What this site is

In June 2003, I wrote something about instant messaging that included the words "question" and "answerer". In November of that year, a young girl trying to finish her homework searched for "instant message question answerer", found the piece I had written, and IM'd me, looking for some answers.

Foolishly, I titled that post "Instant Message Question Answerer" which became "sylloge: Instant Message Question Answerer" as the title of the page ("sylloge" is both my AIM screen name and the name of my personal site). People linked to it, and now that is the first result on Google for "question answerer".

And so, people — mostly kids doing their homework — IM me their questions. Depending on my mood, I am helpful or snarky. For a while I resisted, but now I have given in. At some point it occured to me to save the transcripts, and these are the ones I have managed to find. It has slowed down quite a bit, but they still happen from time to time and I will post the results here.