Yahoo Answers

Yahoo! Answers

File:Yahoo!Answers.gif
File:Yahoo Answers Home Page.jpg
Type of site	Collaboration
Available in	Chinese, English, French ,German, Indonesia, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese
Owner	Yahoo!
Created by	Yahoo!
URL	http://answers.yahoo.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Yes

Yahoo! Answers is a community-driven knowledge market website launched by Yahoo! on December 13, 2005 that allows users to ask questions of other users and answer other users' questions. The site gives members the chance to earn points as a way to encourage participation and is based on Naver's Knowledge iN. As of November 2006, it contains 65 million answers and more than 7 million questions. On June 11, 2007, Yahoo!'s former questions and answers service, Ask Yahoo!, was formally merged with Yahoo! Answers

Virtually any question is allowed, except ones that violate the Yahoo! Answers community guidelines. To encourage good answers, helpful participants are occasionally featured on the Yahoo! 360° blog page. Though the service itself is free, the content of answers are owned by the respective users—while Yahoo! maintains a non-exclusive royalty-free worldwide right to publish the information. Chat is explicitly forbidden in the Community Guidelines, although users may choose to reveal their Yahoo! Messenger ID on their Answers profile page.

In order to open an account a user needs a Yahoo! ID, but can use any name as identification on Yahoo! Answers. A user can also be represented by a Yahoo! avatar or a Yahoo! 360° picture. When answering a question, a pull-down menu allows one to choose to search either Yahoo! or Wikipedia.

The site is based in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Quebec, the United States and Vietnam. The site is available in the United States in both US English and US Spanish and on Canada in both English and French. The user's default language on Yahoo! is their default language on Answers. Users can also opt to only view questions on their native country's site.

Points, levels, and stars

Questions are initially open to answers for three days. However the asker can choose to close the question after a minimum of four hours or extend it for a period of up to seven days. To ask a question one has to have a Yahoo! account with a positive score balance.

The points system is weighted to encourage users to answer questions and to limit spam questions. There are also levels (with point thresholds) which give more site access. Aside from this, points and levels have no real world value, cannot be traded, and serve only to indicate how active a user has been on the site. A notable downside to the points/level side is that this encourages people to answer questions that they do not know the answer to, just to get points. On the other hand many people also ask pointless questions, just for the fun of it.

The point system encourages users to answer as many questions as they possibly can, up to their daily limit. Once a user gets to level 3 or 4, if they are able to maintain a good 'best answer' percentage (above 10%) within a specific category they will receive an orange 'badge' under the name of their avatar naming them a "Top Contributor." A user can be a "Top Contributor" in up to three categories, listed on the user's profile page, which can change depending on the user's answering habits. However, once a user becomes a "Top Contributor" in any category, the badge appears in all answers, questions, and comments by the user regardless of category.

Level / points table

1. 1–249
2. 250–999
3. 1,000–2,499
4. 2,500–4,999
5. 5,000–9,999
6. 10,000–24,999
7. 25,000+

Points are earned as per following Points Table:

Action	Points
Begin participating on Yahoo! Answers	One time: 100
Ask a question	-5
Choose a best answer for your question	3
No Best Answer was selected by voters on your question	Points Returned: 5
Answer a question	2
Deleting an answer	-2
Log in to Yahoo! Answers	Once daily: 1
Vote for a best answer	1
Vote for No best answer	0
Have your answer selected as the best answer	10
Receive a "thumbs-up" rating on a best answer that you wrote (up to 50 thumbs-up are counted)	1 per "thumbs-up"

Voting and rating with "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" is done anonymously, and once done cannot be changed. Users may tag an interesting question with a star, and the list of users who have so tagged a question is made public. On Answers profile pages, users can track how many stars they have received for their questions. However, a user may un-star a question at will. Users may also keep a separate watchlist of questions that is kept private.

The site has a system for reporting abuse, and awards greater influence in the community to those users who report valid instances of it. Those who report it incorrectly have their power to report people diminished.

Criticisms

Criticisms made by member "Chosen by Grace" (who can usually be identified by his use of the USS Defiant as his avatar) are that the moderators discriminate against him for being a Calvinistic Christian.

