We'll say hypothetical question.?

I can tell who is staff and they all don't have the staff logo beneath their avatars. If Yahoo is going to have a Top Contributor and points system offered to the general public, it should NOT be offered to Yahoo employees or former employees. Those people dominate the Q & A on 360! and Answers. (Mostly the answers on those categories) If Yahoo is going to allow employees and former employees to compete with the general public, those people will ALWAYS have an edge over the general public. Yahoo should just eliminate the categories for Yahoo products from Answers altogether and just have those employees have a Yahoo! Help page and answer those questions there, not in Answers where the general public is answering and some are trying to become TC or get Best Answers in competeing with other "General Public" (NOT Yahoo employees or former Yahoo employees) They have an unfair edge. Bud, I agree with you 100%. The competition for Top Contributor and Best Answers is swayed toward those employees which IS unfair.

Given that both points and TC status are meaningless, it's not UNfair.

Other people getting points or TC badges hurts you HOW?

There are people who answered lots of questions, reached the highest level, and were subsequently hired by YA.

I think it's good when staff actually spend time on this site.

That way, they see what's going on here.

They have no more resources than the rest of us: minds and a world wide web.

I've had TC status for the Yahoo Answers category of YA most weeks since TC was implemented and I"m not staff.

But, the most important thing to remember is that the points don't buy you a house, or do anything else, nor does TC status.

They are just completely bogus "rewards" for the rubes, to ensure the site isn't filled with unanswered questions.

I think this would be a MUCH better site without all that sludge, as the morons go for the "rewards" as though their lives depended on them, thus filling the site with garbage, including questions whining about points and badges and stars (oh, my!).

Uh, that's a pretty specific scenario for a "hypothetical" question you got there.

Do you really expect us to believe you don't have specific people in mind?

"Hypothetically", who are we talking about? The only ones on the staff at higher levels that I know of are Jane & Yamster. Both have been on a while, the Yamster since December 2005, Jane since August 2006 -- but both have barely answered 1000 questions, which really is not that much. And yes, if it gets GOOD information out there, why not.

<P.S. Before you EVEN ask, NO, I don't really work for Yahoo!>

Well, no, it's not exactly fair. But I wouldn't see a motivation in doing this if they were actually a Yahoo! staff member. If there is some proof of this available, it would be interesting to see it. Oh, but you did say hypothetical...

Hypothetical answer. Yes.

Now, let's talk turkey.

What person is actually doing this? If they answer as a member and not staff, there is no problem with that. If the questions are being answered as Staff and it is NOT done in context with their job, there is a problem.

as long as the staff memeber is playing by the same rules as the average user why not?

I would not care as long as I get the answers I need..

Is there a reasaon you ask? Do you have a guilty concious or what? I really don't care personally....

it doesnt really matter to me, the points are almost useless any how.

if they work they need their points to.