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Q: I noticed that most of the people who have colums have breif descriptions of themselves, so the person can make a decision on who they want to choose to answer their question. How do I do this? I haven't been able to figure this out by myself. Thanks

Ah yes... that's on the Edit Settings page, there's spots for all kinds of stuff on your column.

Q: Hey. I love your site but I've noticed not many people are on it and there are only a handful of people asking and answering questions. Can you get more advertised?

It's true that we're not really a huge site, but we aren't like a company with a huge ad budget or anything, there's really only one person funding it.

We've purchased some ads on google and two other websites, but like all things on the internet, it's going to take some time to really get going. If you can link to us or get anyone to link to us, it's very appreciated!

Q: I realise that there is probably no way of doing this bar having moderators, but I fail to see why some people cannot post their questions in the right category. For example, there was a question on nettiquet in the 'cars' secton. I just thought I would bring this to your attention.

I agree with you, but unless we moderate every question it's just going to happen. Gotta hope we can somehow attract smarter people to the site, that's my view of it all.

Q: ok this site keeps deleting my message all I asked was if mean peopls suck do nice people blow? its a simples question but it get deleted but people can ask gross stuff and the message wont get deleted.
can you please answer boh of my questions please

We delete questions when we don't think the person is asking for advice they need.

Q: A new layout for this place...maybe just one or two colors? (Blue, yellow, red, orange...complementary and supplementary perhaps? They go best together). But I like the Spacefem layout with the solid colors.

The blue, yellow, and green are dull-ish and remind me of a swamp. Maybe something a little more...upbeat? No...vibrant? Bright? Yeah, bright. There ya go.

And do you already have a Make-Up category (for girls or guys), on how to apply such things, perhaps?

Hope ya take them into consideration. (This IS spacefem, right?)

d'oh... it used to be all yellow, and I changed it because it was too bright and the interface didn't look professional. Will consider alternate themes though.

as for makeup... there's a "fashion and styles" category, it could kinda fit into that, but I'll consider adding a new one.

Q: I'm a registered columnist-tommytony who has forgotten my login particulars. Help

The lost password page is here:

http://www.advicenators.com/lostpw.php

Q: Dear Advicenators,
I am wondering. I am finished using my account here, because I can no longer keep up with my advice column. How can I close down my account, so that noone ever send me questions again? Thank you for your help!

That is an interesting question. I guess I'd just put down in your profile information that you're not answering questions, then turn off all e-mail notifications so you won't hear if anyone does ask you anything. there's no way to just turn off your account... i didn't think it'd be a real popular option so I didn't put one in, know what I mean?

Q: Okay so latley Ive sorta been looking through other peoples columns and Ive noticed that some people are under age.So I remember that on the register form it said that you must be 13 or older and Im finding 11 and 12 year olds answering questions!Whats the deal?Is there something thAT you should do?

~~kinna cirious~~

I don't have time to go policing everyone's column... yes it's our policy that you have to be at least 13 but if people lie on the registration forms, we can't do much about that. I'm not going to start freezing accounts over it or anything.

I don't personally have a problem with kids giving advice; the policy is in place because there are federal laws prohibiting us from collecting any information from children without parental consent. If they stay quiet about it there's nothing we can do.

Q: ok, i wuz just wondering...is cussing against your terms and conditions and stuff, will i get kicked out if i cuss? sorry, just sum of these ppl send me the stupidest and meanest questions i feel like cussing a few of them off. but i'm not gonna risk getting like thrown out of advicenators. ok. ya.

You can be suspended for being vulgar and innappropriate, but not just for cussing. We don't believe in censorship. As long as you're not making every other word a vulgar one you're probably fine... we'll warn you if you're stepping over the line.

Q: Hi Guys!

GREAT SITE! And from what I can tell, a VERY POPULAR ONE AT THAT.

My name is Shelley, a.k.a.(SAMANTHA). I just joined as a a columnist, and in answering questions over the last couple of days I realized that this site could be EVEN MORE beneficial to people and thus MUCH MORE POPULAR with just a few changes, and I wonder if you might humor for just a minute and allow me to share them with you.

Since signing up, I've answered quite a few RANDOM questions, just to get me started, and in doing so, I realized that there is simply NO ORGANIZATION when it comes to how the questions are asked or who they are answered by, and that in and of itself, over time, could have some DISASTEROUS consequences.

