What’s the big deal about chat on Yahoo! Answers?
Last week’s post about avatar games stirred up some strong reactions to the rules regarding chat in the Community Guidelines. So what do we have against chat? Absolutely nothing. Chat away on Yahoo! Messenger or Groups—just not on Answers. We’re not trying to be mean or limit free speech —we just want to maintain the mission of Yahoo! Answers:
Yahoo! Answers connects people to the information they’re seeking with those who know it. Everyone has life experience and knowledge about something, and Yahoo! Answers provides a way for people to share their experience and insight.
Like any other community, we have a core set of principles that must be followed by all members. Some of those core principles are: sharing what you know, being courteous, and asking clear questions. Examples of unacceptable behavior include: ranting, hate speech, cheating, behaving maliciously, and chatting. If you want to participate in Answers, we ask that you abide by the Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service.
While chatting seems innocuous in comparison to more-obvious offenses, we discourage it because it doesn’t add to the intent of the site: to share quality knowledge. Answers was never meant to function as a chat room or forum. There are other outlets (like Yahoo! Groups) that are ideal for this type of social networking, and we hope you’ll channel your inner chat into these more-appropriate venues.
Still unsure about what’s considered chat? Here are a few examples to help clear up the confusion:
Chatty: “Do you like my poem?”
Better: “How can I improve my poem?”
Chatty: “Do you like my avatar?”
Better: “How do I make my avatar look more fun or attractive?”
The Guidelines weren’t created as a cloaked attempt to exercise ultimate universal power over Answers members—really. They’re meant to provide commonsense ground rules so we all know what to expect inside the Yahoo! Answers community. That’s not such a bad thing, is it?
Instead of having to report abuse, wouldn’t you much rather see it prevented in the first place?
UPDATE: Just to clarify, it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.
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nice.
I for one still think they should bring back the “Comments” on news stories function in Yahoo. The one where you could “recommend” posts and such.
Yeah, the trolls were getting bad at the end, but at the same time, that’s what made it interesting to view. How out of touch with reality many people are.
Im glad yall are atleast attempting to reconcile SOME of the violation notices people recieve for chatting. Still, the report abuse button has gotten way to out of hand by people that just dont like the answer they are given.
Like any community maybe you should listen to what members of your community want. Since so many people like to ask ” chatty questions” perhaps you could create a section under entertainment and music that is entitled “chatty questions”
You really don’t care about your users do you? An then you wonder why people are leaving in droves and why Yahoo’s stock is in the toilet. Leave the stuff that isn’t hurting anything alone. Stop being so anal. Really.
Thanks Yamster. Fine.
Now I can avoid getting reported by posting “How do I make my avatar look more fun or attractive?” instead of “Do you like my Avatar?”
The answers I’ll get to either one, I’m sure would be somewhat same.
Again you morons fail to see how dumb you are being. The community wants to CREATE ITSELF and you are crushing it. YM, and groups format SUCKS and people enjoy the format of YA for things you consider to be chat.
The MARKET is trying to TELL YOU SOMETHING, you dopes. Either you respond to it or you will fail.
People are going to continue to chat whether you like it or not, good luck trying to police that and good luck with angering people who have amassed a gazillion points after you boot them. LOL control freaks.
oh please,yahoo chat is crap,the majority of the time the rooms dont open,or you cant see what others are saying.Its been this way since yahoo,in all of its infinite wisdom closed down all chat completely because of all of the bots and the UNDERAGE children invading the rooms.Yahoo is its own worst enemy,they want to control the adults and let the brats do what they want,I for one am sick of yahoo crap.their head is up their butt,as usual.
The problem with this topic is that any question could potentially be considered chatting if you really break it down. The person asking is looking for feedback. Somehow, people at Yahoo are capable of deeming what type of question/feedback is chatting based on it’s content and that is unfair.
I’ve had what I considered to be pertinent questions, violated and removed due to chatting, and I still to this day cannot see how they were any different from all my other questions.
I wanted to understand something, or understand it better, and I get violated because someone deems it chatting. This rule effects real questions simply based on the opinion of whomever hold the violation button on Yahoo.
It’s unfair and should be less harsh. Otherwise it ruins the experience … BIG TIME.
Fair enough – there are a lot of disguised chats, rants, etc. that should not be on YA, and I’m glad they are being removed. People need to discipline themselves a little better and follow rules – if there are no standards then the site becomes useless.
PS I did like the news message boards though – that was a great site for seeing what people thought of the news of the moment.
Like I said in my last post, it doesn’t matter that you post all these articles; do you really think the people guilty of this will even read them? (Or know how to read, for that matter?)
I commend your idealism with this site, but it is a losing cause. There’s too many immature people on here for the site to really function like you want it to. It basically leaves you with three choices….
Ban people that are chatty/remove certain areas where chattiness is more likely to occur (P&S)
Create an entire section of YA for chattiness and hope people bother to keep the questions there
Create long winded rhetorical articles like this in the hopes people will govern themselves.
Obviously the last option isn’t working so well; I suggest you switch to one of the two previous.
Thanks!
I can appreciate the fact that Yahoo! loves chat…just in it’s proper place. Which is obviously not at *Answers*…it says so …right there in the Community Guidelines.
What I can’t understand is why on earth all the complainers are demanding that you change the entire concept of *Answers* just because they want it to be a completely different kind of site? Welll if it was a completely different kind of site…then it wouldn’t be *Answers*
It is a fun & enlightening site.
I certainly LOVE to chat, but I don’t feel any need to do so at *Answers* ..
…and I still have tons-of-fun there!
I think that what you’re doing as far as banning chat from answers is completely reasonable. You guys are doing a fine job.
I HATE “chatty” questions!! It’s also irritating when answerers post an answer to another answerer, which I often report as chat, but seldom are the “answers” deleted. Example: Finatic, normally I agree with you but this time…..
I wish this form of chat was discouraged.
You can’t expect users to contribute 100% of your content and not develop a community of conversation directly within that part of the site. Its simply in defiance of human nature. Look to fark.com to see one way of doing it properly. Admonishing frequent users who want to share and converse is a lost opportunity and a failure for yahoo’s decision makers.
This new authoritarian attitude will lead to an outflux of users as new sites with direct outlets for conversation emerge.
Way to kick the brass ring away…
it’s not so much the ‘chat’ it’s the fact that certain categories are now nothing more than chat rooms, questions posted to ‘friends’ ‘in jokes’, it excludes other people completely, even legitimate questions become nothing more than a thread full of friends chatting to one another. if people are leaving in their droves it’s because when they first came here we were told it was a question and answer site, not a glorified messenger
WHO CARES??? Its Yahoo!Answers, not the UN, so everyone should let it go. Yahoo!Answers isn’t something to be cherished and protected – its something to do at 2am when nothing is on TV. Get over yourself Y!A and let your customers ask any stupid question (EVEN IF ITS CHATTY) they want to. Honestly, WHO CARES??
Makes sense to me. Cheers!
Yes, i understand AVATAR GAMES are clearly a violation and IS chatting.
But i had my recent account suspended because of most of my questions being deemed as question as CHAT.. when the questions clearly had a question to answer.
I didn’t bother appeal because of Yahoo’s stupid service which replies with Automated messages.
If you want to keep Yahoo! Answers a reliable website with helpful members, you should work on your violations and treatment of users to keep helpful members like me (A TOP CONTRIBUTOR of Rock And POP) on this site.
I also with what Wil Welsh just commented.
To keep Yahoo!Answer a well knit.helping community, some level of fun communication is needed..
