I understand your frustration but please be careful about who you lump into this category. These sites vary in quality. I write for About.com and I can say with absolute certainty that each of About.com's Guides (i.e. people who write on a specific topic) are carefully vetted and truly domain experts. It's not like AllExperts or Examiner -- they don't 'look' for their writers on craigslist. You have to be a seasoned journalist with years of expertise in the field you cover, and less than 6% of all applicants to About.com end up as Guides. Before About.com, I worked as a radio and TV broadcast journalist and won national awards for women's issues programming. Many of my colleagues worked in the magazine and newspaper industry. Others are business owners and entrepreneurs who know their topics inside and out. Some About.com sites may seem more basic than others. We approach our respective topics on a variety of levels and keep in mind that a fair number of readers may be looking for straightforward information on a subject they know little about. I'd encourage you to take a look at the content of an About.com page before you summarily dismiss us. We do have much to offer.