Specifically, it is my sincere feeling, that in order for this site to be TRULY helpful to both the users who ask the questions and the advisors who answer them, users and advisors need to be divided up into AGE SPECIFIC categories. What I mean by this, is that you don't necessarily want a TWELVE year old answering a question that was submitted by a FORTY year old, and likewise, you don't necessarily want a FORTY year old to answer a question that might otherwise be more appropriately answered by SIXTEEN year old.

Allowing ANYONE at all to answer ANY question at all is not only CHAOTIC, but FUTILE, and in some instances, it may even PROVE TO BE DANGEROUS.

Therefore, I think that EVERYONE might benefit from a feature that allows both the user and the advisor to CHOOSE an AGE SPECIFIC question or advisor. For instance, I might be a TWELVE year old who is having a FASHION dilemma, and therefore, I think that I would best benefit from getting an answer from ANOTHER TWELVE YEAR OLD, OR SOMEONE AT LEAST CLOSE TO MY AGE. Conversely, I might be a SUICIDAL TWENTY YEAR OLD, who would most likely benefit GREATLY by getting an answer from an ADULT.

You see, the BIG factor here, is that when advisors answer questions, their answers are posted, but their ages are not. And depending on whether or not I choose take the time to find out that the person who told me I was A LOSER for thinking about suicide was only THIRTEEN YEARS OLD, I could be found the next morning with a bullet in my head. You get my point?

Therefore, you could solve this in ONE of TWO ways. Either you add a feature that allows the questioner to choose from what age group he would like to get answers from, OR you could simply sub-categorize your categories to meet specific age groups, and specify that they will be answered by people of that same age, UNLESS they choose to have it answered by someone in a different age group. Such as: RELATIONSHIPS-LOVE LIFE-AGES 16-21, and so on. But either way, HOW OLD the advisor is that answers the question should be left up to the person asking the question. This ensures the user that his or her question will be answered in the way that is most appropriate for them, and ADULT advisors won't necessarily have to spend all their time answering questions about silly crushes from grade school children. Do you understand?

How you do it is best left up to you, but I really think it would be best if you did in fact do it, and the sooner the better, because although I realize that you have a disclaimer that states that your advisors are NOT LICENSED PROFESSIONAL, you still have a level of responsibility and liability to your users, and therefore you're better off safe than sorry.

As well, if you make this one small change, I believe that you find that your site will be MUCH more effective and productive, and that can only mean more satisfied visitors in the long run.

As always, your time and consideration is greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Shelley

You certainly do write a lot, Shelly.

I still just don't understand why everyone is so hung up on age. I mean, who says a 13 year old can't give advice to a 40 year old? Have you ever talked to a 40 year old? They don't know everything. I think there are some smart, mature columnists on this site who can have real insight into everyone's problems, even if they're older. That's why I'm not dividing questions up into age groups.

Yes, sometimes you ask a question and want an adult answer and there are a great many non-adults on this website, so it's kind of hard. But I don't think it's damaging to get opinions you might not have counted on. We'll work on recruiting more adults if you all work on giving everyone good advice. Maybe I'll add a tidbit to the "question asking" page asking people to please state their ages, would that help?

Q: i think you should have a catagory called teen advice.. so that all the random questions teens ask can be put into there

Interesting idea but I think there are too many categories already, and teens aren't really that different from normal people.

Q: I was thinking a bit about the issues I run across when answering questions... and I think knowing the age and sometimes even gender of a questioner would be really helpful. Even in clusters, say >13,13-15,16-18,19+, if that preserves anonymity. Just particularly on love life/sex questions and in ones where they're contemplating money, it'd be really helpful to know.

Another thing which might be nice is to allow more than three favourite categories, or to allow a favourite category to be a mother category, such as Domesticity, rather than having to use two picks to select, say, cooking and pets.

I might just add more text to the "question asking" page telling people to include more info on themselves... I don't see a reason to categorize everyone because some questions really don't need it, but I agree that some do.

As for the favorite categories... I limited it to three because people look up columnists by category a lot to decide who to ask questions to, and it wouldn't be fair if someone was just in every category. It forces you to focus this way. I see your point but that's sort of where I'm coming from.

