Why do we get points taken away when asking a question on Yahoo answers?

Fair question CISCO, but I can see plenty of good reasons for it.

I think first, and maybe most importantly, it's actually to encourage participation. You earn the right to continue to ask questions by answering some yourself. If answering isn't your thing, you can also earn points by voting on answers as well.

You pointed out that it "costs" five points to ask a question, but consider that the site gives you back three points when you take the time to pick a best answer. If you stick to this process, the question really only winds up costing 2 points (the same amount of points earned for answering a question.)

There are other reasons too, like discouraging abuse. It's not a bad system. A lot of time and thought has gone into it. Nobody is saying it's perfect and yahoo does "tweak" things from time to time as well.

The points are deducted to stimulate participation and hold down spamming, trolling and bots. By requiring you to "pay" for the questions, it makes you need/want to "earn" by answering, as well. And it keeps the spammers, trolls & bots from coming on here and just endlessly junking up the site even more than they do now.

Check this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/info/scoring_sy...

for all the information about scoring, points and levels. You can return to that page by clicking the blue # link next to your points or level by your avatar.

Because it is yahoo answers not yahoo questions! Anyway, If anyone has a question and wants it to be solved he will certainly ask that without any care about losing points.

Aaaahhhh Cisco, rules are rules and we have to accept them on YA. Instead of asking questions, go to a category that you know something about and answer lots of questions. You will earn points instead of losing them.

I agree with Yahzmin and todvango

haha i dunno but im gonna answer your question that way i can get points cause i just asked a question too. lmao Man its hard to get to level 2.

because people want to sit back and ask silly questions.