Throughout history there have been many noble, quirky and otherwise downright awesome Thomases. For example, take Thomas Jefferson. The third President of the United States, Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and served during the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was also a horticulturist, archaeologist and inventor. Other remarkable Thomases include Thomas Edison (The Wizard of Menlo Park), Thomas Hobbes (English philosopher), Thomas Paine (a Founding Father) and even Thomas the Tank Engine (fictional anthropomorphic team locomotive). But which capital T-H-O-M-A-S is our favorite? It’s Thomas from Answers.com, of course.

Get to know him!

How did you originally hear about Answers.com?

I was doing my math homework one day when I forgot how many cups are in a gallon. I googled the question, and the first thing that came up was WikiAnswers. I quickly became involved with the community.

Explain your user name.

My user name is my first name: Thomas. It doesn’t get simpler than that!

What motivates you to volunteer your time to the Answers.com community?

My motivation is the community aspect of Answers.com and how anytime you have a question someone is there to answer it. I wanted to add to that community aspect, to help by spreading my knowledge and make the site a better place.

What are your areas of expertise?

Anything that needs batteries or electricity to work! More specifically…computers, cell phones and PS3s.

What is your favorite Answers.com feature?

The block feature is my favorite feature. Anytime a problematic user is out of line (after multiple warnings) I will sometimes block them. They will no longer be able to do damage or cause disruptions on the site, which helps to make it a better place.

What has been the funniest question you’ve seen or your funniest experience on Answers.com?

What gets drunk the most Coke or Pepsi? This question may not have been funny when it was asked, but our Supervisors did a great job of turning it humorous!

Share a random fact (or two) about yourself.

I enjoy confusing people by pondering things such as my personal holiday: National Skip-A-Day day. For those who want to be confused continue reading and for those who do not, I recommend stopping. If you skip National Skip-A-Day day like the day states you are skipping the holiday of National Skip-A-Day day, so therefore does the holiday exist at all? However with that being stated if the holiday does not exist then you do not have to skip a day.

He exists in the depths of Answers.com. Like a riddle waiting to be solved; a closed book, a complex story of implausible profundity. No ill-formed question too cacographic; no query too impervious. The perfect illusion; a silent reality at its finest.

Introducing Mrmr1993:

What is your Answers.com user name and the history behind it?

Mrmr1993; my standard user name used to be mr_1993, using my initials and year of birth. After some Web sites wouldn’t accept underscores in user names, I devised mrmr1993 as an alternative, and it remained from there on. No interesting story here, I’m afraid.

Are you a Floating or Category Supervisor?

I’m a Floating Supervisor; after my non-super experience, I realised that there were ample questions which my limited knowledge can answer with considerable ease, and there are plenty of horrendous mistakes in the questions themselves that I could happily resolve. Additionally, I couldn’t decide on which topic I would supervise, because so many provide substantial interest to me.

What other badges do you have on Answers.com?

Having just checked, I am proud to report the new addition of the “Bronze Contributor” badge, having feared before this moment that I had none.

Would you care to tell us about your family?

I am 1 of 4 children, and am both the eldest and the only boy.

Do you have any pets?

Yes - one dog.

Where do you live, how long have you lived there and why do you like the area?

I live in Finchley, London, and have occupied the London area for the entirety of my life. The area is convenient for school, but there’s little else of significance to know about it.

What educational information would you like to share?

I currently attend 6th form at Queen Elizabeth’s School, Barnet. No notable qualifications to date (excluding GCSEs).

What are some of your past and/or present occupations?

Student. Assistant florist/ handyman/ driver/ delivery boy.

What are your key area(s) of knowledge, interests or expertise?

I’ve always been interested in math, and have, through my extensive exposure to it, become similarly engrossed in the pursuit of physics. I am often disappointed by how much of potential physics is re-distributed and engulfed by its bastardized offspring (chemistry, biology, etc.). This has also mutated into a vast interest in the field of computing, which, after meandering through artificial intelligence, has also had implications for my interest in the nature of existence, humanity, intelligence and evolution, all of which I find myself spectacularly pessimistic about. Additionally, I have a considerable love of written word, slightly, but not totally, diminished by the study of English at school and the amazing capacity for over-analysis in which it indulges. Finally, I have considerable ability in the field of music, being able to play or denote music after a single hearing, sight-reading music, etc. I do not particularly enjoy this pursuit, especially in its more academic forms, but indulge it nonetheless.