Q: how to go from one name to another please?

Send me an e-mail (admin@advicenators.com) and I should get to it in a day or so. Keep in mind that this will change the URL of your advice column, so it's not generally a great idea but we can do it.

Q: When I try to click on people who have spaces in their name, It only has the first word there, if you know what I mean. I have to type the rest out and stuff. It's not exactly urgent, but it IS annoying.

This is a bug that was only on certain pages... I knew about it on the "question viewing" page but just now fixed it. It should work there, and on the columnists list page. Let me know if you find the error somewhere else.

Q: Hey its me again! shay*shay! You're probably really tired of me asking all these questions, but I'd like to know what my column would look like without a pictue. Im not sure how to get rid of my current one. If theres no link for that I think you should add on, but if there is PLEASE let me know of it!
-shay :-)

This is kinda weird I admit, but there's a field in your profile settings that says "URL of a picture of you:" and it should have some stuff. If you erase everything in that field it should stop showing the picture in your column.

Q: (Suggestion) You should add a category like for asking you questions about the site, and question directed to you, instead of them having to pick a category thta doenst even go with what they are saying. . I pciked a random one, but tis about your site. .so here it goes!

For the past couple of weeks maybe, I have been asking questions (Directly) to person(s) and they end up in the public. . . And no one has any clue what im talking about so I have to explain it was sent to someone directly and it gets annoying! I was sur eot uncheck the 7 day box thing too. . And Im sure they didnt reject it. . So do you think its somethign wrong with my comp, or your site. . but it is only happening to me!?! And my comp only has na issue with pop ups right now. . but I have a pop up blocker. . but it doesnt work too great got any suggestions???

There's a category under "technology" called "Advicenators" that works well for most site-related questions.

As for the public questions issue... if you could give me an example of one of the questions that'd be great.

Also, there are no pop-ups being used on advicenators, so if you're seeing them, it's something else running on your computer, it's not us.

In the future could you please address one issue per question? Thanks.

Q: So Ive noticed that a lot of people have been asking about their columns so I was thinking of a nwe category for "My Column". Or something like that!
-shay :-)

You know, that makes a lot of sense. I added an "Advicenators" topic under "technology"... hopefully people will catch on and find it.

Q: very yummy, I like the new colour scheme and whitespace around the edges... but maybe center or float the user pic in the sidebar?

That is a good point! It's centered now... cool? I haven't tested the new layout in every browser yet, I know there are probably some little things that might not look right.

Q: Sometimes there are new developments in a problem that render all advice given ignorant of them unusable.

Could we please have a way of posting more information about a problem but in such a way that it remains anonymous and doesn't come up on your advice column.

Okay, feature has been added! From now on if you're viewing a question that you asked, there will be a link to add additional information that the advice columnists will all be able to see and you'll be able to change whenever, but it won't actually show up on any advice columns. I hope that helps.

Q: When I signed on it said I had 2 new questions in my inbox but when I went to read them I was told my inbox was empty.

Yes, this has been a problem lately, along with people getting e-mails saying they had a question when they didn't. I'm not sure what the deal is. If you notice a pattern to it or anything let me know... I've been digging at this for the last few weeks and cannot figure out for the life of me what's causing it.

bio

This advice column is for suggestions, comments, or error reporting about advicenators. If you'd like to suggest a new category, ask me a question. If you'd like to whine, bitch, or complain about advicenators, you may whine, bitch, or complain to me.

Three rules though:
1) Do not ask me for life advice. We have several thousand other members that do that.

2) Do not ask for help, or ask how to do something, or ask about
how something on the site works, unless you've read every word of our help pages and you're sure it's not addressed there.

3) Do not ask me to ban someone or investigate abuse. We have an entire abuse system set up for that.

If you disobey one of these rules, I'll delete your question.

Some guidelines about suggestions:
If you offer a suggestion that I find interesting, I might just ignore your question so it stays in my inbox as a reminder of something to do. Don't be upset that I don't answer you, and don't delete your questions (because then I'll forget!)

If you have three suggestions, please ask three separate questions, that way I can address each one individually. It's a real pain when people ask one question with like twenty different topics in it; I can't keep them straight.