I don’t get why its consider as chatting because these avatar games are harmless and they just want your opinion about the avatars above or bellow.
I mean its counted as polls and surveys which are one of the catorgories.
And some of the questions that were deleated because of chatting doesn’t even have a reason to be deleated. Some people just report them for no particular reason.
How about an anal retentive category where all of these judgemental people can laud themselves over the posting of their perfectfully asked and answered questions. I’m sure they’ll bore themselves to death within hours and within days they’ll all be gone.
Here’s a suggestion, have people sign up ahead of time for the categories they would like to participate in. Allow them access to only those categories until they reach say level 4. Then some privileges might kick in. After level 4 they can add another category and so on. Level 7 would have access to all. No reporting capabilities till level 5 unless its child endangerment, or something dangerous and the report button for level 4 and below can only address those issues. There is nothing more aggravating to someone who has been around over a year or two than some Level 1 without a clue hitting the report button for trivia. “normally I agree with you, but this time….” Are you kidding me? This is a reportable offense? Come on. I have nothing against Level 1 members, but they admittedly have a lot to learn. We all start there, and we all need to learn the ropes. Let them learn with less power, full access to the site should be available to those who earn it.
There really wouldn’t be anything wrong with having polls and surveys be defined as a chatty category. You can control it somewhat by placing an add a comment section to the category. (I know you have one, but it can’t be used until after the best answer has been chosen) This is just wrong.
An intelligent exchange of ideas happens much more easily under relaxed circumstances. If you really don’t want input from real human beings using an interactive site, then you really need to look up your information elsewhere. Human beings talk to each other. They get to know each other and they get friendly and it is quite normal to say, hey haven’t seen you for awhile……..and then get onto the question.
You CANNOT write any guidelines that will make people into answering robots. If you want a computer generated response devoid of humanity, then you need another website.
We are also adults who come on this site many times just to relieve stress and have fun. This is why Polls and Surveys is so popular. We want to have fun and goof around and ask silly questions. When we want to post serious stuff most people answer seriously. Having a bit of a preamble before getting down to brass tacks really doesn’t take anything away from Answers. Trust me and your millions of other users, it enhances it. It makes us laugh and helps us out.
You do need to listen to your users here. I understand you have a mission statement. Any successful executive or CEO will tell you that you need to adapt to the needs and wants of your customers. That would be US. The people with no sense of humor and a strict adherence to the letter of the law are really in a minority. They hit the report button for sport. The same people no doubt who hand out thumbs down to anyone who disagrees with their narrowminded views.
I used to be on this site constantly. I’m rarely here anymore. I see so many people who get away with abuse constantly and I have seen so many Level 6 and 7 accounts suspended without just cause. You say you are not limiting free speech here. That is exactly what you are doing. You don’t get to Level 7 by being a jerk. Its hard work and most of us do it 2 points at a time. You are far to casual with deleting obviously loyal and good users, and you make it far to easy for Trolls to come back time and again.
Another avenue you might take is instead of suspending an entire account, how about this? Levels of violations. Why treat them all the same? You have to admit, some are much worse than others. What if you kicked people down a level after say 10 violations and 10 warnings? If the violations are severe, say abusive or child endangerment or threats, things of this nature, well then a complete suspension is warranted. Delving out the same punishment for Do you like my avatar? as you do for questions that attack people using racial slurs and such is simply not fair.
Wake up Yahoo. You have a shot at something great here. Don’t let it get away from you.
Hmmm. In regard “michelle couwenhoven”s comment, that “Finatic, normally I agree with you but this time…..” should be discouraged, how does one distinguish that from “Normally, Finatic’s answer is so on target that I don’t bother to provide an answer when he/she answers first, but this time….”. The latter seems a reasonable start to answer, to me.
I’m glad you asked!
If it stirred up so much controversy, wouldn’t it be smart to change it so chat is allowed?
I understand that Yahoo! Answers is suppose to be a place to learn, but come on! That’s like putting a child in a classroom and telling them, “NO TALKING…WHATSOEVER!”
School is great because it’s a place we can learn at, but ALSO, because it’s a place where we can MEET OTHER PEOPLE.
I’m sorry, but Yahoo! Groups, just isn’t all that satisfying. And neither is 360. You really can’t understand what someone is like, and relate to someone until you come on Yahoo! Answers and chat just a little bit.
Personally, I haven’t had a problem with any of the chat questions. I find them entertaining, and a nice break from regular questions. It’s what keeps me wanting to come back to Answers.
But I HAVE had a problem with trolls. For example, I am a regular in the dog section, and their are a ridiculous amount of trolls!
Regular users are having to block everyone, and some have even left Yahoo! Answers COMPLETELY because of the stalking problem!
I know you say we should just report them, but some people do it very secretively. They will report you for things that do not even go against the guidelines.
And they pretend to be your friend so that you don’t suspect them and report them back.
If there is ANYTHING Yahoo! needs to fix, it is this ridiculous ’stalker’ problem happening. NOT chat questions. That is so insignificant compared to stalkers!
If you need anything explained further, I wouldn’t mind if you e-mailed me. Getting chat is something I think is worth fighting for!
They can’t stop all of us. The advertisers certainly wouldn’t be happy. Chat away, people.
So I guess that mean we all have to be good little human encyclopedias then? That gets a bit boring after a while you know.
Umm, maybe I should ask how to spell encyclopaedia. Oh heck is this chatting?
People need to stop snitchin’ too.
Snitches are b****es who deserve to wind up in ditches.
I appreciate the guidelines and that the community is not allowed to just evolve into a chat room. However, I have a problem with violation notices that are given and questions/answers deleted just because someone reports them. Reports should be investigated. And if something is deemed a violation and the person who posted disputes it, they should get a real answer from a real person giving them a genuine reason for the violation.
My advice is leave it alone, they members of this site will continue to chat, too late stoping that.
if you win the war between what is chat and what is not you will be hated.
the problem is that Chat is still very vague. Also, what you fail to realize is that the conversation often eliminates some of the tension on here. Particularly in forums like Politics and Religion & Spirituality, where we have formed a community of sorts. We don’t attempt to exclude anyone, but chat often helps us to better comprehend the differences.
More than once, by going back and editing the answers further, we come to an agreement on the debate in a civilized manner.
How does chat really hurt anyone other than keep it from being a BORING Q&A site?
I don’t care anymore. Y!A deleted my account when I complained many times and told them how certain individuals were just out to get ME- no matter what I said. I was accused of chatting even when I clearly wasn’t.
They didn’t care. So poof! there went my almost-Level7-Level6 account =((
I’m fine with a ban on chatting, really. I can see how it would really help with your mission. My problem is, the rules themselves are inforced sporatically. For example, I get reported “not a question or an answer”, when clearly my question was a question, and a valid, non-chatty question, but because the “Yamster” that got my report (which I’m still not convienced they didn’t go searching for it because I objected to the report), noticed that in his/her opinion I was chatting instead of trying to provide clarity to my question by adding details, I still get 10 pts taken away and my question removed.
Another thing that really bothers me is that the great Yamster hammer falls on those who are supposedly chatting, but those that rant, get to keep on posting without their rant being deleted.
I really do appreciate the DEFCON 1 status YA has on trolls, and porn avatars, hate speech, and other really blatant offenses to the CG’s. And while it looks like things tend to improve in spurts, this latest round of improvements has really seemed to crack down unfairly on those who have long standing first accounts who try to obey the rules, while those who are on their 5th, 6th, even 100th account and rant on practically everything that does not agree with their opinion get to keep their Q’s, A’s, and accounts. It just seems unfair that those who rant and report get preferential treatment and those who it may seem to some are chatting occasionally but otherwise follow the rules get their question/answer deleted and feel threatened by the automated response to YA’s version of the court of last resort.
