scallywag

This is two parts:

1. There is a different list for answers.yahoo.com and ca.answers.yahoo.com so does that mean my best answers get counted only for the site i am logged on to?

2. The list (at least on ca.answers) doesn't seem to change and even includes an account (top user!) that does not exist; is that a spammer still basking in the sun?

It seems whenever i go to help clear out the months-old questions in voting (Anthropology) they are almost all resolved. I don't think they were /just/ resolved because they are there day after day. if there is a cycle to clearing them out then i can follow that cycle for resolving undecided questions in voting. Thanks.

Some answers seem like gibberish cobbled together from some data-based of text related to questions, but the answers never really address the intent of the question.

The closest i can get is "indeterminate" but i don't want to imply that there is any uncertainty about the identity of the thing itself, only that the boundaries where that thing ends (and maybe another begins) are not well-defined.

For example, if you take an egg in it's shell, the egg has well-defined boundaries (the shell). If you drop the egg on the floor it will have poorly defined boundaries, and perhaps a shifting boundary depending on the flooring material and slope, but there will be no ambiguity about it still being an egg.

The context is in a remote, northern landscape (Canada) inhabited by Aboriginal people.

If a non-archaeologist was out in the field doing ethnographic or biological research, what kinds of features would they be able to record that an archaeologist could then use to make their own assessment of any archaeological potential for the site? Is it possible to construct a list of features or attributes, for the above context only, that could be documented by a (competent) non-specialist? I assume the non-specialist would not make the assessment of archaeological potential themselves but maybe there is a way to record certain data that could be used by an archaeologist.

What is the intended value of allowing voters to determine the correct answer?

Is it to determine the correct answer? Statistically there is no basis given the small number of votes. Also, given the number of votes for bad answers, voting doesn't seem effective in deciding the best answer; for example:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao6XN...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlcSY...

Or is it to encourage people to accumulate points in an attempt to gain status within the YA system. Given the number of tricks that can be used to gain points that have little to do with actually providing an informed answer, it seems this is the case.

This is a proper question YA; i would like to know why voting exists here. I understand that YA is also a database of past questions and answers but if so many answers are simply chosen by voters accumulating points then the quality of the database is questionable. Proper answers should not contain diatribes on democracy.

Petty garden trolls are welcome to stomp on me.

Seems to me that most askers abandon their questions. Does Yahoo share these stats?

I have seen some pretty bad answers get in on one vote. Any links to "resolved" questions that were mangled. I prefer questions with real answers, not the "am i pretty" type.

Some questions seem to be left a long time without a best answer chosen by the asker, others go into voting quickly. Is voting initiated by the asker when they can't decide the best answer or is it automatically initiated after a set period? This is my first question so that might explain my need to ask this.