January 29, 2009 at 1:00 am
What’s the lowdown on badges?
Here at Yahoo! Answers, we use badges to designate the various types of members participating in the Yahoo! Answers community. Here is an explanation of what the different badges mean:
An Official badge indicates that the identity of a community member asking or answering questions on Yahoo! Answers has been verified by a member of the Yahoo! Answers team. This helps us distinguish our celebrity, professional, and sponsor participants within the Yahoo! Answers community.
The Staff badge displays when members of the Yahoo! Answers team or other Yahoo! staff members officially ask or answer questions on Answers.
The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. The top contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent participation in a particular category. To learn more about Top Contributors, please review Top Contributor help.
It’s important to remember that Q&A content on Answers should not replace the advice and consultation of a qualified professional. All answers posted on Yahoo! Answers (even answers from staff) are only the opinion of the poster.
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Of course, as members know all too well, not everybody who IS a top contributor gets a badge.
Thanks for the blog, Team.
Dad
This seems to fall in the category of “No duh!”
“We don’t go to show you no steenki’ badges!”
thanks for the info =)
“The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. ”
I beg to differ. Of course there are many knowledgeable TCs, but the badge is awarded to those who are the most frequent posters, not to those who give especially good answers.
IMHO the name of the badge is misleading.
Hey, are you filtering my messages?
Tut tut, that’s not nice!
Thanks for the post. I pretty much already knew all that, but it’s a good refresher that ties it all together. I suppose it’s also helpful for people who are inexperienced on Y!A.
Just one thing… why do you guys so avidly avoid telling us the exact criteria to become a top contributor??? (e.g. amount of answers and best answers needed)
Now explain why you won’t tell us what exactly gets our account suspended.
Top Contributor? Do you people realize how many people with more than one ID ask and answer and vote “Best Answer” their own questions??? Come on now, its a senseless badge to have….
“The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. ”
I beg to differ. Of course there are many knowledgeable TCs, but the badge is awarded to those who are the most frequent posters, not to those who give especially good answers.
IMHO the name of the badge is misleading.
Actually, the name of the badge is not misleading. The official description is. You earn it by CONTRIBUTING. It matters little WHAT you contribute.
And it used to be you got a purple outline if you were a category leader. I guess since the leaderboards are frozen with old data, this doesn’t make sense.
But I hope the leaderboards will return some day (month? year?)
Gotta agree with Calimecita. A Top Contributor badge does not reflect the quality of the answers….just the quantity.
On more than one occasion I have seen a level 7 TC and thought to myself, “he talks a lot, but doesn’t really say much”.
The “Top Contributor” badge is a joke. I have 10 years of professional experience, a master’s degree, and college level teaching experience on subjects in politics, criminal justice, and sociology. I give very accurate and researched answers. Top contributor? Nope. That goes to the 14 year old moron who answers the most questions and goes back and votes for his/her own answers. When I finally did get it, I went on vacation, came back and it was gone. It’s misleading and based on quantity, not quality. What’s so shameful is that the complete and total lack of monitoring of the quality and content of the answers is contributing to the dumbing down of our society. You ask us to provide answers, but hide behind the word “opinions” to justify allowing people to post false and misleading crap full of blatant lies and multiple insults. When these get reported, nothing happens. I’ve even reported an answer that contained a link to a child porn web site, noted it in the comments section, and it remained. You really need to change this site to Yahoo! Opinions because that’s what it is.
LibertyOrDeath – you are exactly right. Though I agree with the badge being based on contributions, the time limit should be more than a vacation time. The quality of the answers should also be looked at.
The ‘top contributor’ badge goes to the most talkative member in a given category, not the one who gives the best answers. I’ve seen so many TCs replying with useless chatty answers such as “I agree!” or “me too!”, usually in response to chatty questions such as “what’s your favorite (fill in the blank)” that it makes the badge a completely useless designation.
Liberty or Death is quite right. There are a number of obnoxious malicious trolls who regularly insult my religion and there is no proper mechanism to have them censured or suspended. Enforcement of the TOS is a farce. If it wasn’t for the fact that I meet some nice people and we continue our discussions privately, Answers would be a total anoying and useless waste of time. As usual yahoo doesn’t want to provide the support their products really require.
I think Yahoo! Answers is a joke. Almost everyone participating on Yahoo! Answers is close-minded.
Maybe you should pay more attention to your indiscriminate removal of questions / answers than you do to the issuing of these silly badges. If you ask me, Answers! leaves much to be desired…
The whole badge thing is a joke.Top Contributor should include some knowlegde in something,rather than how little of a life people here have.I have never seen or heard of the Official badge.And who would want anyone knowing they are part of the Staff here.The staff is an absolute joke.I totally agree with the above poster.
commen sense FTW
lame.
The “Top Contributor” badge is a joke. I have 10 years of professional experience, a master’s degree, and college level teaching experience on subjects in politics, criminal justice, and sociology. I give very accurate and researched answers. Top contributor? Nope. That goes to the 14 year old moron who answers the most questions and goes back and votes for his/her own answers. When I finally did get it, I went on vacation, came back and it was gone. It’s misleading and based on quantity, not quality. What’s so shameful is that the complete and total lack of monitoring of the quality and content of the answers is contributing to the dumbing down of our society. You ask us to provide answers, but hide behind the word “opinions” to justify allowing people to post false and misleading crap full of blatant lies and multiple insults. When these get reported, nothing happens. I’ve even reported an answer that contained a link to a child porn web site, noted it in the comments section, and it remained. You really need to change this site to Yahoo! Opinions because that’s what it is.
hey, yahoo answers blog is using workpress to do all the scripting! so much for the brain part.
Um… what? No comments about the “Knowledge Partner” badges? Are they still there?…
And why is it I never see the “Staff” badges out at the Q&A (U.S.) site anymore?
The Yahoo! Answers Team used to answer questions pertaining to Yahoo! Answers, but now the only “Staff” badge I ever see at the U.S. Q&A site is “Ask Mike”…
And “Ask Mike” specifically excludes himself from answering questions about the Y!Answers product…????
So if any users want official answers about the product , they just get unofficial answers from other users , who are just guessing…..
I, for one, would like to see more “staff” answers at the Q&A site, especially when questions arise about their own product. We rarely see official replies from Y! staff at the forum either…
;-(
Oh? When you say “recognize a member”… by whom? The programmer who wrote the code to detect the dynamic status of the users in a Category?
Sadly, I must agree with those who question the Top instead of Frequent above the Contributor on the badge.
Quality over Quantity is no longer seems to be an official goal. Opinions? “yeah, I agree” gets the same recognition as a well thought out and written technical reply that takes 30 minutes to post.
Y!AT — You disappointed many with this blog entry.
Get rid of the laughable mouse and I’ll care…
“The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category.”
Give us a break! If the Answers staff actually monitored Answers, it would know that most “top contributors” are blatant violators of the rules. All they do in the Baseball section is flood the section with crappy answers. It’s one big clique of middle school kids who couldn’t care less what the real answers are to most questions.
Top contributors should actually contribute, not be prolific time-wasters.
Liberty or Death is quite right. There are a number of obnoxious malicious trolls who regularly insult my religion and there is no proper mechanism to have them censured or suspended. Enforcement of the TOS is a fares
So, what does all this mean? Do you have to get your own badge, or does