Answerbag

Answerbag 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 social Q&A site next to Yahoo! Answers. [ [http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/12/yahoo_answers_captures_96_of_q.html Hitwise Intelligence - LeeAnn Prescott - US: Yahoo! Answers Captures 96% of Q and A Market Share ] ] In a comparison with Yahoo! Answers and MSN Live QnA, Cnet declared that Answerbag was neck and neck with Yahoo! Answers. [ [http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6634568-1.html Dropping knowledge: question-and-answer sites - Internet ] ]

A user who has created an account can ask and answer questions, comment on answers, rate questions and answers, and suggest new categories. Users can rate both questions and answers by giving positive or negative points, from plus or minus 1 for beginners, to plus or minus 6 for very experienced users. Through their contributions to the site, users can "level up," and earn the right to give or take away more points from other users' questions and answers. Users can also accumulate points by flagging questions and answers 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. Users have profile pages where their points and submissions are reviewable by other users, and 'leaderboards' show current and all-time contributors in categories such as "Most questions asked" and "Most positive ratings received."

In late 2006, Answerbag received press attention by announcing that it would release a read/write API for their Q&A database. [ [http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/ Answerbag bets the farm on widgets and an API ] ]

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

Answerbag history

Although there is not a real document for the history of Answerbag ever since it creation in 2003, one of the oldest users has answered some questions by including certain parts of Answerbag 1.0 and 2.0

This user included two chapters (one of them being the Ratings War) in two separate questions, talking about the life in the first two versions of Answerbag and how it began to grow bigger in comparison to Yahoo! Answers. [http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/249540] [http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/349453]

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. [ [http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/02/13/answerbag-stuffs-answers-on-your-site Answerbag Stuffs Answers On Your Site | WebProNews ] ]

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. [ [http://www.answerbag.com/promo/hunt/index.php Answerbag Answer Hunt] ]

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. [http://www.answerbag.com/blog_com.php/102]

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.

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 BeginnerLevel 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 80-89 Swami
Level 90 Genius
-----------------------------------------Top ten contributors of the week.

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.

Project Answerbag

On December 2007, member Kyogre-Stataen presented a special document known as Project Answerbag. This document consisted of a complete series of descriptions of the structure of Answerbag, moderations, and points systems.

After a short time, several users have adopted these guidelines as the official structure of Answerbag. It is still uncertain whether Project Answerbag has officially been declared as the official document on Answerbag, since no official authority has been issued at this time. [ [http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/1919455 Would you like to read the completed version of 'Project ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.answerbag.com Answerbag]
* [http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/07/answerbag-bets-the-farm-on-widgets-and-an-api/ TechCrunch: Read/Write API Coverage]
* [http://www.socaltech.com/demand_media_buys_infosearch_media's_answerbag.com/s-0005623.html Socaltech.com: Demand Media Buys Answerbag.com]
* [http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6634568-1.html Cnet Review: Answerbag vs. Yahoo Answers and MSN Live QnA]
* [http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/12/yahoo_answers_captures_96_of_q.html Hitwise: Traffic comparison for Social Q&A Sites]
* [http://news.com.com/2110-1038_3-6085119.html Cnet: Answerbag offers video answers]
* [http://www.oreillynet.com/conferences/blog/2006/11/web_20_conference_live_qa_via.html O'Reilly: Web 2.0 Conference Live Q&A via Answerbag.com]
* [http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/17932/ MIT Tech Review: Social Q&A Roundup]
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/060221/0110501.html Press release: InfoSearch Acquired Answerbag.com]
* [http://www.socaltech.com/interview_with_joel_downs,_founder,_answerbag/s-0007273.html Socaltech.com: Interview with Joel Downs, Answerbag founder]
* [http://www.answerbag.com/docs/xmlschema API Documentation]