Yahoo Answers - why do people answer with such things as "I don't know"?

Users that answer with 'I don't know/IDK/Google it/etc' are Only here to point game better known as 'level up.' It's Not allowed! A member that doesn't know an answer should move on. By responding to said Q you are Not providing any helpful knowledge to the OP so it makes No sense in adding in a response of wasted space. It is reportable as a 'non answer.' But if you see a user that is compulsively typing such an answer - it's best to grab All said evidence you can find ( I suggest about 5 or 6 ) and their profile link and send it into the team. Title it 'Compulsive Point Gamer!' The email is -

y_answrs_team@yahoo.com ( The missing 'E' is deliberate.)

People answer questions like that just to get the two points. This is called point-gaming. Not only it's already against the Community Guidelines, this is also unfair for others who have to also get their two points by posting far sufficient answers than that. Answers of that nature should be reported as such.

They just want the points given for answering question. Whenever you see such a post though, make sure you report them as non-answers. If enough people do that, the post will be removed and they will loose 10 points for it (nullifying the 2 points for the answer and still leaving them 8 point lower). If more people would clean up trash like that, there would be less of it left around.

I know this already has a best answer, but you could really save points and questions (you only have a limited number of questions per day) by actually googling you question to see if anyone else has already asked it

Because sometimes people ask silly question that they can find with a few clicks on google instead of asking and waiting for an answer on here like "how much is 1 cm in inches"

Some do know the answer but are too lazy to give it, and others really don't know the answer but want the two points anyway. That said, the "idk, I don't know" etc. answers are violations for being non answers and should be reported as such.

points gaining....though answers like that are technically against site rules so it's kind of counter productive if they get reported for is (which is -10pts)

Depending on the question, "I don't know" may in some instances be a legitimate answer. You have to evaluate the whole situation and not just blindly apply the Community Standards to a question/answer situation. I would answer "I don't know" to all these questions, and it should be a perfectly legal answer in every case:

Do you know if Richard Gere is gay?

Do you know if Hillary Clinton will run for president?

Do you know when the next transit of Venus will be?

Any question that begins with "Do you know..." or some variation thereof can be legitimately answered with "I don't know." The question after all, is not about the question or the event, but about whether or not "you know."

This literal interpretation of the Q&A format may seem absurd, but it's the direction towards which Y!A is progressing, owing to the number of nit-picky violations being reported lately.

Some people will say that you should answer the 'intent' of the question and not the 'literal' question, and I agree this would be common sense. But that's not the way some reporters on this system are working it. Also, these are obviously simple examples. In other more complicated situations you may attempt to decipher a more complicated question and answer based on what you perceive the 'intent' to be, and then get reported for not answering the question that was asked. Yahoo can not expect us to be mind readers, even if some of the participants do.

Some people are observe the Community Standards quite literally and report accordingly. If that is the case, then they cannot penalize people who interpret the questions literally too. You cannot have it both ways.

Either point gaming - or they don't grasp that this isn't an everyday chewing-the-fat conversation where "I don't know" is OK to say.

Always report "I don't know" / "IDK" as a non-answer violation.

Tha applies even to questions like "Do you know when the next transit of Venus will be?". The intended meaning is clearly "When is the next transit of Venus?", and "I don't know" is just disingenuous smartass gaming-playing based on deliberate misinterpretation of the spirit of the question.

it's called point gaming. someone does that to all of my questions. i asked about this as well and was told to report it as such. i did and nothing happened.