[Please excuse my essay of a response]

Do you have any collections or hobbies?

I have dated Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! card collections, but little else of any interest. I am a keen computer programmer, presently using the Web format as my primary medium, and the Windows operating system as a secondary, between which I have developed a huge quantity of useless code snippets.

What do you like to do for recreation?

All the boring things - TV, browsing the Internet, Answers.com (when I can), programming, playing on game consoles and doing excessive amounts of schoolwork.

What are a few random facts about yourself?

I am a music technology student, I have never revised in my entire life, and I am a frequent smoker.

What are your special goals or dreams?

At present I tend to do all I can to get by, and as little in excess of that as is possible. As such, I have no specific dreams or goals.

How would you describe yourself or personality?

Intellectual, immature and spectacularly lazy.

What brought you to Answers.com?

After googling [now an official verb, I hasten to point out] a number of things and seeing WikiAnswers pages among the results, I found myself discovering easily answered questions, and, owing to my desire to ‘perform’ (to use the term loosely), I felt under my own obligation to answer these questions, and to bombard the stupidity of the masses with the joys of (my sadly limited) knowledge.

What is your favorite Answers.com activity

I enjoy answering deep philosophical questions with logical and comprehensible responses, usually resulting from evolutionary theories and based upon experience from the interaction of artificially intelligent applications.

On Answers.com, you’ll find doctors, dentists, arborists, lawyers, cosmetologists and even the occasional burgomaster or tidewaiter (go ahead, look em’ up!). This week, however, we are presenting ye’ with a recipe for greatness – Petera88 - one of our resident Chef superstars!

Bon appétit!

What is your Answers.com user name and the history behind it?

My user name is Petera88 and, quite simply, it is made up of my name (Peter Alton) and my favourite number (8).

Are you a Floating or Category Supervisor (which categories)?

I am a Category Supervisor supervising Individual Ingredients, Spices and Herbs, Ingredient Substitutions and China and Chinese Territories.

What other badges do you hold on Answers.com?

I am a Bronze Contributor.

Would you care to tell us about your family?

I am married to Eden, and we have a young son Christian who is 2-years-old.

Where do you live, how long have you lived there and why do you like the area?

We live in Portsmouth on the South Coast of the United Kingdom. We have lived here for the last 2 years and love the peace and quiet and friendly neighbourhood.

Where did you grow up and do you have any special memories of your childhood?

I grew up in Waterlooville and have great memories of home cooked dinners with my Mum.

What educational information would you like to share?

I studied Professional Cookery at Highbury College when I left school gaining a Distinction in my final year. I also passed a BA Degree in English Literature in 2007 after 6 years part-time study with the Open University.

What are some of your past and/or present occupations?

I am a qualified Chef and have worked in the industry for 25 years - working in the UK and away at sea in the Merchant Navy for P&O. I am currently a Fresh Food Buyer supplying Fresh Produce to several of the major supermarkets in the UK.

What are your key areas of knowledge, interest or expertise?

Having trained as a Chef, I have a love of food. I enjoy cooking and read anything food related. I like Asian food and, in particular, the food of Hong Kong, which is amongst the best in the world. I love Hong Kong having been there many times and also having met and married my wife there. I am also currently writing a book about the food and culture of Hong Kong, which I hope to complete later this year.

Do you have any collections or hobbies?

I enjoy cooking and reading anything to do with Asia or Hong Kong.

What do you like to do for recreation?

I enjoy playing with my son and watching sports as I am getting too old to play anymore!

What are a few random facts about yourself?

I had a trial for England Schoolboys and played rugby for Hampshire as a boy. I am a big fan of Alice Cooper. I can speak a little Cantonese.

What accomplishments are you proud of?

Qualifying as a Chef in 1984 and passing my degree 23 years later.

What are your special goals or dreams?

To make my Mum and Dad proud and to be happy and healthy and to have a good life with my wife and son.

How would you describe yourself or personality?

I am easygoing and warmhearted.

What brought you to Answers.com?

The desire to share knowledge and help others.

What keeps you coming back to Answers.com?

The fun of meeting and helping new friends from all over the world.

What is your favorite Answers.com activity?

I enjoy answering questions and discovering new things.

