no.stupid.answers

My favorite part about the WikiAnswers contributors community is the sheer enthusiasm that runs across the different kinds of community members. This is the kind of enthusiasm and energy reserved for high school cheerleaders, except without all the bleach and squeaking.

This week we’re proud to present Doditov, one such wonderfully dedicated WikiAnswers Mentor and Supervisor, who has been around since November last year. A florist for her day job and nearing 60,000 contributions in under a year, Doditov is a Q&A force that just cannot be stopped - just the way we like it!

How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers?

I have had Answers.com at my default search engine for ages, and one day this box popped up with my material… but there was this added section about questions.  I looked, answered and was hooked.  Since I’m a suspicious person, I didn’t log in for ages it seems, but when I did, I got a message from Crystal almost immediately.

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

I’m one of those trivia people and all this knowledge was going to waste.  I have a passion to “get things right” and WikiAnswers gives me the opportunity to share what I know.  Of course, grammar, spelling, and proper classification are just part of the job.

For me, it’s more about being Marian the Librarian.  I “get in the zone” and can usually reclassify a question in about 10 seconds.  That how I worked Unanswerable.  Hmm… I miss Unanswerable!  It was a challenge to figure out what was actually being asked!!!

What are your areas of expertise?

<looks around, decides the question really DOES mean me>

I’m the cataloging queen.  I super odds and ends and boy are they odd.  Who else do you know would do knitting, crocheting, beading, skating, short stories, and CIGARETTE LIGHTERS???  Since the categories are smallish, I get to indulge my passion of tidying up.

What is your favorite WikiAnswers feature?

Our orange men!  Now if I could only teach him to knit!  Or play Diablo… he’d be sooo cool to have as a hireling.

What is the funniest question/funniest experience as a Supervisor on WikiAnswers?

My favorite question AND answer is this one:

Why does my wife’s new broomstick only fly in left hand circles she has tried changing her grip and seating but to no avail please help she is getting dizzy?

When I looked at the history, I nearly fell off the bed!  <did I mention that my best work is done propped up in the bed with my laptop?>  Mark and Golden had a wonderful time I’m sure, and the result is absolutely wonderful.  I’m considering a project in which we all start with a writing premise and share it into a novel.  Just think of it…the Great Wiki Novel!  With the inventive people we have, I’m sure it would be a work for the ages.

What does your username, Doditov, mean?

I was taking a Hebrew class and after class my instructor and I were discussing what names looked like in direct transliteration.  I mentioned that my actual name came through the French and wondered what it would be if we translated it into Hebrew.  He thought for a second and announced that it would be ‘Dodi Tov’.  It struck my fancy and when I needed a unique screen name, I chose that one.  It’s short, and is actually my real name yet no one would ever find me unless they chose to realllly hunt.

Share a random fact about yourself.

A random fact… I’m a sloppy romantic.  Even though I haven’t been married for 24 years, I still am shopping for Mr. Right.  Once upon a time when Crystal did an interview, I told her that I was picky but looking.  She replied that this is WikiANSWERS not WikiDate.  Hmm… Maybe a new website? <giggles>

Do you want to be interviewed for the Contributor corner? Just leave a comment below and we’ll get to work.

Because yesterday’s interview with Onarollcarpet left you wanting more, here’s a note from the star Supervisor on the awesomosity of WikiAnswers:

When I think about WikiAnswers in a philosophical way, my brain hurts. It is like answering the question, “What is the largest number?“

There is no answer, of course, because you can always add one. Is there a limit to the amount of questions that can be asked? People will be born, people will die, things will be invented and events will happen leading to more questions and answers to build and improve WikiAnswers.

That is why the concept of WikiAnswers is so amazing. It is a fluid database of knowledge that changes by the second from edits from real people who know something about something. Everybody knows a little bit about something that they want to share with others. Queen Elizabeth, onomatopoeia, dustless chalk, and bamboo flooring are all topics we can learn about on WikiAnswers. The knowledge we all have is being shared for free in a growing database that we can reference when we have a burning question that needs an answer.