And the fact that if I protest the original violation and get back an automated response, and respond to that email as having not answered my question about my violation, I get an answer from a second email address, which is usually from a real person. If that person doesn’t fully explain why I got reported, and specify their answer to my exact situation and I ask for clarification, I get yet another person. Having the same person through out the process would be really helpful. It’s like going to a department store and asking for help with something on a high shelf and the person answering by telling you where the restroom is. It’s not the help you were looking for at all, and apealing to the next level only gets you to the point where the person tells you which shelf the product you are wanting is on. (Gee thanks, right back where I started from!) When you endeavor to appeal to YA Court of Last Resort, they simply show you how to leave the department store. At least that’s how I feel.
I think this is a good, well written article and I do agree with what’s being said. It does read like there is a real person there who is trying to get a point across, not like a stuffy ‘customer support’ response, so thank you for that!
That said, I don’t think it will help.
Most chatty questions, at least most that I’ve seen, don’t seem to be asked by the type of people who are likely to care, presuming they even read this article.
A section for chatty questions would be a good idea IMO as long as it’s kept in the question and answer format. I don’t see the harm in it: it’ll get those questions out of other categories and clean the place up without annoying anyone. People who chat aren’t always the same as the trolls.
I agree with Searcher. Politics and Religion & Spirituality are categories where discussion is needed, even required in order to get a point across, in order to build trust between the members of those communities. Adding details allows for that. Those who are new to those categories don’t understand that aspect of the category yet, and the Yamsters certainly don’t because they have other things to do than sit in front of their computer screen assessing the legitamacy of the Politics and/or R&S categories.
I also agree with Michael’s sentiment, that you may win the battle but loose the war. Let’s say that YA totally eliminates all chat on YA. That’s great, except that now you don’t have any YA users anymore. The only ones you’re left with are those who have turned getting reported into some sort of a game, which makes the whole YA concept sort of a laughing stock. And I’m sure you don’t want that, now do you. (No threat implied. The fact that I even have to explain that sort of proves the point that YA is winning battles, but loosing the war.)
I agree with trying to keep chat out. I come hear to read and answer questions. When someone posts what looks like a question and then I read it and find it is nothing more than a rant or chat, I irritates me that they have wasted my time that I could spend on actual questions.
Yes. Yahoo Answer has to be different from a chatroom. You need someone to come up wth a system that will automatically disallow questions and answers that look more like chatting and it is a must to have the email addresses known so that if they wish, the posters can keep in contact with one another. You also need a system that will refine the questions so that they are what you want.
That is a good idea. I think it is really harder to chat. Answers makes it easy to be yourself and do your best. That’s nicest.
“Yahoo! Answers connects people to the information they’re seeking with those who know it. Everyone has life experience and knowledge about something, and Yahoo! Answers provides a way for people to share their experience and insight.”
Y!A may offer a way to share as stated but the reality is far different. So much so that I would be inclined to say that Y!A is a failure as currently managed.
What the matter ? it doesn’t hurt any body ! CHAT CHAT CHAT CHAT CHAT
It’s interesting that ALL OF A SUDDEN the posts on this page are so supportive and lovey-dovey towards yahoo. LOL. Look at the first page if you want reality.
Again, yahoo is pretty cruel. This is marketplace failure at its best. Why not give the costumers what they obviously want? They are running the site, in the end. Paying the bills. Maybe steer it (by creating a chat category).
I can only hope that Icahn swallows Yahoo whole, as they deserve.
Sorry, the “blog” content is largely “eyewash”.
Y!A does NOT care. IF it did, the administering of
“reported violations” would be a sight-more evenhanded. As it is, it’s an open season for trolls, and those running a vendetta.
Insofar as “chatting” is concerned… P&S is the least-defined, most unstructured of all the “catagories”.
AND we get hit the hardest for “chat”. How would YOU! phrase a Q to learn how others feel their life has been benefitted? Uh-huh.
It is a knee-jerk. Someone reports it/YOU “violate” it.
I do not believe you when you say “don’t want to be” [arbitrary, and ironfisted]. (my translation.) IF you don’t want to be, DON’T be. Simple.
I am not “simple”.
I am old enough to know talk is cheap.
I watch what people do.
You bully your users.
Make your GUIDELINES CLEAR. Currently, they are so unstructured as to cover any/all possible Q&A as
a violation, if you so choose.
It doesn’t matter; all the above is wasted effort on my part. I just wanted you to know how I feel.
The fact that you don’t care how I feel is insignifcant.
Give me a break. Your definition of chat can be interpreted any way YA decides. You KNOW full well that ALL of the Community Guidelines and the TOS are vague. You make them that way purposely so that you can enforce the rules on an arbitrary basis.
You have FAR more problems than Chat. That is the very last thing anyone should receive a volation for.
I’ll say it again, Community moderating is a complete and total failure. YA doesn’t care about us or our experience. I have now cancelled ALL of my paying services from YA as a result of how you treat us here in YA.
Yamster,
I know the rules,
and especially the parts of chatting
like the examples you covered
chatty
better
I said this last week
I emphasize the guidelines terms of service when I deal with a newbie.
Awhile back I got the guidelines copied out so I can refer to them
Same with the terms of service
that brief time I was in my blog log
their guidelines.
I just wished there is a question place
or I can ask without losing 5 points.
You want to be understood well so do I
OK, 2nd try, let’s see if Y!A sends me to a URL which says something like the e-mail address is wrong and deletes everything I spent the last 5 minutes typing.
I know why chatting is not allowed in here
its because that hinders the questions
for seeking knowledge and advice.
I have nothing against chatting either
except what is emphasized on knowledge seeking
If a person want to chat there is email,
messenger
It says this in the community guidelines
OK, surprising that worked. Here’s a violation I received:
Question: Error: Unexpected HTTP Response Status Code Error 12007:?
Question Details: This message shows up in my Yahoo e-mail (beta version) periodically each day. When it does, I cannot access anything and have to close, then open my e-mail again. Does anyone know how to fix this and keep the Beta version (rather than switching to Classic)? I am using internet explorer (IE)
My offensive, terrible, awful, mean, chatty answer:
Deleted Answer: Which browser are you using? IE? Firefox? Opera? Safari?
Violation Reason:Not a Question or Answer
Yeah, it wasn’t an answer, I’ll admit that. But the clueless asker, who probably reported the violation, did not give enough information to answer the question.
I’ll absolutely agree this was not in any way shape or kind a “best answer”, but according to you, Mike: UPDATE: Just to clarify, it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.
So which is it? Is it OK to “conversational within your actual question or answer” or not? I could see if I had called the asker an idiot, someone would have justifiably had a problem with it. All I wanted was more information to give a better answer.
Cindy said: “I’ll say it again, Community moderating is a complete and total failure.”
I absolutely agree. I’ll go you one better though, I say it’s a ridiculous joke.
Oh, and by the way, that last line where is says “I am using internet explorer (IE)” was added later and I didn’t see it when I was checking back to see if she added more.