We love us some superheroes over on Answers.com. And our favorite of them all: ADHDSuperHero! Faster than a speeding vandal; more powerful than a spam bot; and able to leap over long words in a single bound…he’s freakin’ unstoppable! A Category Supervisor; a member of both WIT and Community Outreach; a Bronze Contributor; and surpassing 2,000 contributions! He IS the Contributor of Steel.

How did you originally hear about Answers.com?

I didn’t actually hear about Answers.com per se; more of finding it on the Web while answer hunting. I found quite a few sites like Answers.com on the Web while looking for some information on cells for my science class. The next thing I know I’m in the great big family that is known as WikiAnswers!

Please explain your user name.

My user name? Well first of all, my real name is Dalamar which has nothing to do with my user name! ADHDSuperHero was something that a very good friend of mine came up with about 3-4 years ago, knowing that I had ADHD. I first used it on a site called Gaiaonline. Ever since then, I have used it with just about everything because I thought “Wow, what a cool name! Much better than Dalamar!”

What motivates you to volunteer your time to the Answers.com community?

Well first off I’m a secret agent, so I have to have a background job to throw off all the countless villains after my head! I already make millions of bucks from my five-star hotel resort in the Bahamas! Then I said: “Self, volunteer for this place. They need you.” And myself said “FO SHO, why not!” And…BAM! Next thing I know I’m a Supervisor in the midst of blocking countless spammers! >>dramatic effect<< Your wish is my command! So in short I just like to help with a lot of stuff - even when that means helping complete strangers.

What are your areas of expertise?

My areas of expertise are a little spread out in a big mushy puddle of skill. (best way to put it) To sum things up, I will try anything. If I’m not good at it, I’ll practice. But the things that I get a lot of “Good jobs” on is in my artwork and artistic mind. I always drew as a kid (making me sound older than what I really am) on my school work, on the desk and on the wall (got in trouble for that one). And when I first started, I knew I was horrible. It just goes to show you though that practice makes better (yeah, not perfect).

What is your favorite Answers.com feature?

My favorite/favourite feature is just the community of people that are spread literally all over the world - Africa, Australia, UK, Mexico, you name it! Sure there’s going to be the little party pooper here and there but it’s not perfect, and that’s part of what I clean up!

What has been the funniest question you’ve seen or your funniest experience on Answers.com?

It was answered by Jadeacres and the question was “Who has the smallest cock in the world?” It made for a good read.

Share a random fact (or two) about yourself.

Random fact # uno- My name Dalamar comes from an evil wizard in a book series called “The Dragon Lance Series.”

Random fact # B (LOL) - The day that Iron Man came out in theatres I skipped school to go see it, but don’t tell anyone now! Okay, I went with my dad to see it, but that still counts as skipping! (I plan on skipping school when Iron Man 2 comes out, too! LOL)

If you’re going to be #2 - why not be #2 after… Facebook?

Answers.com’s WikiAnswers was rated the #2 fastest growing U.S. domain in 2009, right after Facebook. And, hey, that’s ok, since Answers.com recently implemented Facebook Connect as an option for signing in.

Here’s a little more from the official announcement:

“…according to comScore data… WikiAnswers’ unique monthly visitor count in the U.S. grew 74%^(*). This ranks WikiAnswers as the 2^nd fastest growing domain in 2009, second only to Facebook.com, of the top 50 U.S. domains in December 2008.”

Bob Rosenschein, Chairman and CEO of Answers.com, said this about the growth:

“The site’s unique self- reinforcing growth coupled with the efforts of the entire Answers.com team, have once again brought Answers.com to the culmination of a very successful year.”

So for the millions of Answers.com contributors out there - treat yourselves to some chocolate! Even the tiniest edits are building on the amazing, global, growing, collaborative Q&A project that is WikiAnswers.

You may have happened across Sophie200’s last contribution to the Poetry Cafe, Wait for me. It was so great we’re welcoming back Sophie for an encore.

When it comes to answering on Answers.com you’ll often find her in the Hamsters section. Sophie wishes she had an unusual hobby like trainspotting or skydiving but, alas, she does not. But don’t think that makes her easy to understand. She’s complicated to decode, just like the essence of her poems. One of her favorites is published below.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your WikiAnswers username!]

My Voice, by Sophie200

Flood in the light to block out the dark,
break down the walls that guard the heart.

Reveal the secrets to cover the lies,
identity drowning in the tears of my eyes.

Innocence gone at the flick of a switch,
To love or to hate - I can’t decide which.

