The Early Days

[surreyman]

Do any of you guys know when The Answerbank started and what was the first question asked. I have been a contributor (not as prolific as many of you) since August 2004 and i wondered how late i was to the party ?

[barry1010]

AB started in 2000 and the first poster was Andy Hughes. Not sure what his question was

[Buenchico]

The first question was posted on 1st December 2000. It was this one:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Arts-and-Literature/Question1.html

[emmie]

started in 2000 i believe because last Christmas was their 20th anniversary.

[elliemay1]

Buenchico, I wonder why all those qns were deleted??

[aelmpvw]

deary me, six removed answers from the first question . . .

[barry1010]

Oh! I was wrong about andy-hughes. Wonder why I thought that?

[Buenchico]

Andy Hughes was, indeed, one of the people who piloted The Answerbank into existence but, as my link shows, he didn't post the first question. However many questions and answers in the early days of any site like this one will be posted by members of the editorial team, or those close to them, just to make the site appear active (rather than because anyone actually wants to know anything). Nobody's going to post on a site that doesn't appear to have any members!

[emmie]

perhaps they were littered with spam, same now...

[elliemay1]

^ I meant why were the answers removed!

[Buenchico]

The removed posts might have appeared several years after the question first was and possibly came from people who've since been banned (resulting in the removal of their posts from the site). Two people in particular spent several years, under various usernames, posting foul rubbish all over the site.

[emmie]

i didn't join till 2011 so don't remember the early years...

[Etch]

Ah, but when was the first 'real' question? The first 100-odd questions were all asked by ATOB2 on Fri 01st Dec 2000 (quite some going), so I've always assumed they were simply to populate the site and get things started.

[catswhiskas]

I joined 28th Feb 2005, I might not post very often ,but look at the site everyday, wow 16yrs

[Buenchico]

The first question not to be posted by ATOB2 was this one on 6th December 2000:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Travel/Question111.html

This was later the same day:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Culture/People-and-Places/Question114.html

News about the new site was then clearly spreading quickly because God posted the following morning ;-)
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Media-and-TV/Question115.html

[Etch]

Here are andy-hughes's replies answering similar questions back in 2006:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Question290876.html#answer-1300469
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Body-and-Soul/Question293330-3.html#answer-1312305

[douglas9401]

Was all this before or after the theatre fire episode?

Asking for an old flame.

[andy-hughes]

douglas - // Was all this before or after the theatre fire episode?

Asking for an old flame. //

Let me hold my sides, they may split!!!!!

[douglas9401]

Oi oi, stalker alert. X