How does Y!A rank the top answerers in a category?

My amount of best answers in one category changes so much that I can't even remember how many I have anymore!! Some days it will change by over 100!

It is just them tweaking the system, I think, and you aren't losing any best answers. My ranking hasn't been affected by the changes, but I have noticed it will bump backwards to a previous setting. Meaning, it will go back to a setting that is one month old, so everyone will be posted as they were one month ago. Then it will be current, then it will go to last week's, then it will change to 6 weeks ago...so on and so forth. That is why you see your ranking changing, it is displaying settings from past times, randomly. I have lost my top contributor badge once for inactivitiy, but I did not lose my top answerer spot, so my experience says no, you will not lose your top ten status unless someone passes you and bumps you to eleven.

Yahoo is having glitches at the moment.

And the top 10 lists are affected.

While the current list is not available they show an old one. Now the current ones are back up.

I do not think that you will be taken out of the top 10 list when you stop answering questions in that category, you will just be overtaken by others who will than have more best answers.

That is one of Y's little mysteries.