no.stupid.answers

Some brand new features went live on WikiAnswers today, so I thought I’d share the highlights.

The homepage is looking especially fresh with a bit of an altered layout and more opportunities to answer questions. But the first thing you may notice on the homepage is the brand new message banner across the top, where you can click through highlighted features, help center pages and more in order to quickly learn about and access different parts of the site:

In addition, the Featured Questions are back for your answering pleasure, right below the Recently Asked… section. Also, the tag cloud is now accessible as ‘Hot Topics’ right below the log in pod. It’s occasionally updated with the latest topics to have made headlines, including new categories.

Even better than all that - in my opinion - is that you can now instantly share your unanswered questions in any way you like. You know, to try to get them answered faster. Send them to your knowledgeable friends via email, Facebook, Digg, MySpace, etc. The new share button is located in the menu below the unanswered question.

Ready, set… go play!

I love the ‘R’ word. That’s right: release. There’s just nothing like waking up in the morning, stretching, opening a browser to WikiAnswers and noticing that the WikiAnswers team has put out a release of new features and site updates while I was sleeping.

• The WikiAnswers homepage got a minor face lift with this new release, including a listing of recent questions with their category and time of asking.
• Check out the holiday-themed tag cloud on the homepage and Browse Categories.
• More reasons to log in! The blue Tools Menu has been completely revamped in a more organized style.
• Think you’ve reached the limit of contributor-level badges? They no longer top out at Platinum: start working towards becoming a Ruby contributor.



• There is now a spell checker in the answer form; before you post your answer, click the ABC button at the end of the menu and make your answer even more perfect.
• Feel the love, share the love: Join the Community Outreach program and reach a whole new level of participation.
• Cleaning up clearly: A new warning feature for Supervisors allows for organized and effective vandal patrol.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, as of today the elements that used to make up the Today’s Highlights on the old Answers.com homepage design are back up on the new homepage design. That includes the Spotlight, Quote, Today in History, and Today’s Birthdays.

It also means there are more images on the page, which was a complaint by a few commenters to this blog. Personally, I think the organization of this page is much cleaner, but the Answers.com team is working on ways to ever-improve the homepage.

Check it out.

Yesterday the folks at Answers.com unveiled a new look and feel for the reference site. It seems to be a sort of meshing of the reference world that is Answers.com with the community Q&A aspect that is WikiAnswers. Well, they are ’sister sites’ after all.

There are now three tabs to browse on the homepage, along with some featured questions and… yours truly, no.stupid.answers, featured right below. The homepage keeps the fun trivia spotlight of the old design in the first tab while highlighting the Question of the Day in the second tab. The third tab is all about community, where this blog’s Contributor Corner and What’s New columns are highlighted.

And that’s just the homepage… The topic pages have a new look and feel, too. Type in a topic, like say, blog, and you’ll see a fresh-looking page with a left-side navigation to quickly select which type of reference source you want to view.

So, it’s time for your comments. You know that feeling when you’ve gotten a makeover and some of your friends are gushing and squealing in utter delight and some of your friends are kinda like, “Oh wow… so in how long will those bangs grow out?”

Go on and leave a comment - how do you feel about the new layout? The new homepage hightlights? The new navigation for topic pages? The new Britney Spears album?