Imagination glows fiery and alight,
Passion lives in me, gone is the night.

You make me laugh, you make me smile,
time spent with you, seems so worthwhile.

True love kicks the heart and tears at the soul,
Finally motivation, I’m left with a goal.

To live or to die is not a hard choice,
when happiness speaks out love is my only voice.

Shiny new answers. Perfectionistic edits. Categorization after categorization after categorization. Contributions are the pulse of our Q&A community. We record them, search them, filter them, revert them, reward for them and – sometimes – block for them.

There are dozens of ways to contribute on WikiAnswers, and until recently, they were all bundled together into one big contribution total, which looked like this box here.

(This is my stats box, by the way. And I like that number, 22,353. It’s not like Steven Keyman or HisPowr4U, but it’s still something to be proud of.)

What if you could see the breakdown of your contributions, and where you stand within the community in each grouping? Yeah, that’s what we thought, too. So the boys in the back room did some magic, and today we are rolling out a new contribution system that will let you shine in five new ways:

• Answers: first answers
• Edits: edits to questions, answers, alternates, related questions and related links
• Organization: categorization, flags, features, merges, splits, protects and more…
• Questions: questions asked
• Community: messages, discussion posts and bio page edits

Read on to find out where you’ll see the changes.

Bio pages: more transparency

Visit your bio page to see your current stats. Check out the new features:

• If you’re in this month’s top 100 for a specific contribution type, you’ll see a little starburst next to it. Click on the starburst to see the top 100 list.
• Hover over a contribution title (e.g., “Organization”) to see what type of action is included in that group.
• Click “Total” to see all of the user’s contributions.

Category pages: getting to the heart of matters

It takes a lot to keep a category clean, organized and full of good answers. And it takes a lot of curious people to fill it with the questions that keep our minds buzzing.

We now recognize all types of category contributions on a monthly basis, so whether you’re an intrepid new contributor rising through the ranks or a community leader watching from the sidelines hoping to recruit a supervisor, this page has it all.

Missing the forest for the trees? Click the Hall of Fame link to return to the sitewide leaderboards…

Check it out by visiting your favorite category homepage, or see Animal Life for an example.

Leaderboards: being #1 never looked so good

It seemed like a shame to upgrade the contribution system and then send it down the red carpet on the arm of an old leaderboard. A little like being presented at the Inaugural Ball in an Armani suit… and ratty Converse All-Stars from 1977. So we gave the leaderboards a makeover, and there are oh, so many sweet new ways to be #1. See for yourself:

• This month’s top 10s by action type and top 100 overall
• Statistical blasts from the past
• All-time top contributors by action type, by category and overall

Click the arrows to see the top 100.

You’re probably wondering…

• What will happen to my old contributions?
  Old contributions will not be affected. All of the points from old contributions have migrated to the new system. That’s how loyal they are. (Even if they’re wearing ratty old shoes. That’s how loyal we are.)
• What are Historical points?
  Historical points are a record of some very old contributions that didn’t fit into the new system (it was a bit like putting a video cassette into a DVD player). We didn’t want you to lose them, so we created a special category for them. The number won’t change. You can view it as a little contribution nest egg.
• Yesterday I was #1 in answers. Today I’m not even on the list. What happened?
  Monthly leaderboards start fresh on the 1st of every month. This gives all great contributors a chance to shine!
• What about the all-time leaderboards? I’ve been on WikiAnswers a long time.
  They’re still around. We gave them a makeover. Winter colors.
• Where are the new leaderboards? Take me there!
  This is the URL: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Special:Tops. Bookmark it, favorite it, share it with your friends. Hug it like you’ll never let it go.

Testimonials

“This feature ROCKS!” – Ganderton

“I want to cuddle it.” – Eliesheva

“It will make me want to answer more, and that’s a good thing.” – Kmac

“I don’t know how I lived without it before.” – Brave3

“That’s hawt.” – Anonymous

“Split contributions makes me want to be a cheerleader again! Go SCs!” – Crystal

“It looks so pretty and shiny that I could stare at it all day!” – Stupid Little Genius

“The engineers have surpassed themselves… Possibly the best feature I have seen with my time on site.” – Mike 2

“I’m so excited about split contribs that my OCD is going to go into hyperdrive!” – An8thg

What do you think of the new contributions system? Add your own testimonial in the comments section below!