Last week I tested out Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers and Answerbag to see how active its communities are and whether I would receive any ‘real’ answers, i.e. not SPAM. I did receive a couple of rude remarks, but that aside, I am pleasantly surprised that I did receive responses from other users within a day or two and that it was valuable advice from other consumers.

Why am I surprised? I truly thought my question would be quickly buried in the thousands of questions posed, but evidently categorizing questions and answers works well for both those posting queries and those that help respond. I also thought I’d be barraged with SPAM, rude comments and merchants taking the opportunity to carry out a little guerrilla marketing. Again, I received two stupid comments, compared to three valuable ones. Not bad.

Answer posted on Yahoo! Answers

Answer posted on WikiAnswers

So, if you have any burning questions, try out the online Q&A communities. There are lots of people online willing to share their knowledge and experiences with you.