answerbank

[kags]

How long has answerbank been going, and what was the first ever question?

[j2buttonsw]

Ask Andy Hughes, he has been here since the beginning.

[kags]

ok andy hughes where are you?

[banana]

According to the internet archive ( which isnt complete but will suffice for now I think)
it has been going since 2001.This is a snapshot of one of the first pages.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010207211857/http://w
ww.theanswerbank.co.uk/Home.go

[sft42]

The first things on the site weren't the question format that you are used to seeing now but articles written by paid employees of Front of Mind (the company that runs the answerbank on behalf of a certain low brow daily tabloid). These varied in quality of factual information and writing style (go to the home page and search for Pink Floyd for some examples of this) but the site has at least questions from december 2000 and perhaps earlier http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/DisplayAnswers.go?q
uestion_id=257&category_id=18&index=0

[andy hughes]

Hi Kags. My colleague SFT42 has answered your question pretty comprehensively, the Site did go live in October 2002, with a number of writers who provided feature material and answered questions for their own speciality - mine being music. Once the Site was established enough to 'fly solo', and answers were coming from visitors, the features were dropped. I have visited the site every day since it started, barring holidays and illness, because i really enjoy sharing my information, and gaining a whole lot more from my fellow AB'ers. Thanks for asking me personally j2buttonsw, I'm very flattered!

[incitatus]

the dear front of mind folk did get it wrong occasionally. My very first contribution (rather than an answer) was to corrrect an item they had written on Sherlock holmes, where they said he died at the reichenbach falls. MAny shouts of D'oh later they revised it.

[sft42]

Andy Are you 100% sure on the October 2002 date? I know it may well be the mind playing tricks on me but it does seem as if it has been around long than that.....I would have thought maybe 2001?