Let's face it: Q&A websites like the Conversatron have been a dying breed since their inception. To paraphrase myself from several years ago, they require a symbiotic relationship between the site and its audience, one which requires the audience to contribute something first, before they can get a return on their investment.

Even so, sometimes the payoff is way beyond the initial investment. Sure, there are good writers and bad writers, and even the good writers have bad days, but that doesn't mean that the form is to blame. It's the closest thing to improvisational comedy that the web has to offer.

What can we do to improve on this form and give it a chance? Innovate.

What I'd like to see is a forum where the same question can be answered by multiple writers — perhaps even an open forum — and the community can vote up the best responses, while still leaving all of them public. Think of it as a sort of, I don't know, Conversatron Idol. Then maybe we'll see the true diversity of comedy that the Interwebs have to offer.