Welcome to Answer-Phone.org
What is Answer-Phone.org?	For the past three years I've been collecting answering machine recordings from wherever I can find them. And I often thought 'there has to be something I can do beyond just hoard this massive collection of recordings'. Answer-Phone.org may not be much to look at now, but I'm planning on building this into a community for people interested in answering machine recordings. In time it will be a place where people can freely download and upload answering machine recordings.
Why ... answering machines?	Listening to an answering machine is a unique emotional experience. Each tape allows you to gain an intimate level of insight into the life of somebody who you have never met and each message allows you just a sliver of information from which to relate to them with. Some messages are entertaining and humorous while others are tragic and sad.
Where can I go to hear clips now?	We are putting up clips from our collection regularily at our Tumblr page. Check back often as we typically put up a new clip each day.
But who 'owns' these recordings?	Nobody. Not only is every recording given care to preserve anonomity of the those involved (by censoring out last names or chunks of telephone numbers) but each recording posted becomes 'Public Domain'. What that means is that whatever you may do with any of the recordings posted here on answer-phone.org is up to you. These recordings are a highly personal treasure from the lives of other people - to claim any sort of control or copyright over them would be unethical. I only ask that if you do anything creative with them - I'd like to know if for no other reason than to have the satisfaction that you felt inspired by a recording enough to do something creative with it.
How can I stay up-to-the-minute with Answer-Phone?	We regularily post announcements of new recordings and general updates to our Facebook and Twitter pages.
How can I be a part of Answer-Phone?	Answer-phone.org is accepting of donated answering machines - which we will take care to record properly and before posting, censor accordingly. If you have an answering machine that you are attached to and have special needs or conditions (ie: if you would like the machine returned to you after it has been recorded or perhaps a lossless CD-R copy of the recordings), we will respect your wishes and do what we can to meet your needs. For inquiries about donations to answer-phone.org, email us at donations@answer-phone.org If you're interested in being a part of answer-phone.org (website development, administration, etc...) or just generally want to talk with us, email us at contact@answer-phone.org