no.stupid.answers

Hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip-hooray! Hip-hip-hooray! There’s no denying that WikiAnswers.com’s has a lot of dedicated contributors. But sometimes there are those who shine so brightly, they could be mistaken for royalty! One person who really, honestly and truly deserves more than three cheers is our fantabulous Mezzra. On the site since only December 2008, this force to be reckoned with has already accomplished the impossible: just under 90,000 contributions, 50 hours as a Vandal Patrol Site Guardian and winning a 2008 Honorable Mention WAmmy. All this, while simultaneously volunteering as a mentor, WIT Adult Advisor and Wikiguide. And if that doesn’t keep him busy enough, he’s also an avid Category Supervisor – carefully watching over the dire and dangerous Catch-Alls.

What can I say? All hail Mezzra! Here’s more from the Wiki-King himself: How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers.com?

Hmm…Well, it’s nothing as exciting as I have seen others post on this blog. It’s not even very complicated. Basically, one day whilst Googling something (“what” totally evades my memory), I saw a WikiAnswers.com link. Upon opening the link, I was faced with two things; a good answer, but terrible grammar. So I got stuck right in and signed up! Checking grammar (my personal pet peeve) soon earned by around 1,000 Contribution Points in a period of a few days, and on Christmas Eve, I had the Super powers!

Explain your username.

My username is just something I saw one day on another site and nicked. Don’t know the origins or if it actually means anything, but thought it had a pretty awesome sound.

What motivates you to volunteer your time to the WikiAnswers.com community?

Basically, helping others out. It really gives me a kick and brings me back here day-after-day. That and the fact there are tons of questions that are just…urgh. So I fix those up!

What are your areas of expertise?

Without wanting to sound big-headed, the Catch-alls. I spend 90 percent of my time in there, and it’s my true love on site. Without the category I would go absolutely mad!

What is your favorite WikiAnswers.com feature?

Reverting has always been of interest to me. I just love the fact that the system remembers all of the previous answers and with two clicks you can have an old, excellent answer that has been vandalized. I can’t wait until we get the batch-revert feature…

What has been the funniest question you’ve seen or your funniest experience on WikiAnswers.com?

The question “What is Governmentium?” made me totally LOL. Even a few days after I was still laughing at the thought

Share a random fact (or two) about yourself.

Well, there isn’t much of interest about me. Other than the fact that I love English, both language and literature. As you may have known by reading this all, grammar is my absolute “thing.”

Today WikiAnswers made an appearance on The Red Tape Chronicles, an MSNBC blog. Bob Sullivan discussed the issue of how Q&A sites handle their questionable content – and if they do at all.

WikiAnswers differs from Yahoo! Answers, for instance, because there is a “Catch All” system in place for dealing with questions that may be inappropriate or even dangerous:

[On WikiAnswers] a set of 500 volunteers create a list of “Catch All” questions which aren’t allowed on the site. When a user asks such a question, a generic reply developed by the company is shown. The question “How do I build a bomb?” elicits the response: “WikiAnswers does not provide information that will aid or support criminal activity.”

The question “How do I get high from household items” redirects the asker to the question “What household items can kill you?”

The site also publishes its list of forbidden questions.

Bruce Smith, chief strategy officer of Answers Corp, commented on the WikiAnswers way of handling questionable content:

“There is no hard and fast rule. We have a lot of debates,” he said. Certain questions, however, are unambiguous, he said.

“Nothing is perfect. But the bigger the community, the more effective the monitoring,” Smith said.

Check out the complete article here.