I have less of a problem with people “Chatting” than I do with obvious trolls. Report after report and they are still allowed to post and answer questions. Maybe instead of just suspending their account you should make it so that if the person is suspended they cannot open another Yahoo account and come back. Keep their names in a database and when they try to open up another account it is blocked. Also, they should have pop-up windows to block people from posting questions about abortion. You know that these questions are just posted to rile everyone up and serve no other purpose.
make all the rules you want, we’re not going to stop chatting. go ahead and remove our posts, but you’ll never remove them in time for people not to see them. all i’ve got to say to you is: Up yours. go ahead and remove this while you’re at it. not gonna slow me down.
Your differentiation between a chatty and an acceptable question will make no difference in reality. If somebody asks “Do you like my avatar?” that individual may receive feedback saying “yes” or “no.” However, the individual will not receive better answers for asking “How can I change my avatar..” Take a look at the questions. The answers people give are mostly advising the person to do what he/she likes or the answers will be abusive saying “I don’t care.” Plus, if the individual asks “Do you like my avatar” the answerers who would give advice about how to change it are still going to give that advice.
You basically are making this site no different than wikipedia or google. You can’t change people. You have created a way for people to chat in one way or another and you won’t be able to stop the chatting, because this is just a glorified chat “wall” (as they used to call them). That’s all this is. They have been around for a long time. You just changed the formatting, created guidelines, and added pictures and points to get people to use it more.
I liked the poster who commented on how vague and arbitrary your definitions of the rules are. That is very true. Anything can technically be a violation depending on how a person views it by the way you’ve said it up.
Let profanities and sexual/inappropriate content be violations. Let the users who are trying to solicit here be counted as violations. Those things are black and white. But leave the chatting thing alone. You won’t be able to change it and you’re just creating more work for yourself.
Asking a question and answering it is chatting.
Trolls and and haters are a much bigger problem. Deal with that, please!
(Every time I go to a Yahoo chat room I get hit with spam or unwanted offers of sex, No, thank you! )
You must think we’re idiots to buy any of this nonsense you’re trying to feed us. Since answer, by nature, is a place where people exchange information, you cannot stop chatting. You simply can’t! I agree with the others that, while you may be getting stricter about your guidelines now, you are going to be losing customers one by one who will opt for a website that will give them what they want. Chat rooms are not the same nor is your stupid bix site, because people want to read answers and opinions of other people. They don’t want to go see a rating. They want to hear a real opinion of what a person actually thinks. DON’T YOU GET IT???????
GREAT post!! This is being assertive, which is exactly what YA needs now.
I’m an open friendly person, and I love to chat, but I don’t do it in YA. Those who don’t care about the rules are disrespecting us all. What is so hard to understand about it?
Thanks a lot!
Asking a harmless question to get the mood a little brighter in one section should not be worth a violation. needless to say that when TROLLS (a MUCH bigger problem on Y!A) raid your profile if u dont hide Q/A then you’ll chat vio on nearly all of your q’s, needless to say i think the chat rule should be looked over in alot of cases and Yahoo! should look into much bigger problems, such as Hate Talk, Trolls, and Spammers.
You must think we’re idiots to buy any of this nonsense you’re trying to feed us. Since answer, by nature, is a place where people exchange information, you cannot stop chatting. You simply can’t! I agree with the others that, while you may be getting stricter about your guidelines now, you are going to be losing customers one by one who will opt for a website that will give them what they want. Chat rooms are not the same nor is your stupid bix site, because people want to read answers and opinions of other people. They don’t want to go see a rating. They want to hear a real opinion of what a person actually thinks. DON’T YOU GET IT???????
ALSO, e-mail is not the same because that takes so much more time to get the number of opinions you want. It’s so much more convenient to do it on answers, because you can read through the list of opinions and keep it for future reference. There’s nothing wrong with taking a poll on what people think of your avatar or your appearance.
so if William Wordsworth was living today, he could not say “Do you like my poem?” and then post his poem “Daffodils” because that would be chatty? He would have to say “How can I improve my poem?” and then post his poem, “Daffodils?”
No, I’m sorry but you are not making sense to me.
yeah..this is dumb..why delete the question..i clearly just asked a question about whether a person seem to be more approachable online or in person..because people seem to talk to me more online than in person..anyway..yahoo is starting to suck
“Just to clarify, it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.”
So what’s the difference between being conversational and being chatty? Or is this just another example of ambiguous rules?
True that groups is utter crap. That is also a big issue that no human being ever views the appeals. You really need to get rid of those stupid form letters that never answer the appeal. I used to go on YA every day now I hardly ever am on because of the totalitarianism. Guess you’re collaborating with the Chinese government to round of dissenters gave you ideas on how to run YA. Hopefully Microsoft takes over and changes things big time. If they get another offer turned town I wouldn’t be surprised if Yahoo’s stock price emds up around a penny a share.
hmm, they are kind of kicking themselfes in the butt. Usually asking a question that you are wanting an answer for, espicaially at a website like this, is simply asking for someone else’s opinion, How do you like my poem? Maybe he or she is seeing how people like it for a educational reason. If we like it, the teacher might, or if people don’t like it, you can either change it, or they will more than likely already tell you what’s wrong with it. Same with the avatar, except, it probably isn’t educational. Also if we chat on Yahoo! Messenger, we can’t ask questions? Same purpose.Yahoo! Answers is for QUESTIONS. What do you get answers to? QUESTIONS!! Now they are descriminating on what kind of questions! They need to focus less on crazy stuff like this, and more on those spammers on here, trying to seel your their webpages about diets and other stuff.
Plus chatty is stuff like how are you doing? fine, i like the weather. What do they want us to say how have you people been the last couple of days? I don’t think they represented themselfes well.
You all may want to actually pay attention to those who have pointed out that Y!A users do not have to come here. We choose to come here. There are a number of sites practically identical to Y!A–and much more user friendly. And while Y!A may currently be the most popular, if you continue with your asinine policy of allowing profane, racist, vulgar questions and answers to stand, but accept as valid those reporting someone for no other reason than they disagree with an opinion stated in an answer or possibly implied (probably only in their minds) in a question, Y!A will not remain the favorite “answer” site. Especially when those being reported have violated no rule or community guideline.
Also, your problem with “chatting” and what you classify as “chatting” is extreme and counterproductive if you are looking to attract the teen/young adult age group. What do you expect in a category labeled “Polls & Surveys?” When I visit this section of Y!A I’m not really expecting to find a debate on the economic policies of the presidential candidates, a serious discussion about the meaning of life or even the answer to 2+2.
I’m not even sure why I’ve wasted my time writing this as I am not convinced this or anything else containing user complaints, including appeals, is ever read, much less acted on.
If chatting is such a bother why don’t you allow the comment feature to be accessed while the question is still open? It is pretty useless to leave a comment after the question is closed–no one will see it. And to those who find the “chatty” questions annoying, and we all do at times: move on to another question!!
If you continue on this way, you may find that you have succeeded in making Y!A perfect. Perfectly boring, perfectly bland and perfectly empty save the trolls and anal-retentives.
Yes PLEASE tell us YAHOO! What the BIG DEAL????
Come on, it’s just a stupid website. Why does YA have to be so anal about their guidelines. Most people just use YA as a way to kill time.
Chatty: “Do you like my poem?”
Better: “How can I improve my poem?”
This is how you clear up the definition of chatting? Semantics.. you penalize someone for not wording it a certain way?
I agree that chatting should be left to other media, such as mail or IM, or even groups. But that of course is contingent on whether they work or not..
“..a way for people to share their experience and insight.”
No one, and I do mean no one, can accomplish what you have written without somebody considering their response ‘chatting.’ Frankly, I see far less ‘chatting’ on Answers then I do malicious intent..which is left unchecked. Things which some people are reported and deleted for are done with impunity by others.
