Care to share your story of being an internet Q&A refugee?

I was on Answerbag. Really loved that site. They changed it. I understand that changes have to be made, but the changes they made were very drastic. Completely changed the whole site. Not one part of was spared. They ruined it. They turned it Yahoo mark 2. I was devastated, but didn’t know where to go. A few of us were messaging each other, with recommendations of other sites. I tried about 2 but they were no good. Fluther felt like home from the beginning. Any advice on future changes? Yes, positive but mild. Don’t need to reinvent the site and change everything you could possibly think of changing. Fluther is nice the way it is.

I had an out-of-body experience right here at Fluther.

Some years ago, I was an active Jelly posting under a different moniker. I wrote something that caused another member to go berserk, hurl accusations and obscenities at me, and be completely irrational. No, I didn’t post an offensive or inflammatory comment; this person over-reacted and started treating me in the most vile manner. I tried PM-ing the individual to work through the issue and reach a truce, but all she’d do was use vulgar language and accuse me of being mentally unbalanced. And, she kept barraging me with ugly PMs, which I was unable to block.

I decided to close my account and stay away for a while. Then, when I returned here, I was greeted and welcomed with kindness. Thank you for that.

This is my first actually and I like it. I checked out a few others but I didn’t like them. I like the calibre of people here, even if we disagree on issues.

I am on about 10 to 12 of these sites ( perhaps 8 of them with daily regularity ) as I flit from site to site looking for people on STEM studies in need of help. So I just flit through here quickly and sometime I am embroiled in something that should not even be controversial in this, the 21st century.

I am now off to AOL and then, blurtit, answerbank, wiki etc, etc.

Bye

@Neodarwinian I’ve noticed you don’t really cultivate the relationships here, or seem much interested. Are you like that on your other sites as well? Just curious.

Cancerballbag imploded, I was swept on to these shores on a wave of apathy.
A somewhat hostile welcome ensued which made me giggle much like a 6yr old girl.
I didn’t think i’d last 5mins & yet, here I remain, mainly because Fluther & myself share common ground in that we’re both fucking awesome man…or woman!

Formal wisdmer here. Someone on wis.dm said to come here so I did. I’m afraid to say that I liked wis better but that’s gone now.

I try not to invest too much emotion and time on Q & A sites anymore. I realize that the community feel can be misleading and I’d rather not get too involved. I guess internet liaisons in the past taught me that. So for me it is neither here nor there. I do have a few special people I care about on every Internet portal I visit of which there are a few (also over the Internet in general). I’ve never felt like a refugee in anyway.

Social sites that have bit the dust on me -

Icq.
Bolt
Everyone’s connected
MSN Groups
Myspace Chat
Myspace forums
Answerbag

The AB to Fluther transition was the easiest, because even though it happened with NO warning, the site was just ruined, not gone. We were able to sort of regroup. I believe it was @YARNLADY that tipped us off. A couple of ABers even started their own sites or Facebook groups to stay in touch. But Fluther won my heart.

I was initially on Airow, until the owner foolishly sold it to some wannabe internet entrepreneur (who completely fucked it up), and then some time when the owner tried to resurrect it (which ultimately failed, because it is nigh impossible to get old users back once they moved on).
Oh, there was quite the heated and enraged discussion on the site, and I was sooo wild back then.

@KNOWITALL

” for people on STEM studies in need of help ”

Some of these people. Right now I am throwing calculus problems at a young man on blurtit who has scientific aspirations.

Here is one for you!

integrate{t^3*e^t] dt

I was part of a small group of people in the Beta phase of Yahoo!Answers. Believe it or not, we were as close knit as the users on Fluther have always been. I still correspond with many of the original crowd. When Y!A exploded out into the WWW it became the cesspool it now is.

I found Answerbag and I was very happy there with a friendly, fun group of people, and some not so friendly, but still tolerable before the big change to a giant commercial. I was introduced to wis.dm by a fellow ABer just before it was abandoned by it’s creator, and still it was a bitter loss.

I used to be on a large number of Q & A sites, but I am now a regular on just two, Fluther and Answers.com. I spend a lot of time on wikipedia, verifying sources.

I was on Askville.It was fun making friends,answering silly and intelligent questions, sharing views, sending mails etc. I made some good friends, and I still continue to keep in touch with them through mail or FB.When AV shut down I was shocked because all of a sudden I felt lonely,as it was the only place where I used to share my views and spend my time. Later on when I found almost all the old members here in Fluther I was just thrilled! Even now at times I check my old Askville profile!

@Neodarwinian So you communicate via calculus? Okay then, point taken. :)

@seek_kolinahr I was on Bolt too before that died. I was gutted when it closed, the tagbooks were my first experience of Q&A online.

After Bolt I moved to Wis.dm but wasn’t there long enough before that died too. I can only name one person here that I knew came from wis.dm too (until @rarebear said that’s where he came from in his answer above that is).

Fluther is my favourite!

Simone and Jeanpaulsartre were wis.dm folk, I know that… I never heard of it until it closed.

#Flutherisawesome

I’m on Fluther and Answerbag. Answerbag is glitching out right now but I have faith that it will be fine again.

I began on Yahoo Answers, but I left it. I forget exactly why now.
I used Answerbag for a while, but I became too busy for it, and I heard it shut down.
I was on Experience Project until it quit. I miss it.
Most recently, I was on AnswerMug a few months. I had a big dispute with a Christian and left.
Now, I am on Fluther as you can see.

I remember when Answerbag closed. Many of them landed here.