WikiAnswers
Encyclopedia
WikiAnswers is an ad-supported
wiki
-based website where users can submit and answer questions.This site allows users to post and edit questions and answers. WikiAnswers.com uses wiki technology and fundamentals, allowing communal ownership and editing of content. Each question has a "living" answer, which is edited and improved over time by the WikiAnswers.com community. WikiAnswers.com uses an Alternates System – where every answer can have dozens of different questions that "trigger" it. When a contributor asks a question similar to an existing one, the system connects the question to it as an "alternate". This prevents duplicate entries in an effort to promote more cohesive answers.
Created in 2002 by Chris Whitten as FAQ Farm, the site and all corresponding domains were acquired by Answers Corporation in November 2006 to become the user-generated content
(UGC) component of Answers.com
. Following the acquisition, the product was re-named WikiAnswers. As of August 2011, it had over 13 million answers; 7,000 categories; over 6.6 million contributors; and 1,061 volunteer supervisors. According to comScore
May 2010 data, Answers.com
sites, including WikiAnswers, had 45.4 million unique visitors in the US. WikiAnswers is a leading Q&A website on the Internet. As of August 2011, the web information company Alexa Internet
ranks WikiAnswers and its Answers.com sister sites as the 177th most popular on the Internet.
, most commonly acting as Contributors and Supervisors. Other classifications include Premier Answerers, Special Project Assistants, Mentors, Bug Catchers and those participating in special site-wide programs such as Vandal Patrol, Community Outreach, WikiReviewers, and WikiAnswers’ Influential Teens (WIT). All volunteers are able to contribute in various ways and personalize their user experience through profiles, watchlists, etc.
Contributors form the majority of the WikiAnswers.com community and engage in the site's primary activities: asking and answering questions, improving existing answers and collaborating with others. Each individual addition and edit that a person makes is called a 'contribution', which correlates to one’s total number of contributions and helps form the site’s Top Contributors lists. Participants can also give others “Trust Points” for demonstrating trustworthy and worthwhile contributions.
When a Contributor has reached a certain number of contributions or "Trust Points", or is deemed by Supervisors to have made a significant contribution to the website, they are eligible to receive special recognition awards in the form of profile badges (e.g. 5000 contributions is a Silver Level display emblem). Contributors also have an opportunity to reach additional milestones
for their ongoing participation. Special contributor levels include: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Double Platinum and Ruby.
(which includes WikiAnswers) does not claim ownership of contributions. By accepting the Terms of Use and participating on the site, contributors grant a very liberal and permissive license
to Answers.com
, which in turn sub-licenses the contributions under much less permissive terms to the user. The user is allowed to download the content for personal use only. In particular he or she is not allowed to modify and publish the content without permission from either Answers.com
or the copyright owner (the contributor). Individuals are allowed to cite from WikiAnswers in their own writings.
, transform discussion posts into answers and trash questions, amongst other advanced functions.
WikiAnswers.com currently has two types of volunteer Supervisor classifications: Category and Floating. Category Supervisors opt to look after one or more categories of interest. Often, those interested in a certain field or hobby will request to become a Category-specific Supervisor. Floating Supervisors have all of the same tools as Category Supervisors, without opting to look after a certain area of the site. This is a more open-ended way for those without a lot of time to get started.
As of January 2010, according to Quantcast
, a site that publishes traffic statistics, wiki.answers.com has:
On January 28, 2009, Answers Corporation announced that, according to analysis using comScore
data (comScore
, US Top 200 Web Domains Report, December 2007 vs. December 2008, ranked by % change), WikiAnswers.com's unique monthly visitor count in the U.S. grew 154%, to nearly 16.5 million. This ranks WikiAnswers.com as the fastest growing domain in 2008, of the top 200 in the U.S., as measured by unique monthly visitors.
Question Milestones:
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-based website where users can submit and answer questions.This site allows users to post and edit questions and answers. WikiAnswers.com uses wiki technology and fundamentals, allowing communal ownership and editing of content. Each question has a "living" answer, which is edited and improved over time by the WikiAnswers.com community. WikiAnswers.com uses an Alternates System – where every answer can have dozens of different questions that "trigger" it. When a contributor asks a question similar to an existing one, the system connects the question to it as an "alternate". This prevents duplicate entries in an effort to promote more cohesive answers.