He claims that Yahoo moderators are guilty of the following things:

Ignoring his reports against members who violate Y!A's rules even if the reported members are clearly insulting, slandering, baiting and trolling and despite his established reputation for helping the depressed and suicidal (note atheist Printninja's abusive comment) and those seeking answers to verses in the Bible on Yahoo! Answers.

Immediately acting on the false reports against him made by known trolls and cyberstalkers such as Novanglis, gorgeoustxwoman , also known as gorgeoustxtemptress, also known as Vile Temptress in a Handbasket or just "in a Handbasket", also known as Viletemptress'Kitty Gazoo, also known as The Great Gazoo and Alex, Footprints in the Sand (see below), and Jesus Myth Superstar.

Though Novangelis reported Chosen's answer for deletion and succeeded, and succeeded a second time when Chosen posted it again, Chosen reposted his answer at http://eternian.bravehost.com/athiests-can-you-ignore-this-reposted.htm. Novangelis is also a Wikipedia contributor and vandalized this entry.

Yahoo! Answers moderators prevent his questions from showing up in the questions list or delay them for a very long time so that they do not receive any to little answers. An example was the repeatedly deleted question: "Christians who believe you can lose your salvation: Did you know you can't get it back?" which was not answered either of the two times it was asked. The second time it was asked it remained posted for over an hour without an answer. Both questions were deleted, the first time in about twenty three minutes and the second time after a full hour had passed (which is an unusually long time for a serious question on the topic of salvation asked in compliance with the rules of Yahoo! Answers not to be answered.

This was demonstrated by two other members who observed that his questions could not be found. Suspecting that they were blocking him using his IP address, another member used his account to ask a question and it was shown immediately in the questions list.

Other criticisms made by Chosen was that the moderators would sometimes prevent him from complaining about such activities in the Yahoo! Appeals Boards, appealing his accounts deletions or from asking questions which cite specific users who are attacking him or other Christians (such as "Lord Elpus" for example, who boasted about bashing Christians on Yahoo! Answers "all the time"): while allowing anti-Christians to cite and slander him and other Christians, immediately deleting his (Chosen'squestions), answers that are not in violation of their rules and that have been chosen as "best answer", and profiles, because he uses his profiles, questions, and answers to directly or indirectly endorse Calvinism and for responding (by refuting) users who post answers to his questions which do not conform to Yahoo's rules and admit to posting evil answers or questions.

Atheists and non-Christians are regularly allowed to accrue points by chatting (note Mario's reported 'answer').

Christians like Father K are also allowed accrue points by chatting as long as they say something good about atheists, defend their anti-Christian beliefs, or concede that atheists will not be punished by God for their unbelief or are not regularly posting refutations against non-Christians.

Cyberstalkers such as "Footprints in the Sand" (who usually uses the avatar of a green fish with feet), also known as Persephone (note Yahoo profile I.D. "i2gGhokzaa" belongs to both Persephone and Footprints in the Sand) also known as Gay Pride Fan (using a false avatar, Footprints is a female not a male) , sweetpants647 (which is now under the name He-Man Eternian and using the previously mentioned false avatar here as well) "Unicru" (this account is now under Sister Zeal, a supposed Christian), "Mr Thoburn", Chris Mafia, GrumpyOldTroll, and Vile Temptress 666 ) even if having their Yahoo! Answers accounts deleted, are allowed to keep their Yahoo! 360 accounts which contain slanderous statements and being used as platforms for continued harassment campaigns.

Certain members use "raid accounts" which are accounts intended to be used to make false reports against other users in order to force those users to remain silent or compliant or to get them entirely deleted. Currently only atheists have been documented as using such accounts.

Blatant insults and slanderous attacks against Christian members are often a and repeatedly permitted by repeat offenders: , including slander, sourceless answers, and answers in which atheists cite themselves as their own source (not referring to their experience but their belief in what they are saying).

Both Christians and atheists have complained that atheists who post in the Religion and Spirituality section plague that section with childish and insulting posts.

Gifts

Yahoo! Answers cup gift, cup changes colour to white from black when hot

Occasionally the Yahoo! Answers Team sends out free gifts to active participants in Yahoo! Answers. Some items received have been stickers, mugs, jackets, Yahoo! Answers bags, and water bottles. They commonly do this around their birthday in December.

