As the Question Asker, do you give special treatment to "Top Contributor's" answers?

Neither actually.

I dont look for badges because alot of us have lost them due to unfair treatment, so just cuz someone doesnt have one, doesnt mean they dont know what they are talking about.

I very rarely pick someone who just signed up, only cuz wjp knows if they are coming back.

I tend to look at my contacts first, and they usually get special treatment, and they all give really great answers.

But if I cant pick between one of them, I look at the thumbs up and base it on that.

You know, this very question in itself is technically a violation of community guidelines. While I can see you are simply expressing your point of view, the manner, wording and tone in which you are expressing it is clearly geared towards inflaming and inciting others. If you have these concerns, and you're clearly not even asking a question more then ranting, (violation number 2) you need to be taking that up with YA and not on here. Saying what you are saying is nothing many don't already know and one of the biggest reasons I direct people to other forums where "voting" and popularity don't deter from actually sharing and gaining knowledge. This place, no matter how well the answers are put never accomplishes that as to the very things you've pointed out. If YA were truly interested in a system made to promote accurate information exchange, and not something made that everyone who's allowed on the internet without parental supervision can be an "expert", then they wouldn't even have a voting system, which I personally do not like. Voting is no way able to determine a best answer, it's simply an answer that's "popular" is all. I could just as well answer a question of "what color is the moon?" and say white, and have someone say blue, totally inaccurate, yet have 10,000,000 contact friends that will vote for him. My point there is, the votes can support every wrong answer as much as the right one and the whole system should be eliminated. While even an asker can pick what they WANT to hear vs what the truth is, at least it eliminates the vote hogs like you are saying. This isn't nothing I haven't already brought up in the main forum of yahoo itself but noone there wants to hear or believe in that anyways. That fact you are using a level 1 id, brand new leads me to think this isn't your main ID. I'm not going to state that as a fact, but when you say that "I have come here for answers. What I see is childish ego wars and people who know very little getting notoriety." and discover this "amazing secret" many have known a long time so fast, tells me you aren't new to this YA thing. While this place is far from perfect, I really dislike people that hide under a different ID to say or ask something they are afraid their higher ranked ID's would get penalized for. So once again, all any one individual can do is to simply answer what you know, and try. When that falls on deaf ears, trolls cause more disruptions to boost their overwheeming online ego's, and others just plain don't even know what they are talking about, there's really no reason not to direct an asker who clearly is looking for information, to a more professional forum that has live moderators to weed out the garbage and riff raff.

No, I just look for the best answer. Top contributors gain that status by getting a certain number of best answers, but only within a specific catagory. For example, I have a lot of best answers in Marriage and Divorce, but I also spend a lot of time in the Weddings section, as well as Cats and Diet and Fitness.

Since the person asking the question doesn't know what catagory got the answerer to "Top Contributor" status, it shouldn't give the answer any more weight.

Also, you can get a lot of best answers by going back to the questions you answered where the asker didn't select a best answer. Once the question goes into Voting, you can vote your own answer as best answer. If no one else votes against you, you can basically vote yourself as the best answer, thereby padding the statistics to look like you have a lot more best answers chosen by the asker than you actually do.

I don't often ask, but if I do, I pick the best answer, regardless. But many on the site are prejudiced either for or against TCs. Many will not choose a TC, thinking they either cheat or have 'enough' Best Answers already. Others do seem to be swayed by that orange badge and choose a TC because they assume we know more than others (not necessarily true, of course).

No i don't. Who ever gives the best information and supportive answer is the one i vote for. In most cases its never been a top contributer. Top contributers are people who either have a high level, been here longer then most, or have answered a lot of questions yadda yadda. Because they are a top contributer i don't think they are the best. A lot of people are giving great answers.

The TC badge does not influence who I choose as best answer at all. A TC badge does not always equal intelligence.

i look for the best answer, which is what we are supposed to do. as for the top contributors how are they even chosen because sometimes their answers are no better than my four year old's would be

Always look for the answer that answers your question the best.

No not at all. I've had people with that little badge thing and their answer was SO not the best.

I always look for the Best.

The TC Badge is more about quantity than quality, if you ask me.