How awesome is that? I forsee that WikiAnswers will save us from shelling out 20 bucks to learn how to sell on ebay and save us countless hours searching Google to find out if a crocodile can stick out its tongue. It will be a place to come to find out what the best website is to find cute kids cupcake ideas or to find out why your Ford Freestar is making a clicking noise.

I am so excited and proud to be a part of this exciting website as a Supervisor. It is a wonderful community of volunteers who cooperate and work together because they are passionate about sharing their knowledge with the world, like working with others as a community and… ok, maybe we are all just a little bit addicted to it too! But, when it comes to addictions, a WikiAnswers addiction is one of the better ones to have right?

If you don’t know about the website yet please stop by and answer or ask a question or make some spelling and grammar questions. Just remember that I warned you about the addiction potential. You might even want to eventually become a Supervisor.

If you do join the fastest growing website and community on the internet be sure to stop by my message board and say hi!

For more Supervisor wisdom, see this post by Zanbabe.

This week on WikiAnswers Wednesday, we are examining a question that everyone should already have the answer to, but we’ll share it anyway:

What is the WikiAnswers AnswerThon?

Yeah, I told you it was an easy one. Here is my artistic rendering of a WikiAnswers AnswerThon:

Oh, wait. That’s an AnswerThong. The WikiAnswers AnswerThon is a competition to see who can answer the most questions on WikiAnswers within 48 hours. The first AnswerThon was a few months back and included prizes. The upcoming competition (July 26-27) is actually a charity edition: you choose your favorite charity from a list and compete on their behalf; the winning charity is the one with the most questions answered by its team.

So my artistic rendering of a WikiAnswers AnswerThon looks more like this:

Make sure to sign up in time so you can be counted in the competition. See a full list of the participating charities.

Now it’s even easier to search on WikiAnswers.

Let’s say you did a search for questions about gerbils… you would get a page like this, with a little line of text at the top:

Use this little tool to filter the results right here on the page, without doing a new search from scratch. For instance…

Limit your search to questions in the Gerbils category:

A little window will pop up so you can choose which categories to search in:

Choose whether you want to see answered, unanswered or all questions:

Done looking at questions about gerbils in general? Time to look up something more specific. Look up “food” instead - your results will still be from the Gerbils category.

And of course, you can always click on New Search or Advanced Search to start from scratch!

Happy searching!

Hooray for new things! While all you dads out there are tearing open envelopes and ripping up wrapping paper, we’re having a blast with the bubble wrap on this brand new baby:

The WikiAnswers Ask/Answer bar has a whole new look, same great taste. Or something… Last time I licked my monitor, it was for that new Starburst flavor, except it didn’t taste like Awesome Berry, it tasted more like LCD, which I thought was illegal, anyway.

With it being Father’s Day, (yup, that’s today - hurry, you might still be able to find a good gift) I decided to put dear old dad to the test. Can he dole out the collective wisdom of generations and answer questions posed by WikiAnswers users?

From cooking to relationships, I gathered a few dad-worthy questions to see just what kind of fatherly advice he could deliver: (You can do it!)

What’s the best way to break in a new baseball glove?

Secret recipe:
2 parts glove oil
3 parts mashing the mitt around
95 parts get out and Play Ball!!

What’s a good car for a new driver?

A very slow one.

Do women prefer flowers to chocolate?

You might think so, they might say so, but really, women prefer chocolate.

What’s a good excuse to get out of taking out the trash?

Their aren’t any, just do it.

What are some of the benefits of BBQing on a charcoal grill over a gas grill?

Charcoal grills are cheap
Authentic BBQ flavor
Charcoal grills are cheap
Tradition
And did I mention charcoal grills are way cheaper?

Father… thy wisdom is immeasurable.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, fars, padres, vaters, pais, pères and abbas.

Thanks to Answers.com for those translations. (What? You thought I spoke German?)