no.stupid.answers

When I think of long-time WikiAnswers member Rharris, I think of lots of things: Mentor, AnswerThon Runner Up, Category Supervisor (of over 20 topics!)… Robin does it all and she does it with a friendly smile.

A little background on Robin:

• She lives in the Bluegrass State, or what she calls ‘Bird Paradise.’
• Some of her time working on WikiAnswers is spent with her grandson on her lap, grabbing for the keyboard.
• Gertie and Tiny are her two dogs, a Doberman and mini Doberman.

How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers?

My dad had asked me to find out where a certain part was located on a car, and somehow I landed on Faq Farm and asked the question.  I thought it was cool that you could ask anything you wanted to know on the site, so I bookmarked it.

Several months later, I came back to ask another question, and to my surprise, it was no longer FaqFarm, but WikiAnswers!  I wanted to contribute to an answer on a question about suicide, and emailed Crystal, asking her to unprotect the question so that I could.  She was very nice and immediately unprotected the question.  When I think about it, I realize that Crystal’s friendly attitude is the reason I immediately felt welcome and kept coming back.

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

It’s called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder!  (I prefer to say I have extensive organizational skills.) LOL!

When I realized I could edit questions and answers and categorize, I was ecstatic!  I jumped right in and started correcting spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and categorizing questions.

Seriously, I fell in love with WikiAnswers.  I love the community environment and am dedicated to doing all I can do to help people feel welcome, feel as if they are a part of the community, to want to keep coming back, to want to stay.

I’m a Senior Supervisor of the Literature and Language categories, which is absolutely perfect for me, because I have a huge passion for books and English and writing.  As a non-degree English major, WikiAnswers allows me the opportunity to make use of my writing skills and creative talents.

In assisting Deb with the Mentoring Program, I enjoy helping new supervisors in learning the correct ways to use all the tools we have available to improve and enhance WikiAnswers.   What it all boils down to is that I can help to make a difference in the WikiAnswers community and on the site by doing the very things I am passionate about.

What are your areas of expertise?

I’d have to say my area(s) of expertise are my organizational, English, writing, and people skills.  I love using all these in meeting people, making new friends, and helping bring about harmony and unity within the community, not to mention whipping those questions and answers into shape within the categories I supervise.

What is your favorite WikiAnswers feature?

Oh, my gosh!  This one is hard to answer!

It could be the ability to edit questions and edit answers. Or is it being able to work in the community and help to create some old-fashioned neighborly bonding? Perhaps it’s the fact that I meet so many wonderful people from all over the world. Or could it be the thrill I get from helping people learn new things? Then again, maybe it’s that I, myself, have learned so much  by being part of WikiAnswers and am learning new things each day.

As for the physical features of the site, I love to organize, so I’d have to say my favorite feature is recategorizing - and there are so many different ways to go about doing that!  I can split alternate wordings and recat, I can recat from the topics I supervise, I can recat recently asked questions, go to my watchlist and recat from there, or use the advanced search option and recat from there.

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

I’ve seen so many questions I thought were funny that it would be hard to choose just one.  But I really got a kick out of Where can you find wild camels? And the answer was, “There is an excellent video called “Camels gone wild!” that follows a herd of wild and woolly Camels to Fort Lauderdale for spring break. Stay away from Camels in a mosh pit as they can be very dangerous.”  And I loved the question,  What is lack toast and tolerant?

Share a random fact about yourself.

I have a snake phobia, and hate slugs because they remind me of short, fat snakes, and won’t eat mushrooms because they remind me of slimy slugs. I know… that’s crazy! LOL!

I’m a very friendly person who loves to laugh and I see humor in things other people don’t.  I love to meet people, help people, and work with people.

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

Lately I’ve been reading about “building your blog/reputation/traffic with Q&A.” In fact, in the last few days I’ve read posts from Search Engine Journal, The IT Informer, Swiss Army Librarian, and Baltimore SEO. It’s actually very clever and easy to do, when you think about it. It’s an excellent tool for bloggers, site owners, librarians and professionals to get their names out and build credible reputations in the online universe.

Let’s say I sell jewelry online. On top of just selling jewelry, I actually know my stuff: I know my gemstones, I know my metals, know what works and what doesn’t. I could actually let me knowledge of jewelry do me good.

Here’s how I would go about it:

• My Username: I would join WikiAnswers and choose a username that sounds professional but friendly. Something like, JewelryGenius or KnowsJewelry.
• My Bio Page: My Bio Page would be the center of my universe on WikiAnswers. It would be the place where I list my experience in the jewelery business, why I’m qualified to answer such questions, what my business is about and how you could contact me. These pages are available to search engines, so make it look good, it’s a reflection on you and your cause. Your Bio Page and contributions are also linked from your username, so when you answer a question or make a change on the site, you are constantly linking other people to your details.
• My Watchlist: My Watchlist is an excellent tool for getting new questions answered right away. Add as many categories as you like to your Watchlist, and get notified when those categories are updated with new unanswered questions. I would add the Jewelry category to my Watchlist, for instance. I would also go to My Settings and make sure I’m getting updated with an email when new questions are added to my Watchlist.
• Answer questions: Once that’s set up, I could get started answering questions about jewelry. I could go directly to the Jewelry category or do a search for jewelry keywords.
• Tip: When you are the first to answer a question, your username will stay linked under the question for all of eternity.

For more information on using WikiAnswers, see the Help Center.

One of the questions that I am asked most often is, “How do I find the questions that I’ve posted on WikiAnswers?” Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news: finding your questions is easy. The bad news: there are no voice commands, so you will be required to click your mouse a few times.

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Here is some info on finding questions (along with any answers that contributors have offered):

If you don’t know the URL and your question is not on your Watchlist (located on the left side of the page in the blue shaded area), the easiest way to find it is to search for it (use Option 1).

You could also re-ask your question. That will take you to the existing question page. If you can’t remember the exact wording, ask something similar and see if it pops up in the list of possible same-as existing questions. Find your question and click on the link. If all else fails, click on My Bio Page, where you can view your history of contributions.

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