Yahoo Answers - What will be your motivation?

I am 68 years old and have learnt a lot from life experiences. I keep doing self-introspection to decide what wrong I did and what steps I need to take to correct myself. For many years of my life, I had the habit of advising people based on my experience with a good intention. It took me some time to realize that this is not liked by many and also is not helping them in any way. I have a prayer of my own which is not to God, but to remind me of my weknesses so that I can overcome them. I included in that prayer a line not to give unsolicited advise to others.

I used to try to teach math and physics to my relatives' children in high school and found them disliking me as they did not want to learn from me. By participating on Yahoo Answers, I am able to overcome this weakness as here I am advising people who are soliciting advise. I solve problems of math and physics of those students who are interested and are asking for help. So, the question of giving unsolicited advise does not arise here.

I had a lot of training in my religion for years in my childhood and I realized how many things are not proper in religion, though I am not a religion-hater. Whenever I used to share my views with the people having blind faith in all religious matters, they were not happy. However, here it was possible to give my views who ask for it. Unfortunately, I realized that though Yahoo Answers has created this site to gain knowledge, there are many in this category who try to impart knowledge by asking questions and then expect an answer to get support for their belief. They are not interested in constructive answers. When one such member asked a question and I answered, he indulged in arguments which kept on side-tracking moving away from the original question. This type of chat is against community guidelines of Yahoo Answers and also it becomes a torture for other readers to read them. As the asker was not happy with my answer that did not support his views and was trying to manoeuvre to make me agree to his views by indulging in arguments, I decided to delete my answer. Not satisfied, he floated a question soliciting community's opinion on my behaviour which he considered cheating, and you too followed up with that. Despite the fact that the opinion of the community was overwhelmingly in my favour, you selected an answer of a member who did not clear me of a derogatory charge of cheating. Thus, my participation in R&S category was creating more problems for the peace of my mind than solving. Also, though i was giving my views to those who solicited them, it created a new problem in which I was expected to give views on their line of thinking. Such members claim to be believers of free-thinking but restrict it to themselves. They do not tolerate free-thinking by others. I take a lot of pains in answering questions, provide detailed, lengthy answers and considerable thinking goes behind what I write. The outcome for me was dislike of my answers by the askers and criticism which ended up into my being treated as a "cheat", "hypocrite", "providing vague, sentimental answers devoid of facts".

I did self-introspection to decide where I went wrong so that I can take an appropriate decision for not making such errors. I concluded that I must channelise my energies and strength in those areas where I could be of service to the community and not hurt anyone or make anyone unhappy with my answers. It was for this reason that I decided to stay away from R&S section and continue to participate in math, physics and other categories where my answers can be useful to the askers. Even in these categories, I delete my answers if found incorrect, lengthy or not better than other answerers so that readers do not have to waste their time reading inferior answers. Many of my valuable contacts do point out my silly errors which I correct with thanks and retain my answers after correction. Eveything I do, whether answering a question, editing or deleting it, I do after careful consideration about my action. Still, if I am making any mistake, I wish that the members pardon me for the errors I do as a human and I apologise for hurting anyone's feelings.

Edit:

My answer as above does not constitute a proper answer to your question. The last line of your question in detail just above additional details, "The motivation of becoming a member in yahoo is to teach, learn and to spread knowledge" is a perfect answer of your question with which I agree. Besides that, my motivation is to spend my time enjoying this activity and giving me a peace of mind. In that process, I have the freedom of participating and not participating in categories that helps me meet my motivation.

The difference between math and science category and R&S category is that in math, the answer can be correct or incorrect which is not the case in R&S. Answers in R&S section are value-judgements which can neither be proved or disproved. Accept them or reject them.

What ever you have said seems to be correct.

However we provide answers and share knowledge free of cost. But Yahoo and Google are earning millions from it. Apparently they do not charge anything from the person who benefited from the information we provided. But this increases popularity of these sites and the group earns in millions indirectly.

Also here more than 50% information are useless.

For knowledge sharing WIKIPEDIA is a better place.

Hopefully to learn something or pass on some knowledge. It's always gratifying to help someone out and having some fun and a few laughs in the process is a plus.

When I started in June of '07, it was for points, and to have fun. I wanted to get to unlimited answers, and I was a bit addicted to it. Then I just wanted to have fun. But now it's for points because it's not as fun, and I'm much closer to Level 7 now. So, that's my current goal on Answers. It's also fun to get answers, and thumbs up, and BAs, too.

Seeing other peoples great answers and questions especially top contributors answers. Believe it or not the Questions and answers have motivated me so much that I've become very serious about Y!answers its not just a past time anymore its an important part of my life and many other people should feel that way to. people really take it for granted and say oh its just a pass time but most people who say that just haven't found that one special question or answer that turns there whole life around and shows them the true meaning of life....sniff.......sniff

In preparing an answer for the selected question I do gain some knowledge. That apart not much. So actually my source of knowledge is not Y/A. Because it is not reliable as most of the answers are given without any real knowledge. Most of the members are here to just kill time. One should not take these answers seriously. There are exceptions like Sri Vidya sir, Harithaji, Trishaji, Ram sir, Flute sir, DD etc who are very sincere and give their best. But spirituality and Religion has to be lernt from a real life guru and not from anonymous answerer. An acharya or guru will never come to Y/A and answer the questions. So my advice to a spiritual seeker is to approach an acharya /guru personally and receive the jnana.

As you said in your last sentence, my motivation is to teach, learn and to spread knowledge. in this process I got many friends as well as enemies. I may criticise religions and their imaginary presidents (Gods). But one cannot think that "God" is a person and hence my criticism will not be an impersonation. Again, "God" is not a member of Yahoo answers. "God" is not the property of some individuals or of a group. If I use the words "Wicked", "cruel" etc. about "God", it is for correcting the belief system. "God" is neither the creator nor the destroyer in my opinion. Saying "God" a killer of own children make "Him" call cruel. Actually Theists are abusing "God" by saying destroyer of own creations but not me.

To the members here, I never use abuse words but I will strongly criticise their belief. (Those who think that I called them a 'cheat' is their imagination and I request them to check my sentence again).

I will continue my fight against religious ignorance and blind beliefs and foolish rituals, inside and outside Yahoo answers.

அண்ணா, பூந்து விளையாடிட்டேள்!

Y/A Terms and Conditions என்கின்ற மருந்தை தேன் குழைச்சுக் கொடுத்திருக்கேள்.

If one deposits his money in a bank he gets interest.

If one deposits his knowledge in Y/A others get interest.

Actually members have migrated from other categories to Religion category as it is interesting,thrilling,vibrating,scintillating,mesmerizing,reverberating,crossing swords-full of activities.

Have you become an Ambassador of Y/A?

You people's knowledge is best motivation for me ..