And I have read the TOS and the Guidelines many times..but this explanation/clarification leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Sorry Yahoo, but you are not living up to your side of the bargain. Until you start to listen to people, and begin an actual dialogue with your customers, then the problems will continue. And that is a shame, for this site provides me with a great deal of support in times of need. But even I have only so much patience..Despite writing many times asking for such a dialogue, IF I get a response (and that is very rare) it is only ever a form letter which does not in any way address the concern. yet if I have a problem with my group, I get a rapid response and can actually exchange mail with ONE person until the problem is solved.
So..either treat your customers all the same.. or don’t. Stay and use the site..or don’t. We both have choices. I know which choce I am making, which one will Yahoo make?
I won’t be surprised if in a year Answers disappears just like many Yahoo products because they do not cater well to their clients. Do us a favor & make better guidelines like for those who post really vulgar & insulting questions.
You kno what should be a violation? When somebody puts links to their own questions in their answer. Sometimes they put like four or five links to questions they’ve asked in one answer, and i’m sick of it!
Bravo, Bravo. I even made the comment one time o list the “trolls”and give them pts for the most reasons for being a top contributor(s) for their undying commitment to screwing up what could be a site that could advance farther than it has, which is to avoid “boring”. I was immmediately given a 5 star rating for the Q, and then reported to get my Q deleted. I’m not afraid to post my name, cause I have ( along with some friends ) have been thinking about starting our own web site to compete
The feedback from the people makes it obvious that they’re not all stupid & they know the score concerning abuse of the so called chat violation.
This latest Y!A blog reads just like Y!A is hitting back at the users who have dared to call out the unrighteousness of it all, and further serves to validate the complaint of those users. Embarrassing.
Once again, you deftly avoid defining what chat is and roll out the same old bromide that “it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.”
Now go about educating your over-zealous censors that have abused their way into a good reporting reputation on how they are supposed to identify what being conversational is.
And while you’re at it, how about overturning the violations of the many who have had their rightful content removed. Not the easy stuff mind you, the stuff that requires customer CARE and some thinking on the part of the administrator.
You people are mind numbingly blase about educating reporters about a subject that is harmless anyway.
Get your priorities in order, get involved, and you just might have a site resemble the one that you envisioned.
It’s been two years that I’ve been trying to point out the problems with having the populace do the moderation and you just dance around the fire while feeding it with combustible matter in the form of more freedoms or enticements to do the reporting.
Wake up people, will ya!?!?!?
Chatty: “Do you like my poem?”
Better: “How can I improve my poem?”
Are you penalizing someone for not wording it a certain way?
Some of the answers users are not native English. speakers. There is no Q & A in my language
We do our best to answer and ask in English but the difference between “Do you like my poem?” and “How can I improve my poem?” may not be so obvious to us.
Maybe the user didn’t intend to chat maybe he/she is not an native English speaker and “Do you like my poem?” was more easy to wrote?
CHAT
1. to converse in a familiar or informal manner.
2. informal conversation: We had a pleasant chat.
3. any of several small Old World thrushes, esp. of the genus Saxicola, having a chattering cry.
Asking a question, is chatting.
Answering a question, is chatting.
Technically all conversaion, wether related to an actual question or not, is chatting.
So, Every question and answer on yahoo answers is violating the “no chatting” Guidlines.
They tell us to re-word things so it doesn’t sound like chat. Well maybe they should re-word, and make chat ok, and conversation against the rules. That makes sense right?
Either way, I think you should be able to thumbs up and down any answer or question, but I think actual reporting should be done by only certian people, maybe people with a certian number of questions answered or something, so that only people who are serious about clearing up problems are reporting answers and questions. I’ve never reported a question, I’ve never seen one that was blatently rude or anything, but I have reported “spam answers” and “mean answers” because they’re useless and should be reported.
This is still vague vague vague. Clear as mud, people!! Like I said before -
The particular Guideline concerning “chatting” is so laughably vague that it can be stretched far & wide enough to encompass virtually EVERYTHING on the site. Taken in literal terms, a question is a request, a communication, one person’s words reaching out in the hopes that the words of another will reach back. What is “chatting” if not an attempt to COMMUNICATE with other people? –ALL– of Y!A is chatting, you ninnies!
So either bring into very sharp focus what EXACTLY you mean by “chatting” or remove the option to report content as such until you DO have it all figured out, kiddies.
And no, using the tired old examples you’ve once again reposted above does NOT clear up any confusion.
By the way, adding that it’s “OK to be conversational” makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.
You folks are little more than inept, bumbling chimps.
Listen, hamster head.
Chatting on YA! answers should be the least of your worries. Won’t you go take care of the bigger issues first, like the YA! chatrooms and email problems. The YA! chatrooms are crappy. You can only access it through a dang messenger and plus there are full of bots there. Won’t you go take of that. Also, I get so much spam in my YA! inbox and bulk mail everyday from people I don’t even know! And what sucks even more is that they implemented new features to your email and they don’t give you an option to remove them.
That would be great – if Yahoo! Chat weren’t *completely* overtaken by sex-bots and webcam-bots.
Yahoo! Chat is utterly useless because Yahoo! refuses to solve the problem. The technology is there, the will is not.
Yahoo TOU especially with regards to chat and answers is the most vague I’ve ever seen,I could go to answers now using this vague TOU and virtually everyone could be legitimately reported for chatting.
All through school I had it drummed into my head that ALL answers have to be explained, in math it was SHOW YOUR WORK.
I can’t just answer a question with a “Yes” or “no” I have to explain why I answered the question in this fashion.
Yahoo made a real stupid mistake by telling trolls to report and help suspend anybody who answers with more than a short sentence.
Why should anybody just take my advice without knowing me?
I could pose as an expert in some field, answer Yes or No and move to the next question….hmm that sounds like POINT GAMING, answer as many as you can for the 2 points.
If you look at the number of questions I answered and add the time it took to answer them I would have at least double if not triple the number of points I have.
Oh no! My comment was more than “Yes, or No” I’m chatting here too.
Oh, boy, it sure is too bad that even though a lot of people here have these complaints and other concerns, the Yahoo! Answers “Team” will never be here to care about, respond to, act upon, or even READ these, isn’t it?
It seems like all that so-called “team” is is just a bunch of brainless robots!
Mike
Penalizing people on how they word their questions?
Wow! It all makes sense now! It wasn’t reporter trolls getting all the questions deleted, it was the anal retentive Y!A Staff!
I see where Y!A is coming from, but asking such a simple question like ‘do yo like my poem’ should not be penalized.
Some better examples would be ‘Do you think that my picture looks hot’ or ‘Who here is going to be at the music concert tomorrow night’ even ‘Anyone here on my flight tomorrow morning’
they are the questions that should be targeted to be reported…not things like ‘do you lke my poem’….thats just a re-wording of ‘how can I improve my poem’…
look at the more STUPID questions and chatting topics around here first!
Thank you. You said that very well. I have read a few of the other comments, and I wonder why these people want to defend chatting. I do think, however, that the difference between “Do you like” and “How can I improve” is a bit subtle for many of your users. I don’t know what you could have used for a better example, but you effectively have asserted that the same basic question can be asked if it is only a little reworded. What we really need, I think, is a commitment to the “do it elsewhere” theme.
Pshh. Please. “Do you like my poem?” is not chatting. I asked a question a few days ago, it said “Are you smiling right now?
