Why good editors are necessary

I've been trying to follow the instructions that came with my sourdough starter, and they're not easy. They're in English, there are lots of them, and it's just flour and water, but I'm still confused about how I actually use the starter once it's fermented and tangy. The one sheet of A4 gives 2 sets of instructions:

"Remove starter from fridge, let it warm to room temperature, measure out required starter into another bowl. Feed the mother sponge and proof for 6-8 hours before returning to the fridge. Feed the baby starter 1.5 cups of flour and 1 cup of warm water, proof for 6-8 hours, and then use as directed."

Okay, that's not too bad. However, on the side of the paper is a set of FAQs, including "How do I use my starter?".

"Remove starter from fridge, let it warm to room temperature, and then dump all of it into a bowl. Add 3 cups of water and flour to the bowl, wait till bubbly, pour some back into your original container and put in fridge. Measure out what you need from the rest."

So, which is it? Proof it all together or separately? 1.5 cups of flour or 3? Is the 3 cups of flour and water actually 3 cups of each? How long should you proof it for in the second set of instructions? Do you use all the post-proof baby starter in the 1st recipe or do you measure out again only what the recipe suggests? An editor might have suggested that having conflicting methods and amounts on the same sheet of instructions might prove confusing and got them to sort it out. Well, I would have.

I headed off to the Web site to see what I could find. The FAQs there gave different instructions again, but apologized for people not understanding. They also provided a crucial piece of advice: Keep your starter in a plastic or ceramic bowl; DO NOT use a metal bowl." This wasn't on the paper instructions in the starter pack, and guess what I'd been using to mix my starter? A metal bowl!! Maybe that's why it seemed to go a bit funny. It would have been really helpful if they had mentioned this key tip upfront, instead of burying it in a PDF of FAQs on a Web site that didn't even have a name that matched the starter brand.

This bread had better be worth it. My beer bread is a damn sight easier and quicker, and always tastes fantastic.