Is there a difference between supervising and being a WikiAnswers Contributor?

Answer 1

Yes, there is an interesting and subtle nuance here. In the way our WikiAnswers lingo has evolved, supervising a Topic means watching a topic section for spam and vandalism. It might also mean doing the basic editing of new questions, such as correcting extremely badly-worded questions (e.g. changing "XYZ am I pregnent please?" to "What are chances of being pregnant if XYZ?"). Wikianswers Supervisors play an extremely important role. They keep the farm from becoming a jungle. Wikianswers Contributors actually work on growing questions and answers. There are lots of ways to contribute to Wikianswers. It can simply mean asking and answering questions. More deeply, it can mean developing questions and answers into topics, e.g. by making personal questions and answers more generic or universal, moving questions to the right topics, adding alternate versions of questions, linking questions together, etc. The lines between these two functions aren't strict, of course. Most of us do both. The previous technical response is certainly proper. But another observed difference is: The occasional contributor of questions &/or answers is a well balanced, concerned individual. Those that get hooked and stalk the site, becoming frequent contributors are nuts, (sometimes crossing the line to crazy). Those that do all that and then doggedly work so it all makes sense, operates well...they are certifiable masochistic lunatics!