Answerbag

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Image:Answerbaglogo.png
Answerbag site logo

Answerbag is a collaborative online database of FAQs, where questions are asked and answered by users. As of December 2006, Answerbag was the second largest social Q&A site next to Yahoo! Answers [1] In a comparison with Yahoo! Answers and MSN Live QnA, Cnet declared that Answerbag was neck and neck with Yahoo! Answers.[2]

A user who has created an account can ask and answer questions, and suggest new categories. Answers are rated by users as "helpful" or "not helpful". The "helpful" rating will give the answer or question points. The "not helpful" rating will take away points. Users will "level up", achieving levels with a certain amount of points. Users can flag questions as "Wrong Category", "Nonsense", "Spam/Offensive", and "Duplicate". Flagged questions/answers are reviewed by moderators, and if they agree with the flag, they will give the user who flagged the question/answer 5 points and may then be deleted or changed by the moderators. Answers may be commented on. Conversely, when a member consistently submits accurate and well-written replies, others can award "useful" ratings to those answers and increase that user's visibility in a positive manner. Total number of rated answers appear on profiles pages; and on the statistics pages, where members' statistics are shown and compared. Examples include, "Most questions asked" or "Most positive ratings received".

Many questions receive multiple answers. The answers with more ratings appear above those lower in ratings, giving the reader a better way to distinguish good from bad.

In late 2006, Answerbag received press attention by announcing that it would release a read/write API for their Q&A database.[3]

Answerbag was founded in July 2003, by Joel Downs and acquired in early 2006 by Infosearch. However, on October 3, 2006, Answerbag announced it would join with Demand Media.

Contents

[edit] Answerbag API

Answerbag released the first Social Q&A API in February 2007, allowing other sites to read Q&A and contribute new Q&A from their users into the shared Answerbag database.[4]

[edit] Contests

Starting on April 3 and ending on April 30, 2006, the "Answerbag Answer Hunt" took place. The object of the game was to answer all the questions it posted. The user's answers were rated by others, and they had to submit 10 answers to be eligible. The grand prize was $2000 won by Davoomac1 with a total of 214 answers and 169 ratings.[5]

When Answerbag introduced the concept of VideoAnswers in June 2006, the site launched another contest (the Video Answerbash) in order to motivate its members to start using this new tool. There were several daily and weekly prizes, and a grand prize of $5,000. [6]

[edit] Community leaders

On August 1 2007 Answerbag publicly announced the creation of community leader roles, who are chosen by site staff to help moderate the site and manage content.

[edit] Levels and ranks

Answerbag recognizes the most prolific members by awarding them points and medals, along with ranks. When a user receives points, the user levels up, but it takes more points for the user to level up the next time. The levels are as follows in order.

Level 1-2 Beginner
Level 3-4 Novice
Level 5-9 Contributor
Level 10-14 Wiz
Level 15-19 Authority
Level 20-29 Expert
Level 30-39 Professor
Level 40-49 Brain
Level 50-59 Sage
Level 60-69 Maestro
Level 70-79 Guru
Level 80 Swami

As a user also receives points, as it adds together, the user may also qualify in the ranking system, ranking from 1-1000. The more points a user receives, the higher rank they will be.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/12/yahoo_answers_captures_96_of_q.html
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ Answerbag Answer Hunt
  6. ^ [4]

[edit] External links

  • Answerbag[5]
  • TechCrunch: Read/Write API Coverage[6]
  • Socaltech.com: Demand Media Buys Answerbag.com[7]
  • Cnet Review: Answerbag vs. Yahoo Answers and MSN Live QnA[8]
  • Hitwise: Traffic comparison for Social Q&A Sites[9]
  • Cnet: Answerbag offers video answers[10]
  • O'Reilly: Web 2.0 Conference Live Q&A via Answerbag.com[11]
  • MIT Tech Review: Social Q&A Roundup[12]
  • Press release: InfoSearch Acquired Answerbag.com[13]
  • Socaltech.com: Interview with Joel Downs, Answerbag founder[14]
  • API Documentation[15]
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