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Alternates are so that there is one answer for a question, regardless of the wording of which it is asked with. For example, the question 'What color is the sky' can also be asked as 'What is the sky's color'. It's the same question meaning, but with different wording. With alternates, all the different wordings are collected into one group, and a primary wording is chosen that is the same as all of the questions and has correct spelling/grammar. Then, when another user asks the question, no matter what wording they use, they will always arrive at the same answer.
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Can more than two questions be merged on WikiAnswers?
Many more than two questions can be merged on WikiAnswers. If the same question can be asked in dozens of ways, they all end up as alternates.
Which is WikiAnswers in bigger need of - answers or alternates?
The alternates come in like avalanches. What we need most are well thought-out answers and some help organizing (moving questions to their appropriate categories and splitting out alternates that are attached to the wrong question). You can volunteer by contacting the supervisor of your favorite category or checking in on the WikiAnswers forum for more information.
What are the differences between the badges of a Premier Answerer and an Alternates Specialist?
A Premier Answerer are dedicated to reasearching and answering questions. Premier Answerers are often recomended by Site Supervisors for doing the before mentioned tasks. An Alternates Specialist is a Supervisor that is responsible for splitting and merging alternates of questions to increase the functionality of WikiAnswers.
What questions have no alternates?
Most new questions have no alternates. The status of a question changes frequently.
How can you earn more contributions on WikiAnswers?
There are a lot of ways to earn more contributions on WikiAnswers. To name a few: Flag questions Unflag questions Split alternates Edit questions Edit answers Answer questions Ask questions Add related links Remove related links Add related questions Re-categorize questions Discuss questions.
Are supervisors of WikiAnswers Super-poweful?
Yes, Supervisors have special powers on WikiAnswers that normal users do not have access to. Supervisor's "super-powers" include the ability to merge questions and set question alternates as the primary wording for questions. Supervisors also have the ability to block users who are making counterproductive edits to WikiAnswers.
When one question is merged into another on WikiAnswers what happens to the alternates of the existing question?
When merging a question with alternates into another question, the alternates of the merged question are merged into the alternates of the primary question.
Which question on WikiAnswers has the most alternates?
Through 2010, there were "Catch All Questions" that had tens of thousands of alternates. But these were broken up and now exist as categories instead.As alternates are just rephrasings or misspellings of the same question, the number of alternates will be higher where there are1) many ways to phrase the question,2) many synonyms for the words in a question, and/or3) many ways to misspell the words in a question.Anything more than a few dozen will usually mean some of the alternates are there by mistake.However, due to the large number of askers, games questions can accumulate many alternates. To see two examples of how spelling contributes to the growth of alternates, see the two "Poptropica" in the related questions below.
What can you do to get rid of the 'Edit Alternates' on WikiAnswers?
First, you don't want to get rid of the 'Edit Alternates' button on WikiAnswers. However, if you are asking how to get rid of the alternates of a questions that do not belong, simply click the check mark box (once you clicked the 'Edit Alternates' link) for all alternate wordings that do not apply to the main question, then go up to the top and select 'Split'. Do not remove any alternate wordings that are a reworded form of the main question or are basically asking the same thing as the question.
How many alternates can a question hold in total on WikiAnswers?
50,000 is about the maximum alternates any question can hold, we once had a few questions that we called catch all's, and any bad or inappropriate questions were added as an alternate to the primary catch all Q, we started to experience problems once a catch all held 50,000 alternates, so we have a new system of catch all's now. Regular questions are extremely unlikely to get such a large number of alternates asking exactly the same question so this should not present any problems on site.
What is an 'Alternates Specialist' on WikiAnswers?
An alternate specialist is a person who fixing the alternates getting rid of any alternates that are incorrect and obscene or inflamatory by doing this they get rid of vandalism and help out the sites functionality
When you're asking a question on WikiAnswers and click on one of the questions on the list why doesn't your former question add as an alternate to the question you choose anymore?
This was done to reduce the amount of alternates being incorrectly added to questions as well as reduce the amount of badly spelled or grammatically incorrect alternates. You can still add an alternate to a question by clicking 'edit alternates' and filling in the information to add an alternate found at the bottom of the page.
