Comments on: What’s the big deal about chat on Yahoo! Answers?

By: Former User

Former User — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:28:17 +0000

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.

By: kr_toronto

kr_toronto — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:01:07 +0000

Then WHY are you NOW saying that Chatting is OK in P&S?!?!?!?!?!?

By: TrannyD

TrannyD — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:38:19 +0000

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?!

By: Arthur R

Arthur R — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:02:33 +0000

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”.)

By: Casey

Casey — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:44:45 +0000

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???

By: SoCal Attorney

SoCal Attorney — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:05:41 +0000

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.

By: juiceman777

juiceman777 — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:38:06 +0000

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~

By: Snowberry

Snowberry — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:18:54 +0000

“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.

By: Gaseous Bob

Gaseous Bob — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:43:42 +0000

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.

By: Henry

Henry — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:56:10 +0000

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.