What reasonable modifications could Yahoo Answers make to improve the quality of the site?

I agree with both Matt's & your list of suggestions !!! Y!A would become so much better if these were implemented :-p

To add a few more to the list :

1. Highlighting.

When we want to stress something, we are limited to a capital initial or word [despite the fear of being seen as rude & shouting] or addition of a asterisk before & after the word/phrase. If only Y!A could give us One additional punctuation feature to highlight a word/phrase. It could be bold letters, italics, underscore, one different color, one diff font, one diff font size, ........

This is something I've been wanting to survey for a long time....

2. Number of web links that can be added in an answer is strictly 10.

I often need to give many more in my H&C & D&I answers. With even 1 link per idea, I sometimes have to trim it down. Since my files contain hyperlinks or active links, it is a nuisance to deactivate, type out the entire url & then add to answer. I wish they could increase the number at least after reaching a certain level [one of the perks, as Matt mentions]?

3. Report system .

While Matt has already detailed many aspects, I have included it again to reinforce the lopsidedness of the system. 2 of my answers (in H&C) have been reported; Both were reported After a gap of 1-3 years. I found nothing wrong with the content, the language, the relevance, etc. Yes, there were a whole bunch of websites that I added to my ideas. A couple of these might have changed in the interim. Even if that were so, I had no reference to the original Q, no proper appeal, no proper feedback, no sense of justice being done & the answers were deleted. I felt as if the system was loaded in favour of the reporter rather than a fair trial system.

I keep wondering whether it wouldn't be a bad idea to allow even the reported Q & As to be democratically open for voting. It would ensure a sense of fair-play & Openness.

4. An all-inclusive category.

P&S is one such category but it has a general time-pass attitude. Rarely does one get serious answers. There are some Qs that defy being slotted into a single category. Or one wants a multidisciplinary canvas. I've been wanting to ask a Q on the relationship between pain & sound for a long time but haven't been able to figure out a good category. I would like the thoughts of people from diff backgrounds including biology, neurology, psychology, medicine, anthropologists, etc. etc. Where can I ask such a Q?

There could be a 'miscellaneous" or "multidiscipline" category to house such Qs.

5. Search

I've faced similar problems ! There have been occasions when I typed out the entire Q verbatim, and still did Not get the correct search result !!! But Google gave me the link !!! Lot of work required by Y!A here.

6. Privacy

I second Matt's suggestion about segregating sections so that one has the option to keep one's Qs private but A's public & so on.

That's my 2-bits for now. Hope you are tuned in, Y!A :-)))

Edit - Add :

7. Blocking

I understand the need for this option. My only contention is that when a person has answered a Q & is subsequently blocked, s/he can no longer access her/his own answer ! It seems a bit unfair that all the "power" lies with the asker. An answer has as much importance as the question, even if it is in response to the latter. They go hand-in-hand ; Yahoo!Answers wouldn't exist if nobody bothered to answer ;-p

My simple suggestion is that while the answerer may be blocked, the page should be accessible/visible as a Read-Only page with no scope for any modifications, edits, additions, etc. This would apply Only to what the contributor has already contributed in the past & Not to any future activity that the blocker performs.

So many good ideas..

only can add or reinforce a couple.

Make levels 4 - 7 mean something.. a funny title, an extra avatar, more characters available, maybe earn the right to use *italics*, maybe increased weight to violations you report?.. and more scrutiny given to violations reported against you.

More **transparency*** on how YA runs the site.

The guidelines are vague..

and no details are forwarded to you about why it was a violation.

but after awhile you get a feel for what will or will not be tolerated..

but the actual suspension seems to come as a complete surprise to people.

There should be a set # or warnings, or something to tell you when you are crossing the line into suspension.

Also on the *transparency* issue the "top contributor" title seems completely meaningless.

I suppose Yahoo can run the site however it wants.. but would like to see some other achievements that we could tell what they actually meant.

"TOP Contributor" seems to be awarded on a completely random basis.

maybe some "Best Answer" achievements

to offset the complete randomness of the "top contributor "

Wiseacre - "above 50% best answer" in a particular category.

Jack of all trades " answered in ALL categories and got at least 20% best answer"

On a streak " got 5 best answers in a row within the last 3 days "

Notable " high percentage of questions marked "Interesting"

Smarty pants "got above 75% best answer"

My list mostly mirrors yours.

1. Answer character limits. A character limit is fine. The fact that we have no way to assess what the limit is while writing an answer, using the functionality of the website, is not fine. A simple way to expand the character limit functionality might be to increase the limits for better established users, either determined via user level, best answer percentage, or some combination.

2. Private message functionality. Lacks basic features that make it even remotely useful. There's a character limit, which is fine, but which is pointless because when someone exceeds the limit they just send an additional message.

3. Privacy setting functionality. The privacy settings are good of course, but lack features when referencing what you want to show/hide and who from. For example, there's no way to hide your questions from your contacts (I imagine some people might want to do this, as this is what necessitates the unofficial Y!A policy of allowing a second account for the purpose of asking more anonymous questions) but allow them to see your answers, as an example. There's also no way to show everything to your mutual contacts, show your answers with fans, but hide your questions from fans (or vice versa).