?” and apparently that was chatting. Wow. I’m starting to hate Y!A. I only get on here because I have no life. But now, oh-ho-ho, the “Community Guidelines” are getting a bit more picky, no? And BTW, this is chatting! I better report youuuu! >:|
Thats all very well, but if you are under 18 you cant get into the chat rooms on messenger because you are trying to “protect” U18’s from conversation deemed not to be acceptable to us. (im 17 BTW)
Hey, I completely agree. I think that the Yahoo Answers mission statement is exactly what this site should be. I hope that Yahoo Answers can come up with some kind of system that is more effective at cracking down on chat. I personally think that Yahoo Answers users who are Level 5 and higher should be able to remove a question when only ONE person reports it. Thanks for all that you are doing, Yahoo Answer Team!
If the intent of this site is to share quality knowledge, then you’re all failing miserably. Any knowledge of value that you could gain from this site could easily be obtained from Wikipedia, the only redeeming feature of Y!Answers is the ability to talk with a real person, i.e. chatting.
While you have a good point, you stated yourself it seems so small compared to other, bigger offenses. I just don’t understand why you’re putting SO MUCH EMPHASIS on this particular harmless bit, when there are people out there ranting all the time, or being just plain MEAN to people for no apparent reason, yet you’re not focusing on that at all. THAT hurts people, not asking “How are you?”.
Are you serious? “Do you like my poem” isn’t okay, but “How can I improve my poem” is better? “Just to clarify, it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.”
You do realize that none of that makes any sense, right? You just reworded the question in the first one. I mean, come on. Does that mean that although it’s not okay to ask “How are you?” we can “legally” post it as something like “How can I improve my day, please use personal examples?”
As far as your “update” – that just makes everything more confusing. “It’s fine to be conversational” but we can’t chat? What? You need to not let people report things when you don’t have clear rules about what SHOULD be reported.
The standards for what constitutes chatting may be clear in the minds of the Y!A administrators. But they certainly are not clear to the the people who report questions and answers. Nor are they clear to the system the makes decisions about what gets removed.
As an example, a few months ago, I asked for people’s opinions about the movie Juno. But apparently asking for opinions about a movie is considered chatting.
My question was deleted and I was docked points. When I sent an objection to the removal of my question, all I got was some BS response that just reiterated the guidelines on chatting without addressing my issue.
P&S, where most of the “chatting” occurs, is not a serious category. Nobody asks questions that are important or thought provoking. If I actually have a question that you need a real answer to, I ask it in the correct “serious” category, not P&S. P&S is my nighttime entertainment category for when I can’t sleep, where the questions are absurd and fun to answer. And maybe you should make an Adult Y!A section also to alleviate the sex questions, etc. that get reported. People need to lighten up, especially in regard to P&S. If users know where the “chatting” is occuring, then why don’t you just frequent the boring categories? You should also not allow people to become contacts either. This would decrease your so called “chatting”.
Thanks!
A violation in a question.
ROFL
Chatting? You don’t abide by your own rules. When a serious chatting offense is reported, along with name-calling, you completely ignore it. Or maybe you just have a thing about who reports it. Either way, you are ambivalent, wishy-washy and two-faced. If you, or one of your pets does it, it’s okay, right?! If someone else does it, they get their question or answer yanked, penalized and sometimes run right out of your so-called community. When you first started this, it had some basic rules and made sense. Now? Now it just runs amok. The inmates are running the asylum!
I can agree with the assertion that there are many. I am a frequent contributer to the Pet Fish section. I see many “chatty” questions like: “what should I name my fish?” “do you like my aquarium?”, etc.
What does REALLY frustrate me, though, is the limitation on helping answer REAL questions. Someone will ask: “Please help me, my fish is sick”. That question is completely unanswerable as-is, and so an answer must be: “tell me more about your fish and your aquarium”. Then the question asker posts additional details, the answerer edits his answer, and on and on. That, in my understanding, is also considered “chatty”, but is in fact, one of the most useful purposes that Answers can provide.
gosh ,I have so many questions about jokes and riddles
The absurdity of this is almost fun. I ask, has Yahoo considered that messenger and groups does not give the user such a vast number of people to casually converse with that Answers does? Since I am now told conversing is allowable in regards to an answer….I will be practicing a new form of covert chat.
Don’t kid yourselves that we haven’t noticed any of the absurdity here. There are people on here who make it their point to upset and insult other members either by answering their questions with things like, “Lay off the booze, you worthless drunk!” or directing such nastiness in their answer at another answerer to the same question, and when you report them, their answer stays there, but if someone else asks, “What did you do today?” and the same guy who left the rude answer reports them for ‘chatting’, they get a violation and sometimes a suspension. Do you think that we don’t notice this discrepancy? It shouldn’t matter if someone is a Top Contributor or anything else, if they are insulting someone purposely, even if they haven’t used any profanity or threats, removing their answer and slapping them with a violation should be far more important than doing the same thing to someone who happened to word an innocent inquiry in a ‘chatty’ manner. Don’t you see how WRONG this is? The rude guy, he intentionally broke the rules, and he did it to hurt somebody — the chatter probably had no idea they broke a rule, and they were just being friendly. There is no way you can try to insinuate that these are equally offensive.
I would love to chat on Yahoo messenger, but there are so many porn bots on there that it is ridiculous to find a human. I think others would agree until the bots are gone it is easier to try to chat on answers. I see that porn bots are not on answers.
there is a guy on classical music who constantly insults people and he is a top contributor there. this guy shoud not even be a member any more for all of the times he has make somebody feel crappy while he is here. and you make a big deal for chatting which is only annoying at the most. punish the people who deserve it. the ones who say mean and terrible things to people who ask a normal question. then if you still have time you can get the chatters off here. but first you shoud take care of this business to upset others with their answers. this is unacceptable.
I think it might be important for you to explain to the community what specifically is wrong with “Do you like my poem?” and how “How can I improve my poem.” is actually better. Also, people are confused by what is meant when you write chatting is wrong, but being conversational is alright.
I think I understand what you mean. Questions like do you like my poem will usually just get one word, yes or no answers. They do not spark any real conversation, like you should change this word, or the punctuation is funny in stanza 2, etc. That is more acceptable because it gets more detailed answers.
If I am wrong as to what the meaning of all of this is, then you really do need to be far more specific!
you have GOT to be kidding me!…..you guys are hell bent on searching for “chatty” questions such as (and i will use your example) “Do you like my poem?” yet its okay for people to come to this forum and post the infamous “am i pregnant?” question of the day…..seriously think about this…..ANYONE who answers this post is in violation because there is NO WAY that anyone can answer the question with ANY degree of certainty …even a doctor!….this is the “chattiest” question i have ever seen since no one can answer it and yet i see it over and over an over again……you guys are great but i think youre dropping the ball on this one!
but chatting is wat makes y!answers!! to hell with it.
I feel for you in that you have your hands full trying to keep users on point to fulfill the site’s stated vision. We are on the honor system, and we let the idea behind the site down every single time we log on and start typing one or two word wisecrack responses in place of genuinely trying to help others. And every time we ask “am I pretty?” or some other equally junky questions that have zero reference value for anyone besides that one person on the planet. And every time we decide to “go off” on some politician, celebrity or family member in a rip-roaring therapeutic post of the sort we see here any minute of the day.
You have your work cut out for you. Good luck.
I second Snoogans, Quoting:
“If the intent of this site is to share quality knowledge, then you’re all failing miserably. Any knowledge of value that you could gain from this site could easily be obtained from Wikipedia, the only redeeming feature of Y!Answers is the ability to talk with a real person, i.e. chatting.
