Webuser review of Q&A Websites

[Iamcazzy]

I've just been reading a review of Q&A websites in the latest Webuser magazine. It seems that Webuser submitted three questions to the websites. The first question was: "If I import an ipad from the US, will it work in the UK?", The second question was: "How can I reduce the symptoms of a common cold" and the third question was: "Where is the cheapest place to buy music online in the UK?".
The top award for the best answer went to Yahoo Answers, with Answers.com in second place followed by Allexperts.
The "best of the rest" included Answerbag, The Answerbank, Askville and Picanswers.
However, according to Webuser, users of The Answerbank did not reply to any of the questions, which I find very hard to believe having been a user for some time.
Has anyone else seen this review and felt the negative bias to AB unjustified?

[237SJ]

No, and do we care?

[Iamcazzy]

I agree.

I've just done a quick search for the questions exactly as the magazine claim they were worded and I can find no trace of them on AB.

I can see no reason why the questions would not show when searched for on AB. Does this mean that Webuser never posted the questions on AB in the first place? It seems very suspicious to me.

[Iamcazzy]

Maybe the ed should ask Webuser to account for this anomaly.

[Aquariel]

I Googled the first question, and the solitary result returned was, inevitably, Webuser's own website!

Any cynical person might claim that they never actually did any proper 'research' at all...

[AlBags]

The just searched Google for Q&A websites and took the results in order, and just use that! : )

[supersuezy24]

I don't think the review on answerbank is in anyway accurate, Every Sunday I do the crosswords and post my problem clues on abank in quizzes&puzzles/crosswords and I always receive an answer, I cannot recall any of my questions ever been left unanswered.

[AlBags]

I agree ...
Fix. Answerbank just didn't pay them any money (or enough money)

[theprof]

I went out earlier to get a copy of Webuser to see for myself the review. To put it mildly, I'm absolutely appalled by the conclusions drawn by Webuser. The questions posed were far from being rocket science and I cannot believe that AB users felt that these very basic questions were beyond their scope to answer.
I'm deeply suspicious of the conclusions drawn by Webuser and I think that the ed should ask the magazine publishers to prove that they did not receive replies to the questions cited.

[ayabrea38]

The ammount of times I have asked a question on ask.co .uk and the answer has been from Answerbank,I think the people in question either
a)work for someone else.... or
b)did not look properly.
Maybe they where after word for word answers and not he broader frame of mind.
Tisk.....dont slate Answerbank.
Aya

[squarebear]

I just put ipad in the search and got two results, one was this question and the other was unrelated. I find it hard to believe these questions were actually posted.

[bibblebub]

on the other hand they did like "how and why do cats purr?"

[AB Editor]

Anyone got a link?

I may send them some follow-up information and see if they'll feature us.

All the best

Spare Ed

[AB Editor]

Okay, is it for this review conducted in 2006?

http://www.webuser.co...5679/1/the-answerbank

Spare Ed

[grasscarp]

We know they are lying. Sqad would have been on the common cold one like a shot!

[theprof]

No, Spare Ed, it's not the 2006 review. The review is published in Issue 241 which was published on 3rd June 2010.

I've searched high and low on the website to bring up the article but it's not available online, probably because they want the readers to buy the magazine. It's not all bad news though as the magazine is published every fortnight and it's still on the newstands now.

I do think you should contact Webuser to point out how we all feel about the unfairness of the article. Perhaps they would care to explain why no trace of the questions can be found on AB - the questions were worded within quotation marks so it's fair to assume they were posted and worded exactly as stated in the original question above.

[theprof]

This is the best I can find:

http://www.webuser.co...issue-241-3-june-2010

It's the "Q&A Websites" article.

[Gromit]

I have put the 3 questions into ABs search facility (which works well now) and non of the questions has been posted.

[dothawkes31]

can anyone find the questions on the other rated websites?

[bibblebub]

This is the page in the current edition of WebUser http://tinyurl.com/39b5csw

and the bit about AB is in the column on the right - this is that inset on it's own http://tinyurl.com/3xcyeeo

[bibblebub]

and for completeness this was the first of the 2 pages http://tinyurl.com/35qfprv