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Who rates answers ? Sabotaging Yahoo answers records?
I don't specially care for BA but it is irritating to see so many answers not rated by the asker and rated by incompetent or malevolent voters (or people who care only for accumulating points)
I have a lot of examples of completely wrong (or stupid) answers chosen as best even though other were correct.
If YA wants to have more than a mostly junk record, shouldn't they suppress the rating by voters ? And when askers don't care for choosing, withdraw points untill they would be turned out.
Examples:
Modulus Argument Complex number?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aid2K...
Two answers. The author of the 'best' says explicitly he doesn't know what Mod-Arg form is. I gave the answer. Clearly dishonest on the part of the (one) voter
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What is the incompatibility between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtI0M...
'Best' got two votes for an empty answer saying that GR wants a precise position to any given point (!) and Qm is a realm of probabilities. Makes qm incompatible with everything else in physics. We were 2-3 to strive to give detailed answers.
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Anyone good at combination?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnSrG...
The 'best' does not answer the question. Apparently doesn't understand it.
Also this was completely dishonest on the part of the vot
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Centripetal Acceleration?!?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsTvM...
'Best answer' completely wrong. Answerer mistakes 6cm for .6m. + another technical error.
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Gambling game between A and B?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsHFQ...
We were two to give the right answer. Two people voted for 'best' who didn't know the conditional probability formula to be used, made some calculations with Excel and produced a completely wrong numerical answer.
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Why light can exist even after its source is gone?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmK5d...
No explanations other than 'it is due to the nature of light' by 'best' who got two votes though we were several to give explanations for zero votes.
And so on and so forth...if people rate the answers to their own question, I don't question even though they sometimes try only to make fun of the answerers, but these stupid votes make the whole record fishy.
Ricky, there are interesting suggestions on ways to select serious askers in the responses to a question at this address: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201004...
Also, I suggest suppressing vote when no BA is chosen by Asker, or at least suppressing the points to voters which are an incentive to random answering. And withdrawing points from askers who do not give BA. To fight random BA's one could also imagine an appeal procedure which could only be judged by to contributors in the domain of concern. Some time ago
I answered a question about Dirac's delta and the Asker's BA went to someone who answered: why don't you ask your teacher ? For this type of case, even the YA people should be able to judge..
Sorry, gave a wrong address for the reference above. Here is the right one.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiPPx...
I feel very much like Madhukar. Split between these nice people who appreciate what you try to do for them and the feeling that you are really wasting a lot of time. Maybe YA people will understand some day that taking care of the site quality is of importance if they don't want to destroy what they have created.
One more example
Kinetic energy problem
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArdEe...
BA given to wrong answer. I guess it is sometimes done on purpose. The YA system is decidedly rotten.
4 Answers
- Scythian1950Lv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
I completely sympathize with you. A lot of Y!A Askers pose such questions that require answers they really can't judge as best. Or worse, the Askers are either too lazy or unconcerned to take the time to select a BA. Once the question goes into Voting, then it's a free-for-all. Most voters are more interested in just picking up points than taking the time to read through and understand all the answers. And there's the problem of vote-stackers, which everybody knows has become a growing problem.
I'm not clear what's a solution to this problem. Unfortunately, even if a good solution exists to resolve this quandary, Yahoo! Answers is not going to do a thing about it. Why won't they? Because Yahoo! is a corporation, and so far it thinks Y!A is a fair success, and the only source of revenues is from advertising, so why make any drastic changes? "Jeopardy!" could have gotten rid of the silly rule about framing all answers in terms of questions, but they have steadfastly refused to do so because the show is a "proven formula". Why change?
What I've been doing is that before I take the time to give complete, thought-out answers to such questions, I'll check the Asker's profile and see if the Asker is one who might be likely to appreciate such answers and select a BA. If I get the impression that the Asker probably won't understand my answer, I don't bother. And when I do give such lengthy answers, and after some days I can see that there is no response to it, I'll simply delete it, and save it for a better Y!A in the future.
- Always HopefulLv 61 decade ago
Human societies must have started like this, with people giving more or less random answers to life's queries. But over time, some people got given more respect than others, for a variety of reasons one of which might have been wisdom in a particular field. Some societies gave the resect to the wrong people, and that is evidently still with us. What mechanism do you suggest by which the users of Y!A could assign credibility values to different contributors?
- MadhukarLv 71 decade ago
I fully agree with what you have stated and share your frustrations. Such experience become a disincentive for honest answerers to participate. However, many of my contacts express their appreciation also in many good words that keeps me going. I do not know who will ultimately control my mind and when. I know some good answerers have quit YA for this reason. This problem of YA! merits serious consideration as to how can it be effectively tackled. Unfortunately, any number of good suggestions from serious users are ignored by YA as they are more concerned about their business rather than paying attention to upholding the credibility of the very good community service website they have created.
- Anonymous5 years ago
in common terms have been given pronounced as quickly as for a stupid reason, i became going to attraction it, yet different solutions pronounced they simply enable captivating to sound honest. I advise perchance it befell some situations, yet i think of they have been kidding. only pass alongside with it, study the guiellines and words of provider only IN CASE, then delete your email speaking approximately it. every person gets pronounced each and every so often, and it;'s in many situations for stupid motives, if any.