Comment posted on May 20th, 2008 at 3:58 am by Snoogans”
===================
I prefer not to give my IM Id to chat because of chat spam and trolls. Yahoo chat today is used as a advertising platform just to draw ppl from chat to their websites.
Please provide us a revamped Yahoo Chat Platform exactly similar to yahoo answers.. but where all these are ALLOWED. I am more comfortable to getting answers from real prople be it wise crack or serious.
because when u talk with somebody u don’t be shy .
and be so confidence .
that’s what i think …….
If you mission “connects people to the information they’re seeking with those who know it” then you need to do this by getting people over the age of 16 to share their knowledge. sorry, what you got is a place for kids to have fun in. you can’t succeed in your mission without banning 80% of the users (kids). and us adults would not be here if it was just us here too — we’d only ask stupid questions about our resumes!
Interestingly, you may have uncovered a new business model and are ignoring it. YahooAnswers appears to be fitting a need that YahooGroups doesn’t. How about YahooChat and YahooRant for new websites? Set them up with the same categories as YahooAnswers, and let the people chat and rant all they want!
chatting by definition is the exchange of questions and remarks, isn’t that exactly what were doing when we ask a question?
I guess my beef is, why does it matter, although it was not intended for this purpose, who is it hurting? And who are you to determine what is quality knowledge? People opinions are knowledge, and some people value them greatly.
Polls and Surveys for example:
Poll: what’s your favorite brand of clothing?
any answer to this question, although a legitimate poll, is by your definition, chatting, because its not about quality of knowledge, but an opinion. YET, u have a whole category related to it?
Seems to me, you’re just really bored, and have nothing better to do than scrutinize every innocent little Q on here.
My motto: If its not hurting anybody, let it be and MYOB!
I too get frustrated by all the “Do you think I’m pretty?” and “Does he/she like me?” questions. How are we supposed to know if they like you. We don’t even know you!!! That’s why I avoid coming on after school gets out and if I do come on I avoid those questions. Maybe a better solution to the chatty problem would not be to ban all chatting but to make a Yahoo Answers for Teens or even better make a category for teens! I’m sure it would be a lot like polls and surveys and it’s not like adults couldn’t go on and answer their questions too but then those of us who don’t want to deal with high school drama wouldn’t have to take the time to skip those questions that are useless to everyone but the person who posted them.
I’d be happy to “chat away on Yahoo Messager” if it didn’t act as a portal for viruses and such crap.
Wow, you guys are actually TRYING to drive traffic away from your site. Maybe you should try to figure out how incorporate the “chatty” aspect of Answers into the system rather than exclude people.
The give and take, or “chattiness” as you deem it, is part of the give and take and is useful. It’s too bad you don’t seem to realize this. No wonder your stock is tanking. I’ve always thought that Y! was a directionless company anyway.
I understand your mission and your dilemma, but may I point out that you have built “chatting” into the system and even encourage it when you foster cliques by the ability to add contact groups.This by definition is a network, the very thing that you supposedly don’t want anyone to do in this forum. What is even worse is the ability for groups to work en mass to target other users, by the easily accessed questions of other users in that contact group. End the contacts, accessible emails and IM…. and the chatting will go away.
What about the serious troll problem? There are PLENTY of people who create multiple accounts to cyber-bully other users, just for the fun of it. That is the bigger problem here, and what you should be focusing on. Please, get a clue.
when it comes to yahoo answers, it seems like they don’t want their fans happy. I got my account terminated because of you idiots!!!! now i’m using MSN… I lost all of my e-mail addresses from my friends and family because you dummies…
People, people, people… what’s so hard to understand?
“Do you like my poem” – the possible answers are “yes” and “no”. That’s it. If other wannabe poets come to Y!A looking to improve their poems, the value of this Q&A will be pretty much zero – it’ll just be another bit of useless chaff to wade through in their quest to find useful advice. The “best answer” choice (if it exists) will be completely meaningless. So they’ll either give up and leave, or give up and post questions of their own, thereby increasing the chaff the next wannabe poet has to wade through.
“How can I improve my poem”, on the other hand, has an infinite number of different possible answers. Wannabe poets can scan through the answers, and probably find something that’ll help them with their poems. They can look at the “best answer”, and at who chose it as best: the asker or the readers. If their interpretive skills are even moderately developed, they’ll derive useful information from Y!A, all without adding to the “chaff”.
As for the “conversational” addendum: what this means is that it’s ok to use conversational, informal language – you don’t have to use excrutiatingly correct English to be considered a valuable member of the community. (Though of course it can’t hurt. More people should try it. ) It’s even OK to have a conversation (via edits), as long as it’s all relevant to the question that was asked.
And to everyone griping about how there are much bigger problems that need to be solved, that’s completely beside the point. Don’t let the best be the enemy of the good and all that: just because there was a cyclone in Myanmar and an earthquake in China doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go help out at the local soup kitchen.
Maybe the users like the Yahoo! Answers-style platform to discuss matters. As Jim put it, it is a new business model that Yahoo! is ignoring. I say, Yahoo! is working against themselves.
Glad you pointed it out bcuz I didn’t realize the difference.
Thanks!
“Answers” is still fun too!
I still think that this blog that you posted is very pointless and doesn’t at all clarify just what you mean by “chatting”. Why is it okay for trolls and the purposely rude ninnies to answer with questions like “get a makeover cause quite frankly you need it” or people to ask very vulgar and mean insulting maybe even racists questions, but you remove an incredibly stupid and innocent harmless question title “do you like my poem”???? I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again, your priorities are all mixed up, all the things you need to be focusing on you’re putting on the backburner, and the things that really cause no problem you act as if it’s WWII. I think you all need to try to be less concerned about chatting because in case you haven’t noticed because you’re too busy making stupid stuff like this up, all of Y!A is chatting I mean basically that’s what you are doing when asking a question. Why don’t you take care of the true abusers first and then try to clarify just EXACTLY what you mean by chatting
Hmm, which seems worse? A person who goes around sections, reporting for no reason, and gets valuble members suspended?
or
A person who asks “How was your day?”
Focus on bigger problems, please.
Yahoo should screen the questions before posting them. duh.
I’d like to mention what else should be taken care of. I’ve heard from numerous answerers and if I’m wrong please correct me. Lots of people who don’t like other people report them and get friends to report them so they’re question/answer is pulled for the ‘fun of it’
I think more needs to be done about this issue.
One thing is a constant, that is the stupidity of people.
regards
rcbrains
the truth triumphs…
I am alive today because of YahooAnswer.
I get to choose which question I want to answer. I have a choice among an endless pool of questions asked from curious humans from all over the world.
I see a wide variety of intelligence and I respect other’s youth and ignorance.
As a teenager, I wished I had a tutor like I am to them today
I’d really like to know why it is that when someone says that Yahoo should do something about the excessive abuse of the reporting system, they are immediately labeled as someone who doesn’t want to go along with the program.
That narrow-minded view of anyone who isn’t a flag waving fan of reporting on an abusive scale is indicative of the petty attitude and lack of tolerance and understanding that is required of a mature moderator.
That attitude of arrogance reminds me of someone who once tried to sell me a poorly maintained truck by saying it had a great paint job. You (Yahoo) need to crawl out of the cave there in Sunnyvale and see that there is a world outside of California, one with a multitude of experiences and aspirations.
To expect that world to be a consistent judge of what should or should not be reported, is a blatant refusal to acknowledge what has been learned from the trials and tribulations of human civilization for at least 5,000 years.
