Is asking for an opinion necessarily a chat violation?

No, an opinion isn't necessarily chat in terms of the guidelines. Many questions are not answerable with facts alone and require advice or personal thought. Some questions require an assemblage of user opinions, such as a poll or survey, in order to arrive at a general consensus. (In fact, if opinions were disallowed, there would be no Polls & Surveys category at all.)

In the Community Guidelines, it says, "Share what you know. Chances are, someone could benefit from your knowledge, opinions, or personal experiences. Sharing what you know is one of many ways you can make a positive contribution to the community." (http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines ) Also, in the "What is Yahoo! Answers?" FAQ, it states, "Everyone has life experience and knowledge about something, and Yahoo! Answers provides a way for people to share their experience and insight." (http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?page=content&id=SLN... ) Both "experience" and "insight" suggest opinion, in addition to fact.

I don't think any of the examples you provided are chat violations.

Some users will see the word "you" in a question and identify it as chat, expecting askers to phrase their questions in such a way as to avoid pronouns. However, "Who do you think will win?" is no different than "Who will win?" in essence; both invite respondents to provide their personal opinion.

Here's a relevant staff quote from the suggestion board:

"by Yahoo! Answers employee Lou | 5 years ago

As the first poster stated, it is not a violation simply because you used pronouns--that is silly. Answers is a knowledge-sharing site, and chatting does not contribute to knowledge that the community might find useful. A question should be knowledge-worthy, in other words. For example, "What's your favorite ___?" questions are usually considered chatting, but if the question details contain a knowledge-worthy reason for asking, i.e. "I want to buy a car and I need to know what people like", then it's not a violation."

(http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?prop=answers&... )

That phrase "knowledge-worthy" is another catch-all criterion used to determine whether users are in violation of chatting. The problem is, "knowledge-worthy" is not always factual, sometimes subjective. "What are the best parenting techniques?", for example, is a valid knowledge-seeking question, but respondents will each have their own opinions about the answer, informed by their own particular experiences. The asker can learn from these differing opinions how to better raise their own child. In your own examples, the responses might inform the asker whether or not to buy an iPhone or where to rank a particular baseball team in a fantasy league. Therefore, these opinion-based answers are knowledge-worthy.

So what is "chat", if not merely opinion?

The "chat" FAQ specifies gaming questions as chat, as well as questions/answers directed toward specific users. It then lists examples such as "How was your day?", "What's your age?", "Do you like my avatar?", etc. The chat FAQ ends with, "Exceptions to this rule would have to satisfy two criteria: The question would have to be 1) advice-seeking and 2) knowledge-worthy. For example, it would be OK to ask 'How can I improve my poem?' or 'How do I make my avatar look more attractive?'" (http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?page=content&id=SLN... )

From this, I gather that chat is something more intimate than opinion. It is exclusive; it pertains only to the participants in the exchange, not to anyone who may happen upon that Q&A later on. There's no collective knowledge gained from preserving what the current local time was when people answered a question years ago, or whether people back then liked a particular user's poem. However, advice on how to improve that poem could inform others down the road about how to improve their own poetry, which would make that advice knowledge-worthy.

Then again, this answer is merely my opinion. ;-)

On no account. The mentioned aim of Yahoo! Solutions is to create a database of capabilities: Q&As that can be utilized as a searchable resource for future readers who want to comprehend an answer to the identical question. That more or less defines the factor of "chat" being a violation: chatting would not serve that purpose. Chat is most commonly outlined as discussion that is of zero use to someone besides the asker - and quite generally no longer even that. It's intricate to fathom why some questions are requested, besides as some sort of stupid-seeking-silly social networking conducted by way of the medium of asking pointless questions.

I think the key portion is "contribute to useful knowledge". For example, "do you like red or orange nail polish" is more of a poll - the answer is a personal opinion, and does NOT contribute to useful knowledge. "Would a dog or a cat be more suitable for apartment living", although it might be an opinion, would likely include things such as space requirements, noise effects on neighbors, and excercise requirements - more of a general knowledge.

1. Personal opinion - no contribution towards general knowledge

2. Not violation, feature comparison WOULD contribute towards general knowledge

3. Not violation, feature comparison would contribute towards general knowledge

4. Most likely a personal opinion - I can't think of how a preference here would contribute towards general knowledge

5. Not violation - comparing and contrasting strengths and weaknesses would contribute towards general knowedge.

So, I'd peg #1 and #4 as chats.

What you quoted about chat violations basically does say asking for an opinion is a violation. It clearly says "Avoid posting questions that are more about declaring your opinions than seeking knowledge." That's saying that would be a violation.

Yes, if an strong opinon contributes useful knowledge.... are okay, but you'd have to make sure a question stating a strong opinion is seeking or providing useful information.

Bottom line... most of the time, questions simply seeking an opinion ARE chat violations.

All your examples are chat, so all would be violations. There is no useful information or knowledge resulting in asking for those opinions.

1. You have NO need to know what wedding dinner other people prefer. What would you, or any of us gain from knowing what other people like? Nothing.

2. Which phone is better.... if someone says one or the other, nothing is gained. All you know is what they like. And how would anyone know if they haven't had both phones? If you had asked something more specific about the features of each, and then which is better... that could possibly be providing you and others with some useful information.

3. Our opinon doesn't matter! What browser we use is a personal preference. Neither you or others would benefit from knowing what others like best. Again, had you asked about specific features, you might benefit from that information, let's say, if you were trying to decide which browswer to use.

4. Again... an opinoin. It is of no befefit to anyone.

5. Again... another opinion. It serves no purpose. Possibly of some interest (not benefit) to you, but of no value to anyone whatsoever. There is no useful knowledge being shared whatsoever.

It really depends on the nature of the question and the way it is phrased. Most of the examples you provided would be considered chat violations. For the second example however, you can rephrase it like this: "What are the pros and cons of the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S3?" If you rephrased the second example using the way I phrased it, it would not be a chat violation since you are actually asking a knowledge seeking question.

Most likely yes all would be chat violations. Asking for opinions would be a chat violation it is not seeking advice nor knowledge and there is no point in pushing the envelope here;.giving an opinion is providing neither knowledge nor advice.Also, none of the examples are of interest to the community.

For all your examples, you can ask them so they are not chat violations.

#1 Which entree would PEOPLE prefer for a wedding dinner Beef, Fowl, Seafood?

#2 What attributes of the iPhone 5 or the S3 make it better?

#3 What attributes of Internet Explorer or Firefox makes it better?

etc

Note in my versions you would be asking for facts, seeking knowledge, and you would still get the answers to which the responder likes better. Better, you don't have to worry about a chat violation.

no i don't thinkso were chatting now it's all on how the people want to look at it :) don't worry about it were just answering your question no chatting have a supper dupper day ;)