no stupid answers

Now, here’s one for the record books for most fun username: RockandRollPirate, a.k.a. Liz, has been a WikiAnswers contributor since January. You gotta love a contributor who claims their talents include learning, music, entertainment and… arguing.

She’s hanging around the site, looking to help people. Hmm, does it get any more WikiAnswers than that?

How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers?

I actually stumbled upon it when I typed in a question off of my study paper. I was doing research for a paper and just copied a question and a very similar one popped up from WikiAnswers. So… it was by the help of good ole Google!

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

Mainly to find tidbits of information. I love to learn new things, and I find that WikiAnswers is a great place for that. Also, I find there are a lot of questions and answers that need editing, so I try to help too!

What are your areas of expertise?

Um, mostly Ancient History (i.e. Egypt, Greece). Other than that, I think it would be the Jokes or the Harmless Nonsense.

What is your favorite WikiAnswers feature?

Oh, the option to fix spelling and grammar errors. They drive me insane and I am so glad that a site finally has the option to let people fix that! Also, the option to separate two joined questions and to recategorize them.

What is the funniest question/funniest experience on WikiAnswers?

I haven’t been there long… so that would be stumbling across a question that was asking about rainbow-coloured sandals, I believe, that was put under the category of ‘Photography’… Weird.

Share a random fact about yourself.

Oh, that’s a bit hard when I’m such a random person myself. Hah. Um, well to keep it simple, I’m an aspiring photographer. I love taking photos of nature, like flowers, landscapes, sky, etc. I’m aiming to become good enough to serve as a photographer for National Geographic.

But for now, I just post my pictures on my website. Hehe.

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

There are a lot of new categories on WikiAnswers lately: Exotic Pets, Canadian Football, Eli Whitney, Copernicus…

One new category on the block, Household Hints, has really caught my eye. Get a load of these questions!

Some creative cleaning issues:

• How can you remove the scent of a stinky person from a microfiber couch?
• How do you get shredded paper off a sweat jacket it was accidentally washed with?
• What is the best way to wash pillows in the washer?

Your basic household maintenance:

• How can you unclog a toilet with no plunger?
• What is the best way to stop a vinyl window from squeaking when it is being opened and closed?
• Can dog urine damage vinyl siding?
• What is the effect of light on the color of paint?

A green question:

• Why would your refrigerator be consuming more energy than usual?

And my favorite…

• What household item is lithium found in?

Take a crack at these questions – if you succeed, there will be some very grateful people out there.

Visit the What’s New page to see a running list of the newest WikiAnswers categories.

There are hundreds of Supervisors from all over the world… as evidenced by the Supervisors Global map!

Check out the live maps for North America and Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

And now, a word from Jim on the tradition that is the werewolf Bar Mitzvah:

I hear that Tracy Jordan’s “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” was actually based on a real person. Is there any truth to that?

Many people do not know this, but in the early 1960’s in Portland, Oregon, one of the twentieth century’s least reported yet most incredible events took place.

Thirteen-year-old Michael Brewer was preparing for his Bar-Mitzvah when he was attacked by a stray pack of wolves. Portland, in those days, was a town of mostly mill workers and was also rumored to be the site of a government project that helped develop the first semiconductors to power computers. This rumor is primarily due to the sign on the huge factory that said “US Govt. Property – We are making the first semiconductors to power computers here”. In those days wolves roamed free like the buffalo did in the plains states a hundred years prior.

Michael was able to fight off the wolves, but not without a few scratches. His parents reported that he recovered pretty quickly from the scratches and felt fine until a few weeks later. The first sign that things were not all well was when Michael began to stay awake only at night, especially during full moons, and sleep most of the day.

Soon, other indicators began to be noticeable on a daily basis. He was covered in fur, his eyes went yellow, and he would always talk about a random kid recently born named Michael J. Fox. Somehow Michael Brewer was able to predict decades before its production that Michael J. Fox would star in Teen Wolf. Some say that Teen Wolf is a loose interpretation on Michael Brewer’s early life story.

Despite the physical and genetic changes, Michael went ahead with his Bar-Mitzvah, did an excellent job, and for an unknown reason shortly thereafter lost his werewolf features. Today he lives in Philadelphia teaching third grade-level Sudoku.