Created in 2002 by Chris Whitten as FAQ Farm, the site and all corresponding domains were acquired by Answers Corporation in November 2006 to become the user-generated content
User-generated content
User generated content covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles...
(UGC) component of Answers.com
Answers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
. Following the acquisition, the product was re-named WikiAnswers. As of August 2011, it had over 13 million answers; 7,000 categories; over 6.6 million contributors; and 1,061 volunteer supervisors. According to comScore
ComScore
comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....
May 2010 data, Answers.com
Answers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
sites, including WikiAnswers, had 45.4 million unique visitors in the US. WikiAnswers is a leading Q&A website on the Internet. As of August 2011, the web information company Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and Web site. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Web site where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's Web traffic...
ranks WikiAnswers and its Answers.com sister sites as the 177th most popular on the Internet.
Community
The WikiAnswers.com Community is made up of various online volunteersVirtual volunteering
Virtual volunteering is a term describing a volunteer who completes tasks, in whole or in part, off-site from the organization being assisted, using the Internet and a home, school, telecenter or work computer or other Internet-connected device. Virtual volunteering is also known as online...
, most commonly acting as Contributors and Supervisors. Other classifications include Premier Answerers, Special Project Assistants, Mentors, Bug Catchers and those participating in special site-wide programs such as Vandal Patrol, Community Outreach, WikiReviewers, and WikiAnswers’ Influential Teens (WIT). All volunteers are able to contribute in various ways and personalize their user experience through profiles, watchlists, etc.
Contributors form the majority of the WikiAnswers.com community and engage in the site's primary activities: asking and answering questions, improving existing answers and collaborating with others. Each individual addition and edit that a person makes is called a 'contribution', which correlates to one’s total number of contributions and helps form the site’s Top Contributors lists. Participants can also give others “Trust Points” for demonstrating trustworthy and worthwhile contributions.
When a Contributor has reached a certain number of contributions or "Trust Points", or is deemed by Supervisors to have made a significant contribution to the website, they are eligible to receive special recognition awards in the form of profile badges (e.g. 5000 contributions is a Silver Level display emblem). Contributors also have an opportunity to reach additional milestones
Milestone (Project management)
Within the framework of project management, a milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level review meeting.In addition to signaling...
for their ongoing participation. Special contributor levels include: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Double Platinum and Ruby.
Copyright status
According to the Terms of Use, Answers.comAnswers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
(which includes WikiAnswers) does not claim ownership of contributions. By accepting the Terms of Use and participating on the site, contributors grant a very liberal and permissive license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
to Answers.com
Answers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
, which in turn sub-licenses the contributions under much less permissive terms to the user. The user is allowed to download the content for personal use only. In particular he or she is not allowed to modify and publish the content without permission from either Answers.com
Answers.com
Answers.com is an Internet-based knowledge exchange, which includes WikiAnswers, ReferenceAnswers, VideoAnswers, and five international language Q&A communities. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard...
or the copyright owner (the contributor). Individuals are allowed to cite from WikiAnswers in their own writings.
Site supervision
WikiAnswers.com's most active and trusted participants are invited to become volunteer Supervisors. These individuals are given additional tools, known as "Super Powers", enabling them to make higher-level edits. With these powers, they can merge duplicate questions together, feature questions on the home page, block vandalsVandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
, transform discussion posts into answers and trash questions, amongst other advanced functions.
WikiAnswers.com currently has two types of volunteer Supervisor classifications: Category and Floating. Category Supervisors opt to look after one or more categories of interest. Often, those interested in a certain field or hobby will request to become a Category-specific Supervisor. Floating Supervisors have all of the same tools as Category Supervisors, without opting to look after a certain area of the site. This is a more open-ended way for those without a lot of time to get started.
Special programs
WikiAnswers.com has a number of special programs designed to help and engage Contributors, Supervisors and other participants. The special programs include:- Mentoring Program: Matches up experienced site Supervisors (mentors) with newly promoted Supervisors (protégés) for support and guidance
- Vandal Patrol Program: Designed to combat vandal attacks, aid in the maintenance of question alternates and to improve the overall quality of the site
- Community Outreach: Heighten community awareness by welcoming and encouraging new Contributors, encouraging contributors who once contributed but are now out of action (MIA - Missing in action), etc.
- WikiAnswers’ Influential Teens (WIT): Exists to build the feeling of community among WikiAnswers’ teen Contributors by providing a safe online locale for teenagers to hang out and ask and answer questions
- WikiReviewers: Increases the quality of content that already exists on the site. This is done through coordinated editing and research.
Events and contests
- WAmmy Awards: The WAmmy Awards is an annual contest held to honor excellence in contributing to WikiAnswers.com. All contributors are eligible to win awards. Depending on the category, winners are determined through either voting by the WikiAnswers.com volunteer Supervisor community or raw contribution numbers.
- AnswerThons: On March 1–2, 2008 WikiAnswers.com held its first AnswerThon event. During the AnswerThon, registered Contributors answer as many questions as possible over 48 hours, sharing their knowledge and competing for prizes. A Charity AnswerThon was held on July 26–27, 2008 and a How-To AnswerThon was held November 8–10, 2008. The AnswerThon has since become a regular event.
WikiAnswers.com Scholarship Fund
On February 2, 2009 Answers Corporation announced the establishment of the WikiAnswers.com Scholarship Fund. The Scholarship, administered for Answers Corporation by The Center for Scholarship Administration, awarded twenty scholarships valued at $1,000 each to students planning to enroll in undergraduate college studies during the 2009–2010 academic year. The scholarship is being reopened in 2010. To qualify for the scholarship, students must answer fifty questions. These answers are then judged by an outside third party for quality and accuracy.Site statistics
WikiAnswers.com is currently ranked as the largest Q&A site on the web by comScore.As of January 2010, according to Quantcast
Quantcast
Quantcast is a California based company that provides publishers and marketers with the ability to understand, deliver and reach their best audiences at a massive scale...
, a site that publishes traffic statistics, wiki.answers.com has:
- 204,702,897 global page views per month
- 133,484,001 USUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
page views per month - 69,985,655 unique visitors per month (global)
- 41,080,367 unique visitors per month (US)
On January 28, 2009, Answers Corporation announced that, according to analysis using comScore
ComScore
comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....
data (comScore
ComScore
comScore is a Internet marketing research company providing marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses. comScore tracks all internet data on its surveyed computers in order to study online behavior....
, US Top 200 Web Domains Report, December 2007 vs. December 2008, ranked by % change), WikiAnswers.com's unique monthly visitor count in the U.S. grew 154%, to nearly 16.5 million. This ranks WikiAnswers.com as the fastest growing domain in 2008, of the top 200 in the U.S., as measured by unique monthly visitors.
Question Milestones:
- November 2006 – 280,000
- October 2007 - 1,000,000
- March 2008 - 2,000,000
- June 2008 – 3,000,000
- August 2008 - 4,000,000
- February 2009 - 9,000,000
See also
- AnswerbagAnswerbagAnswerbag is a collaborative online database of FAQs, where questions are asked and answered by users. Instead of the one question—one answer model, multiple answers to a given question are presented, in descending order of user ratings. As of December 2006, Answerbag was the second largest...
- AskaloAskaloAskalo is a social networking and user-generated local question-and-answer site. Askalo users can ask questions about any local topic and share answers tailored to their individual needs.- History :...
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- GirlsAskGuysGirlsAskGuysGirls Ask Guys.com is a Q&A website focusing on love, sex and relationships. The website offers its members tools to ask, answer questions, write articles, rate posts among others. The website was launched in June 2007 and has since been funded privately. Membership to GirlsAskGuys is free...
- Google AnswersGoogle AnswersGoogle Answers was an online knowledge market offered by Google that allowed users to post bounties for well researched answers to their queries. Asker-accepted answers cost $2 to $200. Google retained 25% of the researcher's reward and a 50 cent fee per question. In addition to the researcher's...
- HunchHunch (website)Hunch is a website, designed as a collective intelligence decision-making system that uses decision trees to make decisions based on users' interest. Hunch is building the 'taste graph' for the internet, mapping every person to every entity — and their affinity for that entity. The system asks...
- Knowledge SearchKnowledge SearchKnowledge Search service is an information-sharing tool launched in 2002 for Naver users. The tool allows users to ask just about any question, such as how to cook "ramen" or how to subscribe to international magazines via the Internet, and get answers from other users...
- Yahoo AnswersYahoo! AnswersYahoo! Answers is a community-driven question-and-answer site or a knowledge market launched by Yahoo! on June 28, 2005 that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users...