Through a whopping 123,700 – and rapidly rising – contributions, RoyR has been reigning as king of the Top 100 WikiAnswers Contributors list for a while now… Maybe it’s because he’s also been contributing since just about the beginning of the Q&A site’s history.
His Majesty, ever-generous with his time and knowledge, contributes in various ways: he is the Supervisor of the Hobbies and Collectibles category and a Community Assistant across the site.
We take an inside look at what makes RoyR, the number #1 WikiAnswers contributor, tick:
How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers?
WikiAnswers came to me while searching for information about an old firearm. In a Q&A forum, one question about “New York Arms Co.” had attracted hundreds of other questions about old shotguns and I started answering some of them. Then one day there was a notice that the forum was being discontinued and a link to the then-new ‘FaqFarm’ site. I followed the link and have been here ever since.
When Chris, the founder of FaqFarm, put up a ‘help wanted’ ad, I became the first “editor” on the site. At first there were only three choices: Accept, Edit, or Delete. It wasn’t too hard to keep up with a few hundred entries a night even working from a dial-up internet connection and we actually tried to correct all the spelling and grammar in each question.
I managed to survive the transition from FaqFarm to WikiAnswers and here I am.
What motivates you to volunteer your time to the WikiAnswers community?
It can’t be the pay. Must be the perks – a parking space right by the office door, frequent smoke breaks, all the coffee I can drink (and a bathroom right next to my office). Maybe there’s a clue there. I’m addicted to caffeine and nicotine and Wiki-tene.
What is your area of expertise?
I’ve managed to learn a bit about numismatics in 40+ years of collecting coins and several years ago I started researching some firearms that are family hand-me-downs. I now have a ton of reference books on both subjects. I am also a repository of half-remembered useless information. I don’t necessarily know a lot about any subject, but I know where to look for the answers, often right on WikiAnswers or Answers.com.
What is the funniest question/funniest experience as a Supervisor on WikiAnswers?
Some of the best questions are the ones I have to delete because of the “adult” content. But there was “What were Lewis and Clark’s last names?”
A couple of WA answers made me chuckle:
Q: “Who made old shotguns?”
A: “No one. But lots of people made new shotguns a long time ago.”
And the classic (I hope it hasn’t been deleted again):
Q: “How do you get past the blocks at school”?
A: “Step over them. If they’re stacked really high, throw your crayons at them.”
Share a random fact about yourself.
Here are a few that come to mind:
- Eight years in the US Navy. Vietnam era, but not a Vietnam vet.
- Computer programmer, hoping to retire in another year or two.
- Father of two, grandfather of four with the latest arriving just last week. All living close enough to spoil, but far enough away that a weekly or monthly visit is still something special.
