Would having more than one account on WebAnswers be a good idea?

No I wouldn't recomend it. To play it safe one can add more experience to their profile and on certon days they can answer questions based on their experience on a certon subject. Or maybe just answer all of the questions that they are experienced in. I know you did alot of thinking and others did to. Their out there now doing this very thing. If you do this then I recomend not rewarding your self. If this happens then you will see alot of rewards from two users. This will seem pretty  obvious.
I see no benefit in it. You would have to have two or more home addresses just to make more money. If you do get to reward your self then it wont last long. They will catch you. The whole Webanswer site runs on a system that catches these patterns of rewarding. That is I hope they do. So if your out there injoy it while it last. I have one account and I love it the way it is. I rather have alot of questions answered with good quality answers then be rewarded for them.

This answer was edited by Electrical 43 days ago.

Reason: Added some more detail

No,I think more than one account is totally unnecessary. In one site, your identity should be one. vrpoc is known here. But when you have multiple identity, it would be a little bit difficult to recognize.

I've thought about doing the same thing, for the same reasons. However, I have to agree with zsikder on this one, the amount of questions you've answered says as much about you as what you've answered.

I try to keep my answers limited to the reason I've joined this site - to answer questions that people have about cell phones, just like I do on my website. However, I do expand now and again to other areas in which I also have expertise, and I hope that when people see my awarded answers ratio, that they respect my answers and award them accordingly, just as the do when they see yours. This allows one to build upon another, regardless of your initial expertise.

That's not something one would be able to achieve with multiple accounts, not to mention the temptations other folks might have to cheat the system.

If you want to handle multiple types of questions, I would suggest putting some solid information in your expertise portion of your profile. That way, people will better understand your qualifications for answering the questions they've posed.

Thank you for the responses so far, I'm a little surprised that no one thought this was a good idea yet, but I do think that the current argument against it is a really strong one. Reputation might supersede everything else on this site eventually, although I sort of hope it doesn't come to that.

I also suppose that once someone reaches a decent amount of answers on their account, they wouldn't want to take a "step back" and start up another one with zero answers on it. So, perhaps this is for someone that is just starting out.

I got this idea from some of the members on this site, who seem to just answer on specific subjects and usually have pictures based on that subject that they answer about. Although I think they only have one account, perhaps that account is just one of two or more. You wouldn't believe what a simple avatar picture could do with your answer, especially if you answer a lot of medical questions. Time and time again the one that has a doctor as an avatar, whether it really is them or not, is the one who gets the awarded answer.

By the way, I do want to mention that this isn't a way to cheat the system, I'm not saying you should award yourself with your other accounts. I have seen this happen on this site and it gets pretty obvious, so its not even worth trying. This is strictly based on using those accounts to answer specific questions. Sorry about not mentioning that, I suppose it got cut off from the end of my question.

This answer was edited by vrpoc 43 days ago.

Reason: Added on.

Vrpoc, you did make a valid point when you mentioned about keeping a good ratio (awarded questions over answered ones). I, for example, have experience in fields totally unrelated to each other (construction, computer repair, business management and other acquired knowledge based on independent reading/research, etc.).

I don't see myself ever having a high ratio because of such broad spectrum that I am covering. I chose to answer as best I could all the questions that I can because of my desire to help others. Obviously, if I had come here to become a millionaire by answering questions I came to the wrong site, wouldn't you agree? At the end of the day, I am sure that others would find it easy to cheat the system by having more than one account.

Well, I am really adamant in saying that I only brought this up for honest purposes and a strategic move, not to cheat. Yes, you could cheat by awarding to your other account, but it would be very obvious. I won't share any way in which I think you could cheat on here, and perhaps get away with it, but I do think there is a way. Its way too much work though, and you can get more revenue just playing by the rules with the same amount of work!

And yes, this isn't the place to try to become the next millionaire, that is true. However I'm just suggesting a way to get more awarded answers because you look more qualified to answer the question. Forgive me if I didn't really explain all that well in my previous questions and comments.