Somewhere, somehow, somebody expected EVERYONE that uses this site to have the exact same understanding of a widely interpretable set of guidelines and gave them the power – and later, the enticement – to report anything they didn’t agree with.
To use another automotive analogy, as Yahoo keeps emphasizing the importance of reporting while doing NOTHING to curb the potential (and realized) abuses of a widely abusable system, they are akin to someone who has undertaken a long journey in a truck that has very little oil in the motor, and turns up the volume on the radio to drown out the telling noise rather than doing what is necessary.
Yahoo, you have your priorities backwards here. Chatting is the least of your problems. You should be doing what you can to protect your users from the Fellowship of Reporting Fanatics that you do everything to give life to.
The second paragraph – as worded – is meant to say that a mature moderator would exercise the opposite of the attributes mentioned there.
Just wanted to warn you guys to never use the phrase “he fingered that person” when you mean someone who POINTED A FINGER at someone. I was reported and I appealed twice, both times explaining that my comment was not mean in a sexual context, yet they still sent me the generic form about profanity not being allowed.
The stupid staff don’t even take the time to read any of our appeals.
I guess I am through with Answers.
Someone asked how to download movies of a certain porn star.
I answered “Stop downloading porn.”
For that, I was suspended and my account was later deleted.
Because my answer was in “violation of the Community Guidelines”.
I appealed three times.
After that, I pretty much told customer support what I think of their pathetic responses.
That is when my account was deleted.
That proves Customer Support only read your emails when you insult their intelligence.
Well, if these people took the time to realize that “Do you like my poem?” is not chatting because you are asking a question about the quality of something you did and you are implying you want suggestions to make it the best it can be. Yahoo! Answers just cannot accept the fact tha what seems like chatting can actually be a quetstion they need to know an answer to. Supose they wanted to enter their avatar in th competition where they post it on the home page. “Do you like my Avatar?” would be asking for help to make your avatar the best it can be.
“Do you like my poem?” and “How can I improve my poem?” are two totally different questions. Each one has its own value and the feedback for each is really different. “How can I improve my poem” is seeking advice about making the poem better… but one may not be looking for that. Maybe someone wants to see other people’s opinion about his or her poem in general, and this person may not be seeking to improve it but to get feedback about it. So answers can give their opinion about how they like the figurative language (for example), etc.
“How can I improve my poem?” is a question that encourages answers to find shortcomings in the poem and point them out. The asker may not be seeking that. “Do you like my poem?” on the other hand is a question which is seeking feedback about most probably the positive points about the poem – or maybe both positive and negative.
Anyone who knows a little about the English language knows that “Do you like my poem?” is a question which requires more than a yes/no answer. It’s a polite way of asking for feedback. The English language strongly makes use of questions for various purposes. For example, “Do you think it’s hot in here?” is a question which implies “Please open the window” or “Please switch on the air conditioner”. Likewise, “Do you like my poem?” is one way which people use in the English language to mean “Give me feedback about my poem” (which ironically is not a question and hence violated the Community Guidelines).
I took some literature courses in university and I DID get questions like “Do you like this poem?” and I was graded on answering such questions.
Besides, who decides what is knowledge worthy and what isn’t? If I’m a Photoshop professional, your opinion about the avatar I designed my truly be useful in enhancing my Photoshop talent – on the other hand, for someone may see this as a useless none-knowledge worthy question.
Also, an important point to consider is that we cannot expect everyone to use the same language; people use different phrases and questions to mean the same thing. Finally, many people here on Y!A are not native speakers of English, thus, they may not always be able to tell the difference between the two questions. It may be easy for a non-native speaker of English to ask for feedback about his or her poem by saying “Do you like my poem”, but he or she may not have the language ability to ask for feedback by saying “How can I improve my poem”. At least the latter question may not be part of the non-native speakers’ accessible language.
Your pointing out these so called infractions has caused this thread to be nothing but “chat” i.e. condemning your position (mostly) and others reacting to something someone else has sad … so see you have started a “chat” thread … if it wasn’t so tradgic it would be funny (in fact after 15 min of reading I was rofl … lol … Peace~
This post is as clear as mud. Chatting is whatever two trolls decide that it is and report you under this moderation system that is so easily abused. Why even have a Polls & Surveys category then? BTW, most of Ask Mike’s questions seems to fall under the chatting category.
And what about the Jokes and Riddles section? How can there be anything other than what yahoo would consider as chat in that section?
Jokes and riddles? Yes…this is a section to post jokes or riddles. So how is that not chatting???
Hmmm. I thought that people who made “false” reports (as defined by a successful appeal) have their reporting privilege downgraded.
That should, in the long run, take care of abusive reporters, if appeals are actually handled. (And not all abuse reports are for “chat”.)
I’ve had my account suspended twice now for answering questions. I’m not sure what the point of Yahoo answers is anymore when I give real answers and even show citations of where I got the info. What really pissed me off is both times I got suspended right after getting the best answer! WTH?!
Then WHY are you NOW saying that Chatting is OK in P&S?!?!?!?!?!?
I left Yahoo Answers recently. I was trolled by a so called reporter troll, a person (in my case probably a two-faced contact) who decided to start reporting my past questions and answers for chatting infractions. Y!A has a series of tensions that I’m not sure you can deal with. What you intend the site to be is a knowledge site, and it is in many ways. But, people have also turned it into a chatroom. It is both a knowledge site and a chatroom. If you give power to people to report, then what you get are certain users targeting other users for chatting violatons. Your problem is that you can’t have it both ways. You have to either relax your rules about chatting, or good, smart people are going to leave because of the violation notices. There is a tension in what Y!A actually is and what you want it to be. I have stopped contributing, and I had over 200 fans, and was a huge contributer to the R&P and Philosophy Sections. I know of many other users who have either left, or rarely contribute anymore. You should figure out how to block people you ban by IP address, because after they get banned, they just create more accounts. The whole Y!A system is problematic. Learn from what people are saying here. This is coming from a former Level 4 user who left in frustration over reporter trolls targeting my questions and answers for chatting. The chatting would normally be something like a simple hello to a contact that asked a question before I proceeded to answer it. You encourage building of a Contact and Fan Network, but that leads to friendships being formed, and to a certain amount of miniscule chatting in the answers. You need to make some tough decisions about what Y!A really is, and how to keep good, smart people from leaving. I’ll check back in to Y!A in a year or so, but if things are still the same, I will not participate here again. You guys lost a smart user, and I can tell you that the quality of the answers has suffered as a result. You no longer see the long detailed answers you saw 2 or 3 years ago. Your rules are encouraging the trolls because they can evade suspension simply my creating more accounts. Trolls are rarely level 5 and up, so they have nothing to lose by being suspended. The people that are being harmed by your no chatting rules are people like me – Level 4 and up, who have made real friends on Y!A, and like to preface an answer with a hello to the Contact asking the question. When my answer gets deleted, do you think I am going to want to stick around and give you folks great long answers anymore? No way. I see that your priorities are screwed up, and I’ll move on like so many have done before me. So, I suggest you do something about the root of the problem here, which is realizing that Y!A is a knowledge/chatsite hybrid, and relax your draconian rule about “No Chatting.” Also, please do something about trying to block trolls by IP address. You have access to the IP address, I know because I’ve seen mine at the bottom of my appeal to violation notices – which incidentally are never overturned in my favor. Only kids and trolls use this site now, which is kind of sad. I was one of the adults around here, and I enjoyed the friendships I made, but I couldn’t stomach the stupidity of the rules and the prevalence of the trolling.