Another common criticism is that it is easy to get a question or answer removed that is not in violation of Yahoo!'s Community Guidelines. Yahoo answers will also entertain users who report others for petty reasons and reasons that don't violate the rules, by removing questions. Allegedly the more people that rate a posting as abusive the more likely it is to be removed. Some users maintain that questions are automatically deleted when a certain number of complaints are received, although the Answers Team states that this is not the case. The Yahoo! Answers Team does provide a process by which users can appeal deletions of questions and answers, but many users are not satisfied that appeals are adequately addressed.

Criticisms made by a prominent member commonly known as "Chosen by Grace" are that the moderators discriminate against him for being a Calvinistic Christian by ignoring his reports against members who violate Y!A's rules even if the reported members are clearly insulting, slandering, baiting and trolling and despite his established reputation for helping the depressed and suicidal (note atheist Printninja's abusive comment) and those seeking answers to verses in the Bible on Yahoo! Answers.

He also criticizes them for immediately acting on the false reports against him made by known trolls and cyberstalkers such as Novanglis, gorgeoustxwoman , also known as gorgeoustxtemptress, also known as Vile Temptress in a Handbasket or just "in a Handbasket", also known as Viletemptress'Kitty Gazoo, also known as The Great Gazoo and Alex, Footprints in the Sand (see below), and Jesus Myth Superstar, in order to vilify, prevent him from becoming popular, and to persuade him to stop participating.

One of his answers was deleted when the atheist member novangelis saw his answer here (a long refutation of the atheists who answered that question), and reported it. Novangelis then proceeded to post his own answer. Chosen's reposted however. On that page Chosen had reported Mario and others who posted insults or non-answers before Novangelis had reported his, and yet only Chosen's answer was deleted.

Other Christians have complained that atheists who post in the Religion and Spirituality section entirely or mostly post insulting questions or answers.<ef>[156]</ref>

It is apparent that the moderators regularly permit atheists to accrue points by chatting (note Mario's reported 'answer').

Blatant insults are clearly permitted by the moderators: , including slander, sourceless answers, and answers in which atheists cite themselves as their own source (not referring to their experience but their belief in what they are saying).

Other criticisms made by Chosen was that the moderators would sometimes prevent him from complaining about such activities in the Yahoo! Appeals Boards, appealing his accounts deletions or from asking questions which cite specific users who are attacking him or other Christians (such as "Lord Elpus" for example, who boasted about bashing Christians on Yahoo! Answers "all the time"): while allowing anti-Christians to cite and slander him and other Christians, immediately deleting his (Chosen'squestions), answers that are not in violation of their rules and that have been chosen as "best answer", and profiles, because he uses his profiles, questions, and answers to directly or indirectly endorse Calvinism and for responding (by refuting) users who post answers to his questions which do not conform to Yahoo's rules and admit to posting evil answers or questions.

Another problem with Yahoo is that known cyberstalkers such as "Footprints in the Sand", also known as Persephone (note Yahoo profile I.D. "i2gGhokzaa" belongs to both Persephone and Footprints in the Sand) also known as Gay Pride Fan (using a false avatar, Footprints is a female not a male) , sweetpants647 (which is now under the name He-Man Eternian and using the previously mentioned false avatar here as well) "Unicru" (this account is now under Sister Zeal, a supposed Christian), "Mr Thoburn", Chris Mafia, GrumpyOldTroll, and Vile Temptress 666 ) even if having their Yahoo! Answers accounts deleted, are allowed to keep their Yahoo! 360 accounts, which contain slanderous statements and being used as platforms for continued harassment campaigns.

Another problem is that certain members use "raid accounts" which are accounts intended to be used to make false reports against other users in order to force those users to remain silent or compliant or to get them entirely deleted. Currently only atheists have been documented as using such accounts.

Yahoo! has demonstrated a willingness to give into the Communist Party of China, which is dominated by atheists and known for discriminating against Calvinistic Christians (and to a lesser degree all types of Christians in general). This fact makes it difficult to deny that the moderators of Yahoo! Answers could not be discriminating against Christians because the owners of Yahoo! are fair.