Of course I didn't think that for a moment that YOU were going to cheat. However, were it allowable, it would just make it harder to police people who wanted to take advantage of multiple accounts.

I've run websites in the past where people exclaim that they've more than one user in the past, and at the end of the day, just found it prudent to allow one account per household.

I would imagine that you are quite correct in your assumption that an avatar or picture that accompanies your responses may offer up better results, however, I'll assert again that how many answers you've been awarded in a given category will be someone's best guide to taking your advice and awarding your answer.

This answer was edited by secretagent 42 days ago.

Reason: :)

Just a thought.

What if Webanswers was to allow users with proven track records of being competent in answering questions in different fields, to use a different avatar for each category that they contribute regularly? You could keep your name, in this case "Vrpoc" but could use a Doctor or nurse avatar while answering medical or health questions, a toolbag for construction, or a computer for computer category.

This would be something that Webanswers could do, but I am not so sure about the feasibility. Webanswers, could something like this be done?

That is an interesting idea, and it does sort of combine keeping your user name but also changing your look according to which expertise you are in. Although I was going for more of the thought that other users wouldn't know you were also this other screen name, so the the names would actually be different, too. Sort of like an online portfolio for somebody that does several forms of art. You would set up two different sites, one for photography, and another for painting. You don't want the people that may hire you for painting know you also do photos, and vice versa.

Or even better, just like Spider-man. You, Peter Parker, just want to be known for your great photos, and not being Spider-man.

However, the idea of a changing avatar is kind of a cool one, although your identity may not be as easily found thus your reputation doesn't come into play.

This answer was edited by vrpoc 37 days ago.

Reason: Added on.

However way you say it the Webanswer site keeps track of all the computer addresses. If you look at all the fine print on all the web sites you can ask a question on. You will see that it says something about keeping track of computer IP address. Now doing this insures that their questions are not a copy of some other site. We know this as copy past answers. If you want to use a different acc. Then it would be a good idea for you not so much to Webanswers. If you have more then one computer, like lets say five, then it can be done where you could ask questions using the four computers and answer these questions using just the one. The thing is that foe every question you ask the site records the IP address. They, the Webanswer, can see these paterns. However there is too many out there to real narow it down. So I say again it will be a good idea for the user but not for the web site. It can be done because their doing it wait now. Just check out how many views this question has. That should tell you how many people out there would click this question just to see if more like them are answering with a answer that might say something like yes its ok or no you will get cought. So take my edvice and stick with one account. Or if you have more than one computer be like the rest and get different accounts then reward yourself. Theres alot of good people here that work realy hard on answering questions and they still don't seem to get any recpect for their work. And some with one account which would like more rewards would rather cut and past their answers. I see alot of answers that contain numbers like this one [25] which comes from the wekitpda site. People would say anything just to show that their not a bad person. We are all good people its just the things we do sometimes that are wrong. I can keep writing forever on this topic but I wront. It does not mater how you wrok on this site if you cheating or not or making money or not as long as the people asking the questions gets are help. Isn't that what this site is about helping others? They don't like copy padt answer nor do they recommend cheating. However if they can't find you within five mounths or more then you probably wront ever get cought. I allways like having one account because its been wroking good for me. Yes we all thought about cheating in one way or the other but never seem to do it because of the lack of knowlege we have about this sites ability to know if we are cheating or not. Now the ones getting alot of rewards are always being monitored but nothing is being done because theres not enough proof that they are in fact cheating. They all seem to show that their realy answering from their own thoughts and not just copy psating them. If there is copy past answers out there then there all being rewritten. I could just write a book about this topic but I'll save that for later. So take care you guys and however your answering the questions just keep doing it because we are still helping people out here aren't we? We just dpn't like it when someone is answering their own questions then reward themselves. So vroc and the otjer good people out there keep up the good work. I hope somewhere in my answer that it will help people out on what choice they want to make. Either a good one or bad one.