no.stupid.answers

Did you know that you can quickly send any question – answered or unanswered – to your friends, family or business associates?  This is a great way to share the fun of WikiAnswers, spread a little knowledge and even generate some help answering those tricky questions.

Have a budding comic in the family?  Consider sending them something from our Humor and Amusement Corner.  Imagine their laughter when the question ”When sign makers go on strike is anything written on their signs?” arrives in their in-box.  Or maybe your boss is really hooked on football.  Score some points by e-mailing him an interesting tidbit from the ever-growing Football History category. Simply choose a question and click the ‘Send to a Friend’ link located on the left under Question Tools.  Fill in the required fields and click ‘Send’.  It’s that easy… you can even customize your message.

Have fun and enjoy the site!

…oh where, oh where does it go? If you’ve been singing the blues over WikiAnswers categorization, you’re not alone. We all have those moments when we ponder over where to place a question. Should it go in Grilling, Recipes… both? Would it be better to place it in Miscellaneous, and just let someone else tackle it? What if there is no perfect category?

Don’t fret. Here are some pointers on getting that question into the right category (or categories) the first time around:

1. Familiarize yourself with the current category tree. Do not assume that a category does not exist as the tree is constantly growing. At first, this might be a little overwhelming, but as time passes you will become more familiar with the tree and recognize immediately what might be a good fit for a misplaced question.
2. Explore possible question placements from different angles. For example, if you have a question about the human body that doesn’t seem to fit into Health, take a look at Science. It might be perfectly suited for Human Anatomy.
3. Leave a message for the category Supervisor or post a message on the Super Forum. Note: Always link the question of concern to better assist in this process.
4. Often using AnswerTips™ can point you in the right direction. Just double-click on any keyword in the question and see what comes up.
5. If the question truly has no home and there are many others with similar qualities, request that a new category be added to the tree.
6. In most cases, Miscellaneous should be used as a last resort. For those questions that are harmless yet will most likely never have a topic that they fit into – opt for Harmless Nonsense - Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?. Unanswerable Questions to Edit, is reserved for questions that cannot be answered in their current condition and when there is not enough information included for someone else to fix - Why did this happen in WW2?.

Once you’ve found a logical ‘home’ for a question:

1. Place it in the most specific topic as possible. For example, a question about Zebras should be placed in Zebras, not Animal Life, Mammals, Land Mammals, etc.
2. If a question fits logically into two separate unrelated topics feel free to add both. “What is the estimated Zebra population in Ethiopia?” should be placed in Zebras and Ethiopia.

(A big thanks to our wonderful Senior Super Ksmail (Ken) for collaborating with me on this important post… You da’ man, KS!)

One of the questions that I am asked most often is, “How do I find the questions that I’ve posted on WikiAnswers?” Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news: finding your questions is easy. The bad news: there are no voice commands, so you will be required to click your mouse a few times.

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Here is some info on finding questions (along with any answers that contributors have offered):

If you don’t know the URL and your question is not on your Watchlist (located on the left side of the page in the blue shaded area), the easiest way to find it is to search for it (use Option 1).

You could also re-ask your question. That will take you to the existing question page. If you can’t remember the exact wording, ask something similar and see if it pops up in the list of possible same-as existing questions. Find your question and click on the link. If all else fails, click on My Bio Page, where you can view your history of contributions.

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While catching vandals and blocking them in the act is thrilling, we as Supervisors need to be very careful. IPs are often shared by many folks and are not restricted to a single household. Shared IPs are common among schools, libraries and businesses, and are especially common with AOL users. All AOL users share a very small group of IPs. Blocking one vandal from AOL could mean blocking thousands of legitimate contributors.

Here’s a way to ensure that you are only keeping the bad guys out:

Before blocking an IP, use the free tool located at Who.is, CQCounter or Openrbl to determine who might be associated with the address. Be on the lookout for NameServers that end in .edu, .gov, .org and .us. And always check to make sure that an IP is not listed on the “white list” of shared addresses located at:

What IP addresses should WikiAnswers supervisors be cautious about blocking?

If you suspect that an IP is shared DO NOT block the address. If the vandal is a registered user, block their User Name and then unblock the associated IP address at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Special:Ipblocklist. Cumbersome at the moment, we are indeed working on a system to stem the tide of vandalism - without the risk of blocking the good guys! Stay tuned as this great new system unfolds…

(A big thanks to Brave3 (Matthew) for collaborating with me on this article… You’re the best, B3!)

Ever wonder who that mysterious JoeSchmoe was that brilliantly answered your question, “What is the structure of hex-1-yn-4?” (For the love of Pete, why do you need to know this?!) Just who was this modern-day Einstein in disguise? You clicked on his Bio Page, but alas, nothing. Not even a mention of how he got so darn smart. This is precisely why you should take advantage of your Bio area on WikiAnswers. Use it to tell others about yourself. You’re also welcome to promote a business or organization here, whether a link to your home page, the pasting of your logo, etc. And as one of the fastest growing sites on the Web, you should get some great exposure!

When logged-in you will see a link to My Bio Page in the left toolbox. You can add information to your page simply by clicking the “add or edit text below” link on the Bio Page itself. Your User Name is automatically linked to your Bio Page. This means that each time you make a contribution - every answer or edit - your Bio Page gets linked from multiple places (question pages, top contributor lists and so on).

Rock on!

At one time or another, we’ve all caught a vandal on WikiAnswers – you know the guy that stops by to post “Up yours” as the answer to 50 or so questions. Unlike other contributors who make honest mistakes, these types are usually not candidates for ‘reform’ and unfortunately need to be blocked in order to stop their wake of destruction.

But once gone, what do you do about the mess they left behind? They’ve destroyed perfectly good answers and caused many previously unanswered questions to be removed from the list. Each and every one is now screaming, “Up yours.” To quickly clean-up the nonsense, select one of the vandalized questions and utilize the Revert tool located on the blue menu bar. Reversion enables us to undo the damage done by a vandal without editing line-by-line.

Typically you should only revert back to the last version (highest numbered on the list). If you’re uncertain, click to view a side-by-side comparison between the one you have selected and the current version. The answer on the left that appears in yellow under “Reversion as of X” will be what you end up with after a reversion. Follow these steps for each vandalized question.

Oh… Coming soon… the Vandal Zapper! Guaranteed to stop goofballs in their tracks! (Not really, but a girl can dream…)