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"It's comforting to know that WikiAnswers offers a pressure-freecommunity where those touched by this disease can ask questions and receive apersonal response, rather than reading prewritten FAQs. It's the humanelement that makes all the difference," commented Crystal Williams, CommunityCoordinator for WikiAnswers. "Our volunteer Supervisors diligently organizeand edit material to make this endeavour possible."
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Answers.com's WikiAnswers is a wiki-based website that is constantlyimproving, through the efforts of its dedicated question and answercommunity. It is the user generated content (UGC) component of Answers.com,where visitors share what they know and ask about what they don't. Wiki Q&Asare 'living' documents, where answers are constantly being improved andupdated over time. This ensures that no identical answer is developed inparallel, and that good answers can become great answers over time. A singleQ&A, in this case those focusing on the important issue of breast cancer, canhelp thousands of people. Take for example: "What are the best treatmentoptions for breast cancer?" With new medical developments happening at anygiven moment, a static FAQ can become outdated quickly, while a wiki Q&A canbe changed as soon as new treatments are announced - in real-time.
WikiAnswers member "Mareibc" took advantage of this format when sheimproved the answer to: "What is inflammatory breast cancer?" explaining that"Although this type of breast cancer is aggressive, and frightening, if youknow the symptoms and are treated immediately, yes, you can be an IBCsurvivor!"
Offline, Mareibc is an advocate for breast cancer awareness and one ofthe founding members of the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation,which was first established online as an answer resource. "People writing intheir own questions and answers made many people aware of inflammatory breastcancer all over the world. This same dynamic is what makes WikiAnswers sowonderful."
Visitors don't need to sign up to ask or answer questions, and everyoneis encouraged to contribute even a small amount of new, accurate informationto any existing topic. Participants thus far have contributed close to amillion questions, answers and edits. The individual contributions have growninformation resources that are used again and again by almost half a millionpeople a day. WikiAnswers, previously known as FAQ Farm, was acquired byAnswers Corporation in November 2006. It was founded in 2002 by ChrisWhitten, a pioneer in the Q&A arena. Try it at: http://wiki.answers.com.
About National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) program is dedicatedto increasing awareness about the importance of the early detection of breastcancer through a nationwide campaign. NBCAM started as a weeklong campaign in1985 with 2 founding members. Today the American Cancer Society is one ofmany national public service organizations, professional associations, andgovernment agencies that form the NBCAM Board of Sponsors. During October,which is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the member organizations ofthe Board of Sponsors join forces to spread the message that early detectionof breast cancer followed by prompt treatment saves lives.
About Answers.com
Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW) operates the award-winningAnswers.comTM answer engine, delivering comprehensive content on over fourmillion topics spanning health, finance, entertainment, business and more.Content includes over 1
