Answers in Spanish

I've just come across a Spanish language site that would give a lot of practice in Spanish, including the more informal type: Yahoo Answers in Spanish, aka Yahoo! Respuestas. Since it's organized by topics you can drill down into subjects that interest you and that you know something about already, like sports, music, family.

Even in English these kinds of sites are great time wasters, often with questionable answers or advice, so why not waste your time while learning Spanish?

This made me think of other information compendium sites, like Wikipedia, but I got distracted in my search for the Spanish version by Wikilengua de español. Here your advice will be much less off the cuff and much more technical, but it is also a wonderful rabbit warren of information links and leads.

And my original destination, Wikipedia in Spanish. Sink down into a day's worth of exploration.

I'm sure there are a ton of other sites out there that suit the same purpose: brief bits of information in Spanish, organized by topic, general in nature and fairly simple language, at least in more general topics. They would be excellent starting places to pick up vocabulary related to more specialized interests.

One nice thing about these Spanish language encyclopedia sites is that a non-Spanish speaker is obviously a guest here. The sites weren't designed for Spanish learners but for Spanish speakers, so, just like wandering alone in a strange city where everyone else speaks the language, we have to find out way around without English language guides. I'll add more here when I come across them.