Does anyone read the whole question now?

I still do, but ... I think those of us who do are in the minority, lately!

The double points certainly does contribute to the 'trend' you describe. Any enticement to get more points, faster, will encourage those who answer only for points to answer MORE, not better.

And yes, the Facebook and Twitter crowd are the users Yahoo! seems to want to attract, and their habit is to quickly scan, then post. Little-to-no attention to detail, faster is better, everyONE has to 'comment' on everyTHING ...

And of course, there are always those users who simply scan for keywords in questions for which they can just 'plug in' their tired copy/paste 'canned' answers.

Yahoo! Answers has, sadly, become a playground for those who treat the site as a playpen, a game, or just another social network. And Yahoo! seems to want to encourage participation from users who have no interest in actually helping others or providing real knowledge. Since a crappy answer rewards the user with the same number of points as a great answer, there is not much incentive for users to take the time to read the details and provide a helpful answer.

Yes - some people do.

I did read your additional details before answering now.

It depends on my mood whether I would read the additional details or not. If its a level 1 user, who I have never seen before has posted a Q with a long rant in their additional details, then I might not read it and answer only on the basis of having read the header, if I think I know the answer.

I usually pay more attention to the questions posted by my contacts or friends on here, and I will often try to give a really good answer, if I like that user personally - not in attempt to get chosen "best answer" but to actually help that person out.

My guess is that about 80% of the users here are here to boost their own self esteem by getting pointless points, meaningless TC badges, top of the leaderboard, etc.. all of it 100% meaningless..there is a user who sits atop a country's leaderboard who has done nothing but chat and agree to illegal activity, such as helping with bank heists, to get there.

How meaningless is that? they don't read, they don't care..they just want points to feel good about themselves. Pathetic, no?

I do believe this site is becoming more favorable towards the type of chatnecks attracted by becoming more like FB, twitter, etc, and that's part of the problem. Honestly I think many of them don't know - they are so used to being allowed to do whatever they want they feel entitled to do the same here.

It certainly isn't the asker's fault in most cases. Askers "pay" 5 points to ask - they want answers... If you havent got 30 seconds to read the rest of the question you do not deserve the 4 points you get for "answering" it. The point is supposed to be providing answers to questions, not getting as many pointless points as quickly as possible.

people do not read questions they want best answer without having to do anything.

I know this to be true of most.

sadly they miss out and wonder why.

Occasionally I am too sleepy and answer the questions wrong and have to go back and edit them.

It certainly hgappens - though sometimes the fault lies with the asker, who puts a headline which is a clear question in its own right, but which doesn't always match very well with the extra detail that is then added.

When i get a idiotic question and we get many OF THEM.

I BLOW THROUGH THEM WITH A simple answer.

I'm not going to try to answer a Hole.

Some doesn't look question..more look essay..