WikiAnswers is a big place. Starting out on the site can be like the first day in a really big new school. Nothing and no one is familiar. You can get lost going from one place to the next, and have no idea how to return. Not to mention, just when you think you’re getting the hang of it… if you’re an accomplished contributor, you might be faced with the whole new world of Supervisorship. So many tools! And so many privileges.
Enter the Mentor.
These guys and gals have a lot of experience on WikiAnswers, and more importantly, they have experience teaching others – proteges – how to use the site. Whether you’re in need of an introduction to supervising or a refresher course, Mentors are here to be your guide along the way.
But who mentors the mentors?
Mentors are mentored by Senior Mentors, Mentors who have graduated proteges from the program and have committed to providing support and guidance to a new Mentor who has just joined the program. The idea is to give the new members of the Volunteer Mentoring Program someone specific to rely on for answers to their Mentoring questions, just as a Mentor does this for a Supervisor who has just joined our community.
If you would like to volunteer as a mentor or request a mentor of your own, send an email to MentoringProgram @ WikiAnswers.com.
Email notifications have long been an integral part of WikiAnswers participation. They are without doubt the fastest way to get word of an updated answer or new message on your board. And now, after a major overhaul, we hope you’ll find them even more useful, efficient and convenient.
If you’re already subscribed to the Watchlist or Message Board emails, you may have already noticed the changes.
When you receive email notification about an updated answer, the email now includes a snippet of the answer, as well as information about who edited the answer and tools to view the changes or edit the answer yourself.
As you can see here, Demoguy – a contributor with 18 trust points – did a good job answering the question, but there’s a little typo I want to fix immediately. No problemo, I can click on the “Edit answer” link and correct the spelling.
The message board notification email was similarly upgraded, and now you can view your messages right there in the email, without clicking through to the site. To reply, simply click Reply (surprise!) and you’ll be taken straight to the sender’s message board, where you can leave your response.
We hope the new design makes it easier for you to keep tabs on updates and correspond with fellow wikiers. Tell us what you think in the comments section below!
There’s a new group on WikiAnswers who makes many small changes in the name of big change: the WikiReviewer Copy Assistants. These little editor elves hop around the site making much-needed improvements to capitalization and spelling.
Individually, these are minute changes, but overall they have a large impact on the quality of questions and answers around the site.
You can read more about the other WikiReviewer roles here.
The Managing Editor for the WikiReviewers is Myrab51. To receive more information, send an e-mail to WikiReviewers @ WikiAnswers.com. Be sure to include your name, username, division you are interested in joining and age. Each member of the WikiReviewers takes a quiz on spelling and grammar before joining, and has to be a minimum of 13 years of age.
Did you know you can subscribe to a real-time feed of newly-composed answers? Every new answer written on WikiAnswers will be sent automatically straight to your RSS reader, for your reading (or editing) pleasure.
Here’s how to subscribe to the feed:
1. Go to the New Answers page and click the RSS icon at the top-right:
2. Then, select which RSS reader you wish to view the feed in:
3. Finally, click “Subscribe now” and you’re all set.
Or, simply click here to go straight to the subscription page without viewing recent answers first.
Now you truly have all the answers.
Here’s a quick tip from the Quick Tip Department. Have you ever wanted to get your questions out there not just to the WikiAnswers community, and not just to your Facebook and Twitter friends, but to all three groups?
Try using the new Facebook and Twitter buttons on question pages. It’s a great way to broaden your audience. Share unanswered questions to get them answered faster by people you know. Share answered questions to show off your talent for answering, or just to share laughs about something funny you read. (You can start with our funniest questions.)
Have fun, and get the word out there!
Shiny new answers. Perfectionistic edits. Categorization after categorization after categorization. Contributions are the pulse of our Q&A community. We record them, search them, filter them, revert them, reward for them and – sometimes – block for them.
There are dozens of ways to contribute on WikiAnswers, and until recently, they were all bundled together into one big contribution total, which looked like this box here.
(This is my stats box, by the way. And I like that number, 22,353. It’s not like Steven Keyman or HisPowr4U, but it’s still something to be proud of.)
What if you could see the breakdown of your contributions, and where you stand within the community in each grouping? Yeah, that’s what we thought, too. So the boys in the back room did some magic, and today we are rolling out a new contribution system that will let you shine in five new ways:
Read on to find out where you’ll see the changes.
Visit your bio page to see your current stats. Check out the new features:
It takes a lot to keep a category clean, organized and full of good answers. And it takes a lot of curious people to fill it with the questions that keep our minds buzzing.
We now recognize all types of category contributions on a monthly basis, so whether you’re an intrepid new contributor rising through the ranks or a community leader watching from the sidelines hoping to recruit a supervisor, this page has it all.
Missing the forest for the trees? Click the Hall of Fame link to return to the sitewide leaderboards…
Check it out by visiting your favorite category homepage, or see Animal Life for an example.
It seemed like a shame to upgrade the contribution system and then send it down the red carpet on the arm of an old leaderboard. A little like being presented at the Inaugural Ball in an Armani suit… and ratty Converse All-Stars from 1977. So we gave the leaderboards a makeover, and there are oh, so many sweet new ways to be #1. See for yourself:
Click the arrows to see the top 100.
“This feature ROCKS!” – Ganderton
“I want to cuddle it.” – Eliesheva
“It will make me want to answer more, and that’s a good thing.” – Kmac
“I don’t know how I lived without it before.” – Brave3
“That’s hawt.” – Anonymous
“Split contributions makes me want to be a cheerleader again! Go SCs!” – Crystal
“It looks so pretty and shiny that I could stare at it all day!” – Stupid Little Genius
“The engineers have surpassed themselves… Possibly the best feature I have seen with my time on site.” – Mike 2
“I’m so excited about split contribs that my OCD is going to go into hyperdrive!” – An8thg
What do you think of the new contributions system? Add your own testimonial in the comments section below!
