Well, since your fine question seems to have not drawn any responses yet, I guess you'll maybe tolerate a radical one! :) There's no "meaning of life" in the sense we normally talk about such things. There's this common sense notion that life has a meaning, and we should go out there and find it, write it down, memorize it, or whatever. The existentialists have a particular take on that: they say "no, that's wrong... there's no pre-existing meaning to life, you have to give life meaning yourself by taking responsibility for the meaning of your life". I think that's fine within a limited framework, but without going into details, I'd like to add "well, maybe not, too!" The problem with the whole meaning-of-life conversation is that people are looking for an ABSTRACT meaning: some generalization which can be applied universally to all situations, etc. Certainly no such meaning can be found -- where would one even look? Is there a Meaning Tree somewhere that we're supposed to pluck this from? No, that's silly. Meaning is something that happens in conceptual interpretation of something, which is very much a function of how we think and what we think about. It can't possibly be "out there" waiting to be discovered. However, life CAN be "meaningful" without using the existentialist loophole of "we create our own meaning". To the degree that one engages with reality fully, living fully here-and-now, taking each thing seriously and participating wholeheartedly, the EXPERIENCE of living is meaningful: rich, rewarding, satisfying, creative... whole. But this isn't some abstract "meaning of life" which can be printed on a T-shirt or bumper sticker, it's a multi-dimensional experience which changes constantly in sync with the changes of our daily activities. It's just being fully alive! So with all that as background, yes, Answerbag is very much a meaningful experience for many people, including myself. The rich conversations, full of vitality and creativity and friendship (or even enemyship!) are meaningful experiences in and of themselves, and enrich the lives of those who participate fully. They just don't mean anything in a symbolic sense. No bumper stickers, sorry.

I don't believe we have an answer to the meaning of life and I am not convinced we are here to serve a God or were created so we can enjoy life until we pass onto the next one - which is supposed to be what our purpose is. In the words of Carl Sagan, a noted agnostic who was asked such a question by a student: If you want to know what the meaning of life is, go out and do something meaningful. I wholeheartedly concur.

The "tangible gain" was realized when Joel sold the website. Great day for him, but ...........

No we are no further ahead

No, the great philosopher Douglas Adams already gave the a simple, easy to understand answer: 42 I don't think the majority of us really know what to ask. ;) Nice question. + Note: please reference author Douglas Adam's series 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'. Fun books. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life,_the_Universe,_and_Everything

None at all...

None at all...