What can you do with irrelevant and wrong answers chosen as BEST?

I think that when asking a question to which the answer is important, there needs to be a certain amount of "due diligence" on behalf of the asker to verify the accuracy of the answer, rather than just taking them as gospel. This applies to all research, whether the source of the information was the internet, a research paper etc.

Personally, I always check the quality of previous answers given by respondants in order to get an idea as to their credibility. If someones previous answers are poor then I will be cynical of any answer of theirs that I am reading.

That said, I think it would be a nice idea if besides the "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs down" icons, there was also a "Dispute accuracy" icon, where you could also add comments specifying why you felt the answer they were giving was inaccurate. It would be pointless reporting "wrong" answers because Yahoo staff barely have the time to police the questions currently asked, leave alone researching any answer that might be reported purely on the grounds of it's accuracy!

As for bad and inaccurate answers being chosen as Best, I don't know what can be done. Maybe a rule such as "any answer where two or more people had selected the 'Dispute accuracy' icon is ineligible to be chosen as the Best answer"? I don't know if there's an easy solution here.

What I tend to do when I see an answer that is wrong, is answer the question myself but start with a note in capital letters drawing attention to the inaccuracy of the bad answer. I did this only two weeks ago with this question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApP76...

In my opinion there is nothing you can do because the system is not set up to report bad questions or bad answers that meet the community guidelines. I have seen many answers begin with "I have never seen, done, or heard of that, but ......" and them there is a rambling guess at the answer.

What really ticks me off is when I do some research to be sure that my answer is correct and then the asker picks another answer because that is the answer they want, or heard.

You can report them IF they violate community guidelines.

Sometimes it is best to report the question, IF it isn't really a question.

In other words, questions can also violate community guidelines.

So, if you see a question like:

"God is evil?"

and a best answer is chosen as:

"Yes"

You can't report the answer, but you can report the question because this is not really a properly worded question.

You can also report a question if it includes info not related to the question.

Like, if someone asked, "How do you earn points on Yahoo answers?"

and someone said,

"You ought to know! You are a top contributor!"

As for me, when I see a violation of answers or questions I usually report them.

I don't get points for that, but for every report that is well founded, Yahoo then considers my next report as more reliable.

Congrats on being top contributor...I am a couple of points away from level FOUR...

And if it will make you feel better, surf the resolved questions.

You will easily see a ton that can be reported, and that will help clear out the database of useless garbage.

G'day Iani s.

Thank you for your question.

It's good to catch up with you again. You could report it but that can annoy people. The other problem is that the moderators sometimes choose to delete perfectly good answers as has happened to me.

If it is within the community guidelines, leaving a comment and downrating is the only option and trusting in the good sense of your fellow Yahoo! Answers users.

Good to catch up with you again.

Regards

My opinion...You must decide upon the exceptional reply situated on it answering your query the exceptional. There are individuals who use the beyond query and solutions as an alternative of posting a query they usually must see an reply that's going to provide them the information they're watching for. But, it is your query, and your sandbox, so that you select what you think is exceptional for you.

i have emailed the asker and answerer the correct info before.

nothing you really do about it

"Yahoo! does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any Yahoo! Answers content. Click here for the Full Disclaimer".

LOL it's the same people leaving the answers that are voting their own. There's nothing you can do. It's up to Yahoo!

report for violation

all you can do is report it...if you see it..but it must violate the community guide lines...for you to be able to do that..if you see aan answer thta says "i don't know" or "huh" What' or anything simaler it is a violation and can be reported

Short answer? NOTHING!!!

Absolutely nothing... just ignore them and try not to lose sleep about them. ;)