Misuse of question and answer format?

Yesterday someone asked "Atheists, studies show you are less generous than theists, why?"

I provided an answer, with a reference, showing the amount of foreign aid donated by the top ten donor countries and showed that, per head, non-religious countries donate far more than religious countries (e.g., US donates $41 per head while Norway donates $375 per head).

I think this clear showed that the "questioner" was wrong (note, he didn't provide any evidence for his assertion).

Sixteen people thumbed up my answer.

Today I got an email saying me answer had been deleted for "misuse of the question and answer format".

So, if providing a direct and relevant answer to a question is wrong, what exactly is this website for?

And why did someone report me?

2010-08-13T04:08:27Z

@Barking Toad: Yes, I've disputed it. I was just surprised because I've certainly posted plenty of responses in the past that might be construed as not being direct answers, but this wasn't one of them.

2010-08-13T04:11:48Z

@JeffreySpringer57: It wasn't "charitable donations per head" it was "foreign aid per head". I was already aware that the Scandinavian countries donated far far more than most per head so I just went to google and found loads of links confirming it, e.g.:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930884.html#axzz0wU1dCYyb
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-doners-of-foreigner-aid-map.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/business_aid_and_development/html/1.stm

2010-08-13T04:53:05Z

@Greg: Having a state church doesn't mean everyone believes it. We have two here in the UK (CoE and CoS) but hardly anyone goes to church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Norway

Lisa2016-04-13T02:33:30Z

It's a matter of interpretation. What some consider chat, I consider a valid question. I can honestly say I don't misuse it nearly as much as some who have a mean streak a mile wide. I think Yahoo would say most of us misuse the format, in one way or another.

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Steve2010-08-13T04:05:20Z

Jeez, like that's never happened. Yeah, you'd think a question (which can be identified by a "?" at the end) with an answer after it would fit the 'question and answer format', but you'd be wrong.

But, YA has chosen to not appoint moderators, rather to allow the computers to take care of the details.

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Barking Toad2010-08-13T03:52:21Z

And did you dispute the deletion?

Generally speaking, the report monkeys will report anything they disagree with, whether it is a violation or not, and Yahoo! does not check it unless you dispute the original deletion (and even then, I'm not sure).

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jefferyspringer57@sbcglobal.net2010-08-13T03:53:35Z

Why did someone report you? Unknown.

Curiousity; where did you get your info from 'charitable contributions per head?

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Anonymous2010-08-13T03:54:42Z

A lot of people seem to report,probably because they can't think of something to say -M to the O to the U to the S to the E and finished off with chi,thanks for listening!

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