Yahoo Answers--do YA staff personnel endorse suicide?

If the question was asking how to commit suicide and you answered, "Don't do it. Suicide permanently solves what in reality is a temporary problem," then your answer was a "non-answer."

Yahoo staff didn't remove it. Another member reported you for misuse of the required Q/A format. Hopefully that person ALSO reported the question as well.

By the way, if you actually did explain the procedure, that would have been a violation as well. In other words, any answer to a suicide question is automatically a violation.

I have had the same experience. I have replied to MANY questions about people wanting to take their lives, and I always reply with an answer that the person seeks professional help, talk to other people, tell them that life is good - etc. I have been reported and "fined" by the deletion of points several times. My answers have been deleted, yet answers like "Go ahead and kill yourself already", or "jump in front of a train", stay.

I wrote to YA on two occasions appealing the decision, and the only thing I heard was I lost the appeal. I asked specifically which ToS I violated, and they would not answer several requests for that info.

I know I have saved at least one life, (and talked to the persons family later on), and I do honestly believe I have saved several others, just by what they told me in later communications.

I hope that if someone places a question about taking their life, and Yahoo had removed legitimate answers trying to help the person, I would love to see Yahoo sued by the family. Yahoo does NOT do everything they can to help a person who desperately needs it. They don't remove all the posts of people seeking suicide help, and there are hundreds per day. I wish Yahoo would take a positive approach to helping people who are suicidal, instead of punishing those people trying to legitimately help.

First, suicide is an illegal act so that is the reason it is against the rules. What happens when reported is, Yahoo sends the person a package of information how to get professional help and people they can talk to including programs. It is a much better way of helping without risking some users posting inappropriate comments and suggestions.

Not at all in anyway do they endorse Suicide.

You have to actually answer the question asked, but suicidal questions should be reported.

There is a set procedure followed for questions about suicide. when suicide is included in a report using the bottom report button it is recognized and a packet that gives them help sites and other support and advice is sent to the user.

It's better to get it removed because some on here treat it like a joke and post very hurtful mean answers.

*************************Staff's post about it by Yahoo! Answers employee Lou

Rest assured we take this issue very seriously.

When reporting any suicide-related question, please mark it as a ToS violation (additional details: suicide).

From there, we have to remove the content (a legal requirement) and then we proceed by sending out a special package with advice on how to cope via email.

This information is compiled with input from leading experts in the field.

Y! Answers Lou"

There is a possibility that leaving suicide questions stay will have a negative effect on other depressed persons and increase their suicidal thoughts.

There are some reporters who will report all the answers FIRST and then the suicide question. The report results in email help packet being sent to asker

But those who tried to answer in good faith (to stop asker from suicide) end up with violations unnecessarily and thats what happened in this case. It's got nothing to do with staff. It's all community moderation. Staff, employee, official, CEO, etc etc are nowhere to exist.

There are lots and lots of reporters that will delete all answers first because "if question is violation, then so are answers by default"

Little to no effort has been made by yahoo to penalize such overaggressive reporters on top of a broken appeal system.

No, it's more like Yahoo staff is inundated with so many reports they just copy and paste answers without ever reading anything. Feel lucky for actually getting a response. They usually skip that too.

Oh, and trolls reported you.

Also, this will probably be reported, because this category is all about legalism as defined by every little dictator who thinks they run Yahoo by their very presence.

That's Yahoo for you. :D

yahoo is too cheap to hire people to monitor tbis site and just lets trolls monitor it for them.