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Q&A has been around and growing for quite a while now - long enough that we’ve got some “Top Answerers” out there who’ve contributed a really inspiring number of answers to the system. It’s a bummer that we had to remove the Q&A profile section (for now! Still a work in progress, hoping to bring it back!!), because we - myself included - often fail to “see” and recognize and celebrate all the impressive work that’s being done by community members in Q&A every day. 

These folks are getting direct answers to people who are reaching out for specific help - and often doing it in a way that carries even further, providing help to the thousands of people who look at the same article page in the future. That is some pretty solid reach and impact - and so key for fulfilling our mission.

All kinds of people, logged in and not, contribute helpful answers to Q&A. But the folks who regularly contribute a lot of solid answers to good questions that don’t need a lot of cleaning up before they go live are identified by an algorithm and invited to become part of our “Top Answerer” program. Their subsequent answers are prioritized in the Q&A queue, and there’s a “Top Answerer” badge that displays in the Q&A section next to their name. When it comes down to it… these are a really dedicated bunch of folks making Q&A better for readers all the time.

That in mind, I wanted to take the chance to send a huge kudos to these wikiHowians for their monumental efforts in Q&A. The effort is all about quality over quantity, for sure, but given that these are all quality contributors, it’s hard not to say “Wowwww” at these numbers of quality answers that are live from each of these contributors:

@Donagan - 8182 answers live

@Irdanwen - 4144 answers live

@AbigailAbernathy - 2162 answers live

@KingQuails - 1088 answers live

@Midnight.makeup - 973 answers live

@LavenderMoon - 838 answers live

@WildRoseBeef - 806 answers live

@MissLunaRose - 676 answers live

@Caeiia - 609 answers live

@99sobi - 509 answers live

@MikiSunshine - 507 answers live

And while we’re at it - all the other folks who have become part of the Top Answerer program:  @Ninox , @HumanBeing , @PreuxFox , @Piratebunbun4 , @NY-Blossom , @GeekySonic , @Anousha , @T.-Chinsen , @Andrew-Serrano , @WF , @Brian-Salazar-Prince , @Upnorth-Here , @Byankno1 , @Danoyachtcapt , @GamerGirl139 , @Banana-Head , @Heather-Kenyon-Haff , @Galactic-Radiance , @Artemi7 , @Redstoneplankz , @Animebread , @Ellie-Field , @Mzm555 , @Dieyun-Ding , @Lugia2453 , @I-like-sushi , @Joseph_85 , @Pokechamp , @TomPN , @Cecilia.Flores , @Denneisk , @Rey-Starchaser , @I-Read-Books-About-Animals , @Eric , @Merlin77 , @Firey , @KommaH , @LeahlovesGod , @Logic-Johnson-Lafontaine , @Doggo , @Lily-Wolfe , @Batreeq , @Craftsmart , @Whimaway , @Blunderman , @Pearlbelle , @Midnight-Dreams , @Silphaer , @Dodo47 , @Buggylu25 , @Haley-Cope

All of our Top Answerers combined have contributed 28,765 answers to wikiHow. Again with my " wow":slight_smile:

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Almost 30k answers? That is indeed an amazing amount of people helped and reached. Personally, I am just happy to help, and I especially like those rare times when someone thanks me for my answer.

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Yeah @Irdanwen - but that’s only from Top Answerers specifically. It’s many many more across the board! 

I love seeing those Thank Yous on talk pages. I should probably do more answering myself so I might receive one, one day…!:stuck_out_tongue:

But it’s a really nice reminder of the real humans behind those questions. I’ll be honest, when our PM at the time, Alissa, pitched the idea of the talk page thanks for Q&A, I was really worried it would get used for lots of trolling. But she stuck to her guns against my initial pro/con humming and hawing, and I’m soooo glad she did. The feedback and thanks I see around from people who asked questions and got those answers is often so moving. People helping people… what we’re all about:smiley:

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Yay everyone!

So apparently my answers need some work:wink:

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@TheYoungWriter Haha not necessarily! There are lots of good folks answering questions all over the place on wikiHow, not just on this list. These folks have just gone above and beyond in answering questions in a way that requires only minimal review/change (for example, submitting answers that don’t require much copyediting, and flagging instead of answering questions that are off-topic or otherwise unhelpful - meaning very few of their answers are rejected). But hey, if being a Top Answerer is a goal of yours, keep an eye open for these names to check out their answers and get some inspiration:wink:

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ok, thanks

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Congratulations to all of the top answers! Thanks for your hard work.:slight_smile:

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^^^

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If the feature ever get’s added back, will the former q&a pairs be added back to the pages that were already there, or will they need to be re-answered? @Anna ?

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Wooowww. Kudos to the answerers. This is another huge milestone. Way to go wikiHow:slight_smile:

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I’m happy to get a mention here. I like answering questions and I like seeing how others answers questions. I’ve learnt from reading other people’s answers heaps. Keep up the good work all.

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@Byankno1 The Q&A pairs are all there on articles, and answering itself is working normally; it’s just the count/summary on user pages that are down - not the actual Q&A system:slight_smile:

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Oh. Okay…a box I don’t use. Sorry. Oops.

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No prob, @Byankno1 - I’d be super bummed if the whole thing were broken, for sure! Glad it’s just the box, and hopefully temporary:slight_smile:

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Thanks for the recognition, doing a quick peruse through some of my favourite articles to see what questions are there that need answering are a whole lot of fun, especially when I have the answer right at my finger-tips (from the inner files in the grey stuff between my ears mostly LOL) and it’s just an excuse out of my busy day to help someone out. 

Thanks!! 

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Awesome job wikiHowians! @Anna I’d love to be apart of it. How do you become a Top Answerer?

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@Ruah As mentioned, these participants are picked by an algorithm on the basis that they’re submitting lots of high quality answers to good questions that are ready for publication. The algorithm looks at how many answers of theirs are put live (without a need for the answer or question itself to be deleted) and how much copyediting is needed when the question is patrolled. So answer helpful questions with complete, authoritative but concise answers, on topics that you know a lot about - and do it with a conscientious approach to grammar, punctuation, and so on - and the algorithm will see that:slight_smile: @WildRoseBeef Hahah, from the grey matter files right to the page and to readers’ inboxes. What a great way to help - and if it’s fun, even better!

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@Anna -

 Oh, okay. I would love to become one!

Maybe I’ll work on my answers! I think if you are a TA you can become a Q&A patroller???

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@Ruah If you want to talk more about Q&A Patrol, feel free to ping me separately. Let’s keep this thread about Top Answerers and the ways they’re helping people:slight_smile:

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Okay!