Announcing: New and improved fan badges!

Posted on May 1, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

Could your Answers.com profile use some sprucing? Do you want to share your Answers pride elsewhere on the interwebs? Then you gotta check out our newly designed, fresh off the presses, fan badges! Our graphic designer, Denise, has outdone herself again. Sleek shapes, bright colors, quirky characters — it might be impossible to pick just one!

Grab the code for your favorite badge here. Then go ahead, don’t be shy. Stick them on your profile page, stick them on your blog, stick them on your best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s dog!

The code for the badges is set up to link to the Answers.com homepage. But should you want to drive traffic to those amazing answers of yours, you can link directly to your profile page from the badge. Find out how here. You wouldn’t want all your wiki work to go unnoticed now, would you?

Need help adding images to your profile page? Check out the answer to How do you add photos or images to your Answers.com profile? for step-by-step instructions. Here are a few of the new designs. Click on over to our fan badge page to see (and collect!) all seven.

All your Royal Wedding questions answered.

Posted on April 26, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

Are you as excited as we are for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton? Judging on the number of questions we’re getting about the big event, we think you are. In case the coverage of thousands (yes, thousands!) of journalists who have descended on London for the nuptials doesn’t satisfy your appetite, you can always turn to Answers.com for more. We’ve set up a new category for all your burning questions about royal weddings, past and present. Check out the new Royal Weddings category here.

There you’ll find queries such as:

What TV channels will broadcast the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton?

Where can you watch the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton online?

What will Kate Middleton’s royal title be after she marries Prince William?

Who has been announced as Prince William’s ‘Best Man’ for the Royal Wedding?

Who is the flower girl at the Royal Wedding?

Q&A not enough? Check out the royal wedding coverage on Video Answers.

Here’s a look back at the 10-year romance of Prince William and Kate Middleton:

http://embed.5min.com/517004624/
Look Back at Prince William and Kate Middletons 10

Flagging down those bad answers.

Posted on April 19, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

With a community of more than six million contributors, bad answers are bound to happen. One way to combat the crud is to flag a question for improvement. When you flag a question it not only alerts casual users that an answer might be sub-par, it also helps other community members focus their editing energy on the questions and answers that need it the most.

Flagging is a feature that’s been around for awhile, but have you noticed the new design that went live last week? It’s much more streamlined and clean, thanks to our wizard designer, Denise. The new flag is placed just below the question bar and no longer clutters the answer box. Take a look:

So who can flag questions? Well, you, for one! Supervisors also love to wave the flag when they see questionable content. And then there’s our workhorse, Dingobot. Dingobot is a bot created by our team of engineers that automatically flags questions for gibberish, plagiarism and other low quality answers. Here’s a question Dingobot recently flagged. Such a smart bot, isn’t he?

To find a list of recently flagged questions to improve, click Flagged Questions under Site Tools. You can also browse by category and see flagged questions in a particular topic area.

It’s a quick way to boost those contribution points. And remember, every flag you raise (or drop) helps us clean our ever-growing database of 11 million answers. We can’t do it without you!

Need more guidance? Check out this tutorial on flagged questions for more information.

Reaching for Ruby: Quantity and Quality

Posted on April 13, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

As of this week, 10 Answers.com contributors have reached Ruby status tallying up half a million contribution points or more! Contribution points include answering, editing, organizing and messaging. Learn where to find your number of points here.

Dfoofnik is our newest contributor to reach Ruby. To those budding contributors who want to reach the top, he says, “If you are consistently in the top 20 or 30 each month, that 500,000 will arrive before you know it. I remember how hard it seemed to go from Silver to Gold!”

So who else in the community has this shiny red gem on their profile? Here’s the list, as of April 12, 2011. Congratulations to our prolific rubies!

The latest Q&A categories for your asking, answering pleasure.

Posted on April 7, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

A Q&A category doesn’t have to exist on Answers.com for you to ask a question about it! That’s why this is a site where you can ask about… anything.

But it sure does help keep the Q&As organized, doesn’t it? The team behind the scenes is constantly adding new categories to make it easier to find questions in your favorite topics. We’re up to nearly 8,000 cats (that’s a lot of mewing).

Here is a sampling of the latest Q&A categories on Answers.com… which, in themselves, fall under all kinds of categories!

TV, for all tastes:

Celebrities, now and then:

Hobbies, crafts and interests:

Edibles (or just barely):

And for the purely practical among us, who just need to get it done:

International Shipping

Check out the full list of Q&A categories and suggest one you don’t see!

Getting Answers.com pinned down in IE9.

Posted on March 31, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

Have you tried IE9 yet? The new version of the Microsoft browser is available to Windows Vista and Windows 7 users, and if you have the opportunity to try it – and its new Pinned Sites and Jump Lists features – you also have the option of accessing Answers.com in a different way!

Pinned Sites are those sites you choose to ‘pin’ or link from the Windows task bar. Open IE9 and go to Answers.com. Then drag the Answers.com icon from URL in the browser (or from the browser tab) onto the task bar at the bottom of the screen. The blue ‘A’ icon will appear, and that will be your direct route to Answers.com from Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Customize further: Right-click the A icon and choose from your favorite pages within Answers.com to show in the Jump List. That way, you can go straight to any page you find valuable, whether it’s your profile, Watchlist, settings, Today’s Highlights, and more.

Tried the feature? Let us know what you think!

Heal what ails you: whether with words or medicine.

Posted on March 29, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

I’m delighted to announce two more licensed titles added to Answers.com’s reference collection. Which one speaks to you more?

Modern English Usage, the classic authority on grammar and style.

Should you use a split infinitive, or a preposition at the end of a sentence? Is it infer or imply? Who or whom? What are the main differences between British and American English? Here are clear recommendations on issues of grammar, pronunciation, spelling, confusable words, and written style. Includes examples drawn from classic and contemporary literary sources, newspapers and magazines, and the internet.

An A-Z of Medicinal Drugs, a reference source for the wide range of medicines available today.

This dictionary covers over-the-counter, pharmacy, and prescription medicines, listing side effects and interactions with other medicines; there are entries on conditions and the medicines used to treat them. See juniper berry oil, quinine, or abacavir.

Happy reading!

Final call for Answers.com Scholarship applications!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

Today is the last day to apply for the $20,000 Answers.com Scholarship, for students planning to be enrolled in an undergraduate university program next year.

After you sign in on Answers.com (registration is quick and free), choose any 50 questions to answer (or create your own) and submit the answers using the application form which you can find here.

If you have any questions, email scholarship @ answers.com or review the rules on the scholarship page.

One last time: good luck! See you when we announce the winners.

Reminder: Scholarship application deadline is next Monday!

Posted on March 22, 2011 by nostupidwikianswers

Hey, students!

Well, specifically university undergrads studying next year in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Australia and New Zealand: You’ve still got until this coming Monday to submit your 50 answers to apply for the 2011 Answers.com Scholarship. That’s March 28th, the deadline for applications.

Thirteen scholarships will be awarded - one $5,000 scholarship, two $2,500 scholarships, and ten scholarships valued at $1,000 each.

The 50 answers can be in any category on Answers.com. So why not kill two birds and answer questions in your major? Otherwise, stick with your hobbies, favorite literature, or any other topic you can give quality answers in.

Learn more about how to apply for the scholarship here.

The clock is ticking!

No Stupid Answers

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