Is participating in Yahoo Answers worth the time and effort?
I am debating ending my participation when I reach 30 thousand points. Part of this is due to some of the frustrations I am beginning to feel at the management of the program, especially recently.
I had an answer deleted because Y!A said it wasn't an answer. Hello?!? I appealed and they disagreed with my point that it was an answer. I suspect the answer was reported by a troll and that management decided it technically wasn't an answer. Now this is trivial garbage to me, but I am beginning to see a lot more of this happening with other people. I have gotten very few violations or deletions, and really have no personal cause for complaint. But I have seen other users' questions or answers deleted, and little or no explanation provided.
I like my contacts--most of them anyway. I hate to give up any part of their friendship, companionship and support. My question is, is it really worth it?
To me, community standards are a reasonable part of any social networking website. We should have them. But who decides, and how much do we split hairs? And if a stalker or troll decides to raise a little sand, is Yahoo management able to spot it and deal with it?
I realize some might consider this a bit of a whine. Perhaps it is. But my time and my thoughts are valuable, at least to me. I expect to follow community standards, and I have rarely deviated from them. I don't expect to agree with every decision by a site manager. I do expect to be treated fairly and with respect by the community and by the managers.
So I am asking my contacts and Yahoo friends not only "is it worth it?" but are there other sites that can serve equally well? Does Yahoo Answers have any serious competition from any other networking community? Should some of us who may be tiring of the Kindergarten atmosphere at time practiced here be considering a mass exodus to that other community if there is one.
Should Yahoo! be a little more reasonable in soliciting and processing feedback from its Answers users? Should our community ask for more?
Now, I have not decided to leave, and I think it rather unlikely I actually will, but I am a little dissatisfied at this moment. If Answers deletes this question I will consider that it is unwilling to accept user feedback and that could definitely affect my decision to stay or go.
I hope they don't. And I hope many of us will consider these points. By and large I have found Yahoo! Answers a stimulating and fun activity. I have been pleased to have achieved Level 7, but I am also very pleased that some of my answers may have actually helped some people. I would hate to lose any part of that.
2008-11-28T00:21:32Z
The subject area I have most enjoyed participating in, and feel the best about, is that of personal relationships. If I can give advice that will help someone deal with a relationship problem, or personally grow, or manage a sticky problem, then I think I have performed a useful service.
I have also at times enjoyed taking on politics, current events, military history, geography, and other subjects. And, yes, at times I have dabbled in poetry.
I do enjoy helping other people, especially young people. But mostly I enjoy communicating. I don't do chat any more. Chat did help me become computer literate.
I hope I will find it worth my while to continue to participate in Answers. Thanks to all who have answered so far. I appreciate your feedback.
Theta402008-11-28T12:19:11Z
Favorite Answer
--I had a violation report reversed. You have to appeal twice. First appeal and they send you automatically an email "it was rejected. If you want to make a final appeal, click here". So, click there. I know, takes lots of time and energy but if you think you're just, you can do it. Moreover, there is a forum for Yahoo Answers where you can protest . It's a kafkian process that actually means that Yahoo doesn't have time to spend for thousands of appeals. --But you should see the positive side of YA reporting system. I prefer that there are few wrong reports once in awhile if all serious offenses like insults, obscenities, games disappear. Yes there are trolls, but not so many as you think, I noticed once I had more violations than usual-I detected and blocked that person. It was one of my contacts. Suppose you lost one answer, so what actually did you lose? Money, self-esteem? This place is mostly for fun and changing information. Yahoo is interested mostly to click on their pages. More clicks=more ads=more money.Moreover, if you have 30000 points on YA it doesn't mean anything in real life. -- It's us who should make it valuable information. It's our duty to make the site interesting. Your answers and questions were very interesting, so you are a valuable source of information for this site. If you think it's worthy or not, it's your decision. Maybe you don't have time for it, maybe you thiunk it's childish- you will not be the first, not the last to abandon YA. Or maybe you think that actually there are several good things about it and decide to stay.
