What Is AnswerBank?

[AB Editor]

Dear All,

We at AB Towers have recently been wondering how we can make the site better for you all. We thought one of the best ways to start this would be to open a debate about what you believe The AnswerBank is. Is it a Is it a place to get answers? A Place to Ask Questions? local village pub? A support group? A place to check you did "the right thing,"? or maybe somewhere to put the world to rights?

What do you consider the main purpose of The Answerbank?

How do you use The Answerbank?

Any theories are welcome! Throw your ideas into The AnswerBank Blender (Is it a blender or a pestel and mortar?) and we'll see what the answer is!

All the best,

Spare Ed

[ainitatyb]

Hi Ed

The end of my last post seems to have been cut, it is meant to say

All in all, even if you didn't change the site, I would still come to it as it is so useful

[A.Guest]

Hi again

So we have an AB Edior who allows Spare Editor to use his personal User ID, and we have a Spare Editor who calls himself (quote) because I am the Editor (end quote) and now weare getting as Tehnical Editor for weekends.

Seems there is a lot of 'head hitting' going on at AB Towers. And of course, the Techies are forever head banging. Quite a party going on eh?

[jno]

If the techies are at a loose end could they please notice that text is starting to run off the right hand side of some pages again

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Question817661.html

This happened when AB2.0 was launched; it was sorted out but has started to appear again. A good example of why you should take care of one problem at a time and do it properly rather than crashing the universe by doing everything at once, I would have though).

I'm using Firefox, if it makes any difference.

[Gromit]

Most of the categories are straight forward, ask a question, get a reply. This is very useful for passing on knowledge and solving problems.

A couple of sections are more debate and opinions rather than delivering definitive answers. Chatterbank is anyhting, serious and trivial. The news where I hang out thinks it is more high brow (though frequently isn't) and is a bit more serious.

A cull of under-used categories would be welcomed.

[AB Editor]

The Techies are not at at loose end! they have millions of things to do and one of them is to fix the text going AWOL.

A.Guest - The Big Ed is on sabbatical for the foreseeable future, he had gone kite-flying in Greenland, the wind is supposed to be good this time of year.

what do you mean "head-hitting" ? This is a phrase I am unaware of. The Techies are not "head-banging," they are actually quite quietly working their way through a list of issues. The problem for all of you is they cannot see what they're fixing "under the hood."

Gromit, I think we might grant some categories a foster home if they are not often used - although we may have to cull a few topics.

All the best,

Spare Ed

[ummmm]

Right...housework. Ginger is on his way home....!!

[AB Editor]

And ainitatyb, thanks for your feedback - I am glad you've found AB helpful, it is what we're here for!

Anyone who is interested: You can now be our friend on Facebook, just search for AnswerBank and you should find us - we're not sure what to do with it yet but it might be fun!

All the best,

Spare Ed

[LoftyLottie]

Ed. I don't want to Twitter or to go on Facebook. Why are you trying to encourage us? Is the something lucrative in it for AB?

[AB Editor]

Have Fun Umm!

Spare Ed

[cazzz1975]

hi Ed I have just sent a request !

I like the site as it is, maybe more allowance on debate without pulling users so quickly and changeable avatars would be good.

[B00]

I've sent a reqquest too :-)

I like the site as it is now, good job well done , though I would like to see the return of the avatars, oooo and what about the coloured font we used to have?

And why do I come here? Errr, it beats CBeebies.

[AB Editor]

B00 - if this was a DVD that would be quoted on the cover.

Spare Ed

[A.Guest]

Spare Ed.

Head hitting . . . .a play on a word - 'editing'.

Oh well, techies seem to be pixelating away . . . just imagine them like the seven dwarfs .. 'Hey Ho, Hey Ho, it's off to work we go'!

[ummmm]

I've sent a request too....

Ed...can you join my family in Mafia Wars? We can throw coffee in peoples faces and jab them with used syringes..!!

[AB Editor]

Thanks for your requests by the way! Much appreciated, I am glad I wasn't left on my lonesome!

Spare Ed

[AB Editor]

Ah, I missed a pun, I am certainly not on form!

'headiting, head hitting - yes, I follow now!

They use, wait for it... pixel-axes? You know, like pick-axes? Okay, I will get by coat...

All the best,

Spare Ed

[mallam]

Dear Acting Ed (if I may so paraphrase your clarification that you are indeed of the Spare persuasion),

My impression is that there is a considerable preponderance of ABers for whom forum-juggling is one thing they do NOT want you to do. And culling (except of CB) would strike at the heart of what this site is for. I often search key bits of text on the site for previous answers (NOT with your site search, which as far as I can see only searches titles). They are an extremely valuable resource and they ARE just about searchable, though even the Recent Qs tab is hopeless for resurrecting any of the threads involved beyond the hyperactive attention span of the software.

The forum list aint broke, but could do with one fix: the subsections should not have to be accessed in two snail hops, but should be accessible from pulldowns as on any sensible site. And do even you know on what principle we are supposed to post to them rather than the main sections? I cannot descry any rhyme or reason in the way things are listed under the headings and subheadings even when people dont blindly post at random. And I dont think as many people do that as the software makes it appear: I have become convinced that it makes mercurial decisions of its own, as well as being more prone to human error on the part of the poster than most systems. Certainly in my brain-fagging blunderings around the jumble of tabs on My Profile I have found that the links in the different tabs claim that one post is in several different places! They seem on the whole to link to the actual post, but the scrambling of the link locations in their Properties does not augur well.

[ainitatyb]

I have been following the thread of these answers and would agree with some of the points, better search facilities would be useful and a cleaning out of some of the categories. Also, is there the means to contact contributors directly? I have sometimes seen answers to subjects where I would have liked to make contact with the writer but unless they are following the thread of a specific question themselves they don't always pick up the request for further contact.

[ainitatyb]

I think that the employer is being fair (although unsympathetic). You are after all being employed to work, not to be at home and leave in such circumstances should be classified as holiday or leave without pay. Any employer however should be realistic enough to accept that you have special circumstances when you have children involved. I remember one six month period when my three were young, when I seemed to live in the casualty dept of our local hospital, we were always in and out with the knocks and bumps children get subjected to. It was a standing joke at my place of work, but my employer accepted that I could be flexible enough to cover the situation in other ways.Had I taken a significant time off however I would not have considered it to be compassionate leave. It would have to be holiday or without pay