Another complaint is that Yahoo's response to content posted on Answers that is determined to be abusive is not limited to deleting Answers, but can, at Yahoo's discretion, result in deactivation of the Yahoo! ID associated with the offending Answers account. Many Answers users also use other Yahoo! services, and deactivation of their Yahoo! ID effects all Yahoo! services the user accesses under that ID. As of March 15, 2007, Yahoo! has merged with the photo sharing site Flickr, and both use the same Yahoo! Account ID. So if a user's Yahoo! Account is suspended, then they are unable to access the Flickr site that uses that same Account ID. Even if they are paying for a pro account and have not violated the terms of Flickr, they still will be denied access.

Highlighting users

From time to time, the Yahoo! Answers team selects a user from the millions who use the feature and writes a blog about him/her in the Yahoo! Answers Blog. This is called the Featured User section. The blog usually talks about the user's activity on the website, as well as a little bit about the user's hobbies. When a user is selected as a Featured User, he/she is sent an e-mail, asking for some details like hobbies, interests, occupation, etc. The user is usually expected to give a few comments on Yahoo! Answers as well. The user is expected to reply to the message appropriately, and the blog is put up in a few weeks. The Blog is on the Yahoo! 360° service.

Yahoo! Answers also has a "Best of Answers" section, in which Yahoo! staff pick questions that have been answered with a particularly highly rated "best answer."

Answers On The Street

Beginning July 2, 2007, Yahoo! Answers began featuring weekly video segments called "Yahoo! Answers On The Street." Hosted by J. Keith van Straaten, the 3-4 minute videos draw on questions from the Answers community and mix together expert interviews with comedic man-on-the-street pieces. A new episode is posted every Monday, with previous episodes archived.

Special guests

Several celebrities and notables have appeared on Yahoo! Answers to ask questions. These users have an "official" badge below their avatar and on their profile page. The list of Special Guests has included well-recognized celebrities and intellectuals, such as Marilyn vos Savant, the Guinness record holder for highest IQ.

Some of other celebrities that have Asked and/or Answered questions on the site:

Shigeru Miyamoto [157] Sarah Silverman [158] Brad Bird John McCain profile Stephen Hawking profile Jonathan Ross Bono profile Alyssa Milano Al Gore Ciara profile Deepak Chopra [159] Donald Trump - part of Yahoo!'s affiliation with The Apprentice Dane Cook Danny Glover Dylan and Cole Sprouse Gary Shaw[160] Gene Rayburn Isaiah Washington Suze Orman Cindy Crawford John Woo profile

Tom and Ray Magliozzi (aka Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers from Car Talk) Arianna Huffington Marilyn vos Savant profile - part of Ask the Planet Hillary Clinton Oprah Winfrey Michael Crichton Muhammad Yunus [161] Laurence Fishburne Leonardo DiCaprio Indian President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam [162] Clay Aiken - (UNICEF) The people who worked on the film The Number 23 profile Barack Obama [163] Shashi Tharoor [164] Constantine Maroulis [165] Mitt Romney profile David Filo profile Frank Ochberg profile Alastair Fothergill profile Nandan Nilekani profile

Dr. Kiran Bedi profile Queen Rania of Jordan profile Todd Oldham profile Chris Archer profile Jane Fonda profile Leeza Gibbons profile Joan Didion profile Delilah profile Reebok profile Nancy Pelosi profile Jim Rome profile Penelope Cruz profile Elisabeth Shue profile Jean-Michel Cousteau profile Matt Dillon profile Mark Philippoussis profile Ivanka Trump profile Perez Hilton profile Justin Langer

• Juanes profile

External links

• Yahoo! Answers official site
• The Best of Answers 2006
• Official Yahoo! Answers blog on Yahoo! 360°
• Yahoo! Answers Help and Suggestions Board
• Yahoo! Answers scoring system
• Yahoo! Answers Leaderboard
• Article in New York Times
• Article In Search Engine Watch
• Answers API
• Python wrapper over Answers API
• Ask Yahoo!, Yahoo!'s former Q&A site, now merged with Answers
• Yahoo! Answers On The Street