Thing 34-Is this our competition

I think the appeal of online answer sites is multi-fold. Users can find quick (albeit not necessarily accurate) answers to questions without much effort. Others can share their supposed knowledge about many subjects (Think Cliff Claven here). The ability to feel a connection with others might be another reason some people hit these sites, based on some of the questions I've seen posted.

Questions I encountered ranged from how to tell if your car needed new spark plugs to what can I make if I have these ingredients to what is your take on the current administration.

Some questions I saw would be appropriately addressed at a library, but many seem to be more for the purpose of socialization. I believe that others use these sites because they either don't know of other resources or they are not comfortable or have a negative memory associated with libraries. The library (and librarians) they remember might not be as friendly ;-) as they might find were they to visit one today-or so I hope.

I think the Slam the Boards events sound like a wonderful idea. I might participate in the future.

I didn't answer any questions today, but I have in the past. They were gardening questions.