4. The "Clippy" clone. I mean, the wonderful popup to the side of the answer box, that almost invariably tells me that I've used too much punctuation. Even if I stray into the Mathematics section, using math symbols alerts me that perhaps I should use less punctuation. It's extremely annoying. I'm sure this might be helpful to some users, especially those who are still using ancient browsers that don't integrate some kind of spell check natively, but it probably would just be easier to make it a setting that's by default enabled and that users can disable, or at least disable once reaching a certain level.

5. The "Clippy" clone and resizing the answer box. Since I inevitably resize the answer box almost every time, I've noticed that the position of the "helpful" popup isn't offset by the box size. It's fixed. Causing it to pop up over what I'm writing, and making it much more annoying.

6. The points and levels system. It needs a redesign. There's no functional difference between levels 4 through 7, aside from increased ability to vote (at least from 4 to 5 and 5 to 6, but not from 6 to 7), but what percentage of the user base votes more than 200 times per day? How many vote more than 25 times per day (the limit for level 1 users)? There's very little incentive to vote on questions, and that's a problem (both in unresolved questions, which are annoying for users and which don't generate revenue for Yahoo!), and that could be easily increased by a point/level system redesign.

7. The reporting system could be improved all around. The appeals process is poor, the system is easily abused by malcontents, and reports generate almost no useful feedback to the reported user (could easily reduce the number of appeals, streamline appeals, and inform users of things they weren't aware of) and none to the reporting user (some people might misuse the system with good intentions, and have no idea about doing so). If the issue is the time-intensiveness of human review, it'd presumably be fairly easy to insert a classifier (trained from data presumably collected regarding reports) into the process either before or as a substitute for human review.

The search functionality you mention would also be nice, but I suspect that part of the reason the ability to search by a particular user isn't implemented because of the potential for abuse.

I can only echo all the above ....... (IF Y!A even Bothers to read them!!!)

The report system completely SUCKS!-

One-sided-

Guilty until proven innocent ,,,

Appeals are a JOKE .... you can copy,cut/paste & document until you are Blue in the face -

"Appeals are denied" is all these people understand .....

** If it COST 10 Points to report, it would improve YA & reduce the Trolls .......

A better system is needed that is NOT slanted toward the "Reporters"...

If they are found to be WRONG, they should face a fine of 25 points - -

YA Doesn't even quote the original "Report", or the question... so the FIRST thing you have to do

is search for an hour to see what you said to be "offensive" !!!

The site needs a M A J O R Do-Over !!!!!!!

Add a way to follow your own comments on answers so that a hacker can not maliciously use a member's account to place comments on various answers without the account holder's consent or knowledge. Yahoo has two lists that a member can follow: Question and Answers. For security reasons they should add comments.

Members would be able to track both their answers, questions and comments to spot evidence of hacksterism.

um, yeah- agree. agree fully. i could also do without teh logo changing every blinking time i log in- it always drags my eye up towards the top left corner as the shape is different. pick one and stay with it, chaps.

was actually going to make a Suggstion on the suggestions board about the character limit, as i get driven into hunched up fury each time i come on the site. im more verbose than im articulate : )

naturally i was going to email you, so you could add your two penneth worth, as i had, oh.. you know.. a vague idea it might bug you too :D

i like M's suggestion a catch all/random category- p&s is just the bored, or people wanting to ratchet up points; adolescent, but for adults. but not like a *cough*.Adult section.

id also REALLY like to be able to choose a uk only option for categories like politics- there is one, but noone knows how to use it. it doesnt work from the uk, though it appears to work ok for americans (which is, you know, ironic and whatnot).

oh yeah, and the ads- ive only seen them a few times, when ive not been on my ad blocked mac, but yes- tasteless in the extreme (know what, there is no 'cure' for aspergers, so shut the hell up), and in the case you mention, catestrophic.

and yeah- id love some of my old accounts back :/ one was 'suspended' after the first time i used the site to answer ONE question.

and malicious reporting- my last account was 'suspended' because some utter cow disagreed with me (im totally right, naturally. ha no, i really was) and reported me for 'hate speech and violence'. appeals did nothing- that REALLY needs to be looked at.

to be fair thuogh, i do actually like the site- there's a far too high % of muppets on elsewhere, and i like getting points.... *shifty eyes*

There needs to be an easy way to respond to the asker once the question has had a best answer chosen.

What I mean is that this scenario happens too often:

--I answer a question.

--Asker chooses mine as best answer, but in the comments, asks more questions.

--Asker has no contact information and no email button on their profile.

--I have no way to give them the further information they've asked for.

So I think the "best answerer" should be able to follow up with more information if the asker is wanting it.

An easy fix when question is placed in wrong category! All will not open when clicked after clicking edit!

Create more categories personalize the category system.

Love all of the suggestions you have made.

Cannot think of any to add myself at the momment but wanted to endorse al you have suggested so Yahoo! don't think you are the only one who would like to see these changes take place.