no.stupid.answers

Yesterday the latest WikiAnswers newsletter went out, and I thought I’d recap the highlights for y’all in case you aren’t on the mailing list. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, leave a comment and I’ll pass your name along to the powers-that-be.

On to the news… letter:

New chance to win prizes with Mission: Recategorization

Missed out on the AnswerThon? No sweat. Mission: Recategorization is the challenge to recategorize the most questions located in the Uncategorized category to their appropriate categories. The contest started last night at midnight, and lasts until 11:59pm (EDT) on Monday, August 11th.

There are prizes to be won! Find out more and get started.
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AnswerThon Results

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first ever charity-edition WikiAnswers AnswerThon! Hundreds of contributors sponsored a charitable organization by answering questions from July 26-27. See the list of winners and participants on the AnswerThon results page.
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Introducing the Community Development Team

We’ve created a Community Development team of Wikiholics to support the rapidly-growing WikiAnswers community. There’s nothing like keeping that addiction to WikiAnswers alive!

To briefly introduce the team: Deb, Brave3, Robin, Zanbabe, and Eliesheva. Feel free to stop by their Message boards and offer your suggestions and feedback.

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Dispute Resolution on WikiAnswers

The Community Advisor Team is a new initiative to have a Dispute Resolution program for the community. Our aim is to make you feel comfortable settling disputes with your fellow contributors. To ensure impartiality, the team remains anonymous. Review Community Guidelines & Dispute Resolution in the Help Center.

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New feature: Share your Q&A

Now you can share any Q&A page however you prefer! Use the Share button below answered questions to add the Q&A page to your favorites or post it on social networking/bookmarking sites (like MySpace, Facebook, Delicious, Twitter and Digg). Learn more about the Share button.

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Name the Youth/Teen Group Contest

WikiAnswers recognizes youth contributors as valuable members of the Q&A community and so we are announcing the WikiAnswers Teen/Youth Initiative.

Here’s where the contest (with prizes) comes in: This program needs a name! Submit your name suggestion by Wednesday, August 6, and win! Get contest details.

Do do do… do do do… do do do… do do.

Ahem.

Welcome to Mission: Recategorization. Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Help WikiAnswers recategorize the flood of questions that is taking over the Uncategorized category. If the level gets too high, questions may explode, contributors may drown and the little orange guys across the site will probably head for the hills!

Recategorize the Uncategorized questions into their appropriate categories and win prizes… and save lives!

Where: The comfort of your own computer screen.

When: From 12:00am (EDT) on Tuesday, August 5th, until 11:59pm (EDT) on Monday, August 11th

How: Here’s how to recategorize on WikiAnswers.

Prizes: Plenty of prizes are being given out, including Amazon cash; check them out.

Rules: Questions must be already categorized in Uncategorized to be counted and must be recategorized into appropriate an relevant categories.

Oh, and this is a great opportunity to redeem yourself if you missed out on the recent AnswerThon!

The first-ever WikiAnswers AnswerThon champions have been announced and we’re going to re-announce them here for your reading pleasure:

Aggie80 552 answers
Steven Keyman 358 answers
Zanbabe 278 answers

Check out the full list of winners and participants (including runners up). First, second and third place winners are receiving Amazon (or is that amazin’) gift certificates worth $500, $250 and $100, respectively, and all winners - including runners up - are getting the latest design in WikiAnswers t-shirts (if you want your own, shop around).

Congratulations to the winners and congratulations to the hamsters at WikiAnswers for pulling it off! We know how much energy it takes to turn those wheels… Or, we don’t, we’re humans, but we appreciate it all the same.

If you want to be notified when the next challenge comes out, sign up for WikiAnswers. It’s actually a really quick and easy sign up process (user name, password and email).

As someone whose bread is paid for by the hamsters who churn the gears at Answers Corp, I cannot officially participate in the upcoming AnswerThon.

My colleagues and I have been daydreaming about what we’d do with the winnings if we could officially participate (because obviously we would; we are that awesome). I thought I’d share what some of us would do with a $500 Amazon gift certificate… in case you need ideas:

Crystal, Supervisor of AnswerThon Superness

We can’t enter? Are you serious!?!? Who came up with these rules? I demand to speak to management. I’ve been studying for the past weeks in preparation. What a bummer, dude. What a waste of 9,562 hours of intense research to answer questions like, “Is there a deodorant that smells like new computers?” and “What is so gross about the national product?”

And I had such big plans for my winnings. There goes that new paperweight, calendar, mouse pad, and book.

Hey, wait! There’s always next year, right? Duh! Should of thought of that before I complained! I’ll get started on those ANSWERS now… 100,000 here we come! ;-)

Jay, Director of Telling People About the AnswerThon

I’d have to go with this. I mean, it’d pay for itself in weeks… months… years… You see, I have no idea because I don’t know how often people carelessly toss valuable silver, coins or other metal objects right into the kitchen trash. That would leave me with $100, with which, of course, I’d grab a ‘Pata Negra’ Restaurant Grade Paella Pan -60cm With Free Gifts! Because hey — one morning you’re answering questions, eating, well, not paella. And then, BOOM. Paella. And I love mysterious free gifts. It says that it’s not dishwasher safe; I hope the free gift is a good-natured, well-muscled guy to wash it for me.

Pnina, Coordinator of Wiki Wossibilities

I’d definitely get a Kindle. Not that I believe books of cloth and paper are dead - but I HAVE to try it out. And since I already read my newspapers online, maybe it’s time to make the jump to books as well.

Danny, Manager of Making It All Happen

$500 on Amazon? I’d buy my kids all the Math Tricks books I could find!

Shara, Facilitator of Facilitations in the Facilities

Because of my obsession, I would totally buy Stomp the Yard (widescreen, full screen AND Blu-ray, baby) and all the paraphernalia that goes with it — posters, booklets, soundtrack, whatever.

And with the left over money, I’d probably buy a copy for all my friends!

Oh… and since I don’t have a Blu-ray player, I’d get one of those too.

Jim, Purveyor of Wit and Wisdom

It’s quite obvious when you consider the potential: seventy-three copies of Paris Hilton’s book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose.

I’d also get the Havahart Live Animal Door Cage Trap for Mice and Chipmunks and 1500 live ladybugs…

Because everyone needs ladybugs in their life.

I’m sure we’ll be chatting about this a lot in the next couple weeks, but we’re really excited to announce a brand new, never-done-before awesomeness from the makers of WikiAnswers: The AnswerThon.

It’s going to be an intense challenge, lasting 48 hours over March 1-2, to answer as many questions on WikiAnswers as possible. There are rules to follow, of course, and they can be memorized, printed, and hung on your bathroom wall from the middle of the official AnswerThon page.

Flex your intellectual muscles, promote worldwide knowledge sharing and win great prizes! Share what you know and be named the first-ever WikiAnswers AnswerThon Champion.

More to come soon…