no.stupid.answers

The sky is a little bit closer now that the 250+ titles on ReferenceAnswers include an Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation.

The new reference book provides definitions and illustrations for the entire spectrum of aviation: aerodynamics, navigation, meteorology, aircraft equipment and maintenance, aerial photography, avionics and more.

So where else are you going to learn the science of the reflex camber, check out an illustration of an absolute angle of attack, or learn that ‘eyelid’ is a term for… wait, what?

The results of the 3rd Annual WAmmy Awards (our official WikiAnswers awards show) are in! The winners and their acceptance speeches are now on Answers.com.

But keep in mind the following is just a small sampling of all the awards that have been presented to various users for excellence in contributing. Look for one of these award badges on a bio page near you and feel free to congratulate the contributor for their efforts!

Without further ado we hereby present the winners in our “Best Answer” categories:

• JoyceP became the first repeat winner of the coveted Answer of the Year award this year for her answer to “What are the signs of child abuse and how can you help the abused child to overcome the harm it has caused?” She also took home the WAmmy for Best Advice Answer to “How do you explain to young children that their parents are getting divorced to make the transition as easy on them as possible?”
• Doditov snagged the WAmmy for Best How-To Answer with her response to “How do you potty-train a 3-year old boy?”
• Dick Harfield walked away with the award for Best Researched Answer. His award-winning answer addressed the question “Why do scientists think Earth is 4.5 billion years old?”

Way to go everyone and good luck in next year’s competition!

The 7th million answer was added on WikiAnswers this week. The answer is - drum roll, please…

If nail polish remover went down the sink what would happen?

Answer by Wolfgang schwartzschild: “It will float on top of the trap and stink-up the room until it has all evaporated and dispersed. You could try heavy flushing in hopes of washing it down in the current, or open up the trap and pour it into a bucket.”

Let’s not forget to mention that there were plenty of good answers coming in at numbers like 6,999,998 or 7,000,001:

• When was the last time the Saints went to the Super Bowl?
• Are hedgehogs as prickly as they seem?
• Which organ is part of digestion but not part of the digestive tract?

I’d also like to take the opportunity to point out that great community answers aren’t always the first answer added. Take another look at the prickly hedgehog answer. Two contributors made that answer great; one addressed the question in a functional way while the other addressed it on another level. Q&A the wiki way, where answers grow and evolve and deepen with collaboration.

See you at 8 million!

What’s on your mind? Allow me to share what’s on mine… as well as the collaborative mind of the community-at-large.

Here are some of the latest Hot Topics being worked on by the WikiAnswers community:

• Haiti
• Renewable Energy
• Oscars
• Super Bowl
• Organic Food
• Iran
• Justin Bieber
• Tiger Woods
• Snow and Ice
• Lady Gaga
• MP4 Players
• Resume Writing
• Allergies

Do you have what to add? Visit those categories and add your answers!

Think you have the academic know-how to answer 50 questions on Answers.com and win money for school next year?

Gil Reich, VP of Product Management at Answers.com and blogger of Managing Greatness, has written an excellent post on SEOmoz/YOUmoz titled: Q&A About Using Q&A Sites to Build Your Business & Reputation.

The post goes into depth about - you guessed it - using Q&A sites (like Answers.com of course) to build online reputation and thus help build your freelance or small business. The number of companies using social media and Q&A sites is rising.

Gil argues the following three points are what makes it worthwhile:

Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.

Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.

Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

Asking questions to your audience and, more importantly, answering their questions, is not a complicated process and doesn’t require any more training than you already have. All you need is your expertise in your field and to become familiar with - and really believe in - Q&A community culture.

Read the full post to get a sense of what the role of Q&A sites is for professionals looking to expand their reputations online.

For more on the topic, see a similar post on BabeofBusiness, a blog by Crystal Williams, who is one of the Community Coordinators on Answers.com.

Answers.com Founder and CEO Bob Rosenschein sat with a reporter at Intruders.tv at Le Web ‘09 in December and offered his thoughts on the site’s healthy growth, successful business model, fabulous community, and… questions.com?

Watch the video… and skip to minute 6:12 for the Answers.com secret sauce. Hint: it has to do with the passion of the most unbelievable community around!