no.stupid.answers

Here’s more from Doditov, who we met on Monday in her Contributor corner interview. Enjoy a deeper look at what makes her tick…

What makes us tick?

Yes, we have a hands-on attitude, and yes we want to make a difference. But WHY? The elders among us are just as involved as the young people and we all share the same passion: WikiAnswers.

I got to thinking about it and for Americans, it has a lot to do with our history. For most in my age group, it was the Vietnam War. Besides the bitter consequences of that war, it was a defining moment for my generation. We discovered that if we made enough noise and were active enough, we could change the world!

For you younger folk who don’t remember Vietnam, my generation marched, sang, cried, and generally made enough noise to change public opinion about the war. We refused to fight that war (and made a bunch of new Canadians), we came home scarred, bitter, and resentful, and we were vocal!!! Because of our opposition, the course of history was changed. We discovered that we did indeed make a difference, and we were giddy with the knowledge.

There came a point when we reared families and attended to the business of continuing the economy. But somehow, by our attitude and eternal optimism, we passed a part of that spirit to our children and grandchildren.

Now we are back in a different way. We are “fixing” the mistakes that we made during those work years right here. Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, lazy speech, and plain bad manners are a part of what we do here. While we no longer make a sustained effort to actively change large pieces of society, we still have a passion to correct the little things.

While it might not be an earth-shattering effect, remember that butterfly effect? Now, even though we are no longer the fire eaters of our youth, we are still actively engaged in tikkun olam on this website. Perhaps we will fix a tiny bit of the fractures that shatter our society in this small way. I know that we are all actively engaged learning and growing and passing this along to all who visit here.

That is why I think that we are so passionate about doing things correctly as we go here. We truly desire to make things a bit better because we were here.

<crawls off soap box> I through speechifying now.

Because yesterday’s interview with Onarollcarpet left you wanting more, here’s a note from the star Supervisor on the awesomosity of WikiAnswers:

When I think about WikiAnswers in a philosophical way, my brain hurts. It is like answering the question, “What is the largest number?“

There is no answer, of course, because you can always add one. Is there a limit to the amount of questions that can be asked? People will be born, people will die, things will be invented and events will happen leading to more questions and answers to build and improve WikiAnswers.

That is why the concept of WikiAnswers is so amazing. It is a fluid database of knowledge that changes by the second from edits from real people who know something about something. Everybody knows a little bit about something that they want to share with others. Queen Elizabeth, onomatopoeia, dustless chalk, and bamboo flooring are all topics we can learn about on WikiAnswers. The knowledge we all have is being shared for free in a growing database that we can reference when we have a burning question that needs an answer.

How awesome is that? I forsee that WikiAnswers will save us from shelling out 20 bucks to learn how to sell on ebay and save us countless hours searching Google to find out if a crocodile can stick out its tongue. It will be a place to come to find out what the best website is to find cute kids cupcake ideas or to find out why your Ford Freestar is making a clicking noise.

I am so excited and proud to be a part of this exciting website as a Supervisor. It is a wonderful community of volunteers who cooperate and work together because they are passionate about sharing their knowledge with the world, like working with others as a community and… ok, maybe we are all just a little bit addicted to it too! But, when it comes to addictions, a WikiAnswers addiction is one of the better ones to have right?

If you don’t know about the website yet please stop by and answer or ask a question or make some spelling and grammar questions. Just remember that I warned you about the addiction potential. You might even want to eventually become a Supervisor.

If you do join the fastest growing website and community on the internet be sure to stop by my message board and say hi!

For more Supervisor wisdom, see this post by Zanbabe.

Let the flag-waving commence! Today we Americans celebrate the birthday of the United States. And for a 232-year-old, the United States has pretty smooth skin.

Take a break from the barbecues, get patriotic and learn some answers to Independence Day questions:

• When was the Fourth of July declared a national holiday?
• How many presidents died on July 4th?
• How do you calm worried dogs when they’re scared of fireworks?

Lately I’ve been reading about “building your blog/reputation/traffic with Q&A.” In fact, in the last few days I’ve read posts from Search Engine Journal, The IT Informer, Swiss Army Librarian, and Baltimore SEO. It’s actually very clever and easy to do, when you think about it. It’s an excellent tool for bloggers, site owners, librarians and professionals to get their names out and build credible reputations in the online universe.

Let’s say I sell jewelry online. On top of just selling jewelry, I actually know my stuff: I know my gemstones, I know my metals, know what works and what doesn’t. I could actually let me knowledge of jewelry do me good.

Here’s how I would go about it:

• My Username: I would join WikiAnswers and choose a username that sounds professional but friendly. Something like, JewelryGenius or KnowsJewelry.
• My Bio Page: My Bio Page would be the center of my universe on WikiAnswers. It would be the place where I list my experience in the jewelery business, why I’m qualified to answer such questions, what my business is about and how you could contact me. These pages are available to search engines, so make it look good, it’s a reflection on you and your cause. Your Bio Page and contributions are also linked from your username, so when you answer a question or make a change on the site, you are constantly linking other people to your details.
• My Watchlist: My Watchlist is an excellent tool for getting new questions answered right away. Add as many categories as you like to your Watchlist, and get notified when those categories are updated with new unanswered questions. I would add the Jewelry category to my Watchlist, for instance. I would also go to My Settings and make sure I’m getting updated with an email when new questions are added to my Watchlist.
• Answer questions: Once that’s set up, I could get started answering questions about jewelry. I could go directly to the Jewelry category or do a search for jewelry keywords.
• Tip: When you are the first to answer a question, your username will stay linked under the question for all of eternity.

For more information on using WikiAnswers, see the Help Center.

Hey you! Yea, you on 35th Street who casually dropped your napkins. And you, Mr. Crush-your-can-and-leave-it-on-the-subway-guy!

Do you know what you’re actually doing?

Did you know…

“Litter can end up in rivers and canals, polluting the water supply.”

“Paper cups and beverage cans can hold rainwater, providing breeding locations for mosquitoes - which have been known to cause disease like the West Nile Virus.”

“It is also a road hazard and can occasionally contribute to accidents.”

(source: Answers.com)

This is New York City, man. Manhattan, The Big Apple.
No one wants to see it littered with a bunch of garbage.

FYI – your careless act of indifference did not go unnoticed. I am silently (ok, maybe not so silently) waiting for karma (the environment’s super BFF) to do its thing.

Should you slip and fall by way of a discarded banana peel, or forget to mind the gap on the train and stub your toe… this will be natures way of saying “right back atcha”.

Does littering make you just as mad? Help out by answering these Littering questions on WikiAnswers, and let’s spread the message that it is not ok!

Mozilla just released the latest Firefox into the wild, and it’s supposed to be 3 times the fun. While I’m playing around with the new toy, I’m noticing something even cooler:

The Answers.com add-on for Firefox is featured on the Firefox start page in the Learn tab. The add-on is basically a version of 1-Click Answers for your browser. It’s cool for a lot of reasons which I will now list:

• No matter what page you’re browsing in Firefox, you can Alt-click any word and get an instant pop up with the definition or additional facts. Kind of like the way you can double-click anywhere on this blog - you’d get the same AnswerTip. The AnswerTip is easy to close and non-invasive, in case you’re creeped out by pop ups.
• This will totally help you out when you don’t feel like leaving the web page you are viewing to find out what a weird word means.
• Eventually, you will start to Alt-click real things in your life, like a bizarre vegetable or fancy statue, in order to find out more… and you’ll be sad when you realize that there is life away from the computer screen.

If you just want to add it right now, go ahead. If you want to learn more about accessing Answers.com from Firefox, you can do that too.