixit should be centered around electronics, but we want to stress that our repair focus is much more broad than that — think Wikipedia scale. We feel everything deserves the chance to be repaired, regardless of whether it’s a pair of jeans or an iPad.

Content that we welcome

We want to include repair information for anything that the community feels needs repair information. Some examples include:

  • Automobiles: You can add more background information on your Honda Accord, or show someone how to replace the brakes on your Dodge Caravan.
  • Game Consoles: Perhaps you’re a wizard of the SNES console, and can create some awesome repair guides for it; or maybe you know of a stellar solution for the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death.
  • Household Repair: Maybe you’ve repaired the base of a lamp or a vacuum cleaner and would like to share how you did it.
  • Motorcycles: The Suzuki FA50 is the only “motorcycle” on our site, so this section definitely could use some more repair guides.
  • You name it: The areas above are just a start. You can add areas for power tools, bicycles, other types of electronics (think multimeters, robots, HDTVs, etc.), camping gear, sports equipment — the list goes on. The community is the ultimate decision maker on what makes it to the site. What are you interested in fixing?

car repair manual

Less welcome content

Simply put, we don’t want content that’s not repair-related. That includes kung-pao chicken recipes, tips and secrets for beating Farmville, and pictures of funny kittens. Ask yourself: “Will someone benefit from this information when they’re trying to repair their device?” If the answer is “Yes,” you should definitely add it to iFixit’s growing database.

Gray areas

The community will also have to determine which gray areas to include, and which do not belong on the site. For example, is a Motorola Droid unlocking guide something that belongs on iFixit? On one hand, unlocking a Droid doesn’t seem like a repair procedure. But if making the Droid function on another network is required for it to be useful in Uganda, then perhaps that’s something that the community would want to enable. It’s up to you to decide.

I want to contribute. But where do I put the information?

It depends on the type of information you’d like to contribute. If you want to make a repair guide for a device, start one. If you’re looking to add a picture or a summary for a device, or polish a repair guide, visit the Contribute page. On there you will see a list of all the devices and repair guides that need fixing. If you’d like to just add links to web resources — such as a really cool forum that contains a wealth of information on the device — just visit the device’s page and click “Edit” on the top right corner. It’s as simple as that.