I say yes to that question. Y/ Q + A do keep the sight a bit more clean from the (immature) comments that only have vulgar language at their mouth-tips. This gets me a bit tweaked, BUT I say, "Is cencership GOOD?" Then I ask, "Can that go too far in someones elses hand?", and I say YES IT CAN. So even though it really irks me, the more energy I put into it it makes it persist, one of the universal laws, "What you resist PERSISTS." So if we avoid their words and not feed them, they will become bored and LEAVE. So a hint to you Y/ Q + A fans, "IGNORE THEM.' I came upon this decision after getting a rather vulgar e-mail about a comment about Prez. Elect Obama, I wanted to attack this guy because it was really a BAD, comment. Then I sat still, clicked off the e-mail, and let it be, "It is as It is." So I made it a point to try and not react when I see this trash on any blogg, and you MUST SAY that Y/ Q+A really is the best place to chatt. They do have a point about NOT Answering a Q, "I RAMBLE" So they are teaching me a valuable lesson.
There are other great sights BUT I found Yahoo Q + A very enjoyable, I only do this when TV stinks which is most of the time, and when I see a friend or contact has a Q and I check it out.
Keep chatting, you are very informing and interesting and I do have a connection to you. YOU WERE ONE OF MY FIRST FRIENDS on this tool of contact and OMG (LOVE TO USE THAT) I would miss you WarrenD. My Navy son would check out my friends and tell me what he thought, so He thot you were OK. So Enjoy your chatting with us, we do so enjoy.
Hope your Thanksgiving was LOVING and RELAXING. Ours was Even thought the third sibbling of my mommies passed 11-20-2008, Feb., April and 11/20, too many in 10 months. I think of all the others going through a tough Holiday and we have a colllective sadness and Yahoo Q + A is a way to escape and get into another MINDSET. I am very Happy with Yahoo Q + A, go easy on them Dear WarrenD. Peace!
Since this is a FREE sight, they let us ask anything, I think they are quite fare. Only one notice came in the begining for me, I felt "BETRAYED." BUT when I sat down and collected my thoughts, I saw wht they were doing. LIKE MY "C" friends that RAMBLE WITH quotes from the BIBLE, somedays I WISH FOR ONCE THEY HAD A THOUGHT of their own. WOW would that ever make me happy. Controll
I recently had two surgeries and can't do much at the moment except read, TV and computer. When I looked into Answers I was so pleased to think that I also could help some people and get some of my own questions answered.
Someone wrote a really kookie question about fairies and dragons and my answer was "I think you have been inhaling too much fairy dust" I was violated for that! Then violated for two more harmless answers. I wanted to know why but they sent an email saying that was the decision. So that was that.
I have looked around for another site similar to this one but haven't found one. I feel like they just don't need a few of us to complain and leave. They will get us replaced in a day or so. In other words THEY DON'T CARE!
If you are nearing 30,000 points and do feel that you have helped some people I wish you would stay a while. Perhaps if more people complain then the powers that be will wake up, but an old timer said don't count on it.
I'm tempted to leave also because of the stupid, stupid questions, the poor grammar and spelling, racism and filth. You have to travel a lot to find a really interesting, thoughtful, intelligent question.
Please stay, at least until you get your 30,000 and maybe by then you will feel better about hanging around. =)
What a joy to see a well-written note without spelling errors!
I'm actually glad to know that I'm not the only one who is experiencing these frustrations. I challenge every "violation" I get and have told Y!A point blank that I don't think they bother reading my rebuttals. Is there anything more frustrating than trying to argue with a computer?
And so like you, I do contemplate chucking it all and looking for another social network where participation would present an opportunity to share knowledge without dodging trolls. But there just aren't many sites out there that I feel would be a big improvement. I do participate in a forum dedicated to a television show but the site is quite elaborate and truthfully a bit overwhelming at times.
In the end, I'll hang around here because it's simple, and occasionally there are those questions that you can feel good about answering because you've contributed to a person's education or growth. I suppose I'll leave when it becomes too much of a chore to manage my irritation with "the management".
You stated: "But who decides, and how much do we split hairs? And if a stalker or troll decides to raise a little sand, is Yahoo management able to spot it and deal with it?" They do. And it has become clear to me, that they don't take anything into consideration as of who reported you or read your answer. If you are reported, they don't question it, they delete the question or comment without second thought.
I have also had an answer reported for "ranting". The problem with Yahoo Answers is most of the people involved in it are immature, oversensitive, and quick to report absolutely anything that disagrees with their narrow-minded beliefs. I am leading up to the fact that I am not surprised some of your questions mysteriously disappear or you once in a while get reported.
The competition if you did want to leave would be wikianswers. You could also try another community like propeller or digg.
I know it feels good to give people advice and help out, but maybe you shouldn't engross yourself in Yahoo Answers. Limit going on to a half hour or less a day. That way, you would never get truly dissappointed because you wouldn't be so involved.