The story slipped into the cracks of werewolf phenomena legend and it was almost entirely forgotten until Tracy Morgan visited Portland a few years ago. Apparently, after seeing an old newspaper clipping about the famed Bar-Mitzvah he wrote the sketch for his TV show 30 Rock which has achieved a cult following.

It’s kind of a minor hobby of mine to follow Jewish werewolf related stories. If anybody has heard of any other such instances please contact me.

~Jim

A word or two from the point of view of a proud Product Manager – yours truly.

On Friday, we wrapped up the 4-day Web 2.0 Expo in New York City. Denise (Graphic Designer), Suzanne (Community Coordinator) and I attended various sessions throughout the week, focusing mainly on community and UI design, but also listening in on the odd session about company and work flow organization.

I, for one, have this stuff coming out of my ears. I’m even dreaming about feeds, friending and unusual mobile devices. But we got a lot out of it.

We should be really proud of what we’ve accomplished with WikiAnswers. Our sandbox method and our tight involvement with the community impressed many people involved in startups and not-so-startups in similar adolescent stages. We’re doing so much right already that at some of the sessions, instead of asking questions, we were able to offer insight.

That said, there’s still a lot to do. It was interesting to hear how the leaders of other web-based community products have chosen to approach issues we deal with every day, like feature requests, the phase 1 rut, out-of-control discussion pages, slow release cycles, user ranking, and so on. We came away from the conference with some very specific takeaways, which I hope will make our sites even richer.

Finally, Dan – our lead Prod Ops guy – and I had the opportunity to show off Answers.com and WikiAnswers at our booth in the expo hall. There was a lot of positive interest, and people loved the reference/community package. And as always… they were astounded that these sites are free.

It was a great week, and one that put WikiAnswers into a lot of perspective for me. I look forward to putting our ideas into action!

And now for a different kind of amazing contributor: the Floating Supervisor. This creature is a wonderful mix of all-around and helpful – exactly what WikiAnswers often needs as everyday support.

One example of such a contributor is Callltb, a 26-year-old from Bangladesh who has been active on the site since March.

How did you originally hear about WikiAnswers?

Once upon a time I was browsing www.answers.com and from there I got the link to www.wikianswers.com.

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

I believe in sharing knowledge. I am that kind of human being who likes reading – mainly educational courses – and loves traveling. I believe in people  and in a short time, trust everyone and try to help anyone.

I am the type to feel sad when I see poverty. I feel bad when I see injustice.

Also, I always think: today is my last day of my life so try to do some special work which is useful for our next generation – though it may be a small contribution.

The best thing is that all the members of WikiAnswers have the same viewpoint. They also share their knowledge with other people, even if they don’t know them. So I felt interested to join this group as a volunteer.

One for all, all for one… that’s what I strongly believe.

What are your areas of expertise?

I never consider myself as an expert. I am just a lifetime student, because I still learn something new every day.

I like the computer programming language category the most. Here you could count me as a little expert. Also I’m interested in Internet Security and Privacy.

My dream project and goal are to work on OS and make a virus protected software which will be able to cover, clean and stop all kinds of viruses, because I face new viruses each day.

It’s just a dream… if GOD wishes my dream will comes true one day.

Note: If my WikiAnswers friends are with me it will be a great honor for me. They properly know how to share knowledge and help other members, plus friends.

What is your favorite WikiAnswers feature?

The Super’s Forum, my contributions, the @Wikianswers e-mail for Supers and overall, the whole WikiAnswers.

What does your username mean?

Is it not personal!? Ok, I share with all of my friends.

It’s a long story. I used LTB when my age was 18, because it’s the combination of my three brothers’ names (including mine). My best friends called me LTB. Especially Sumon, who is now studying in Sweden at Sun Microsystems.

Since 1999, when I wanted to open an email account, “ltb” was not accepted. Then one of my friends named Apu suggested to me to add “call” before “ltb”. When I did that, it was accepted! From that time I always use “callltb” as my cyber nickname.

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

Someone asked how can he download the www? It was one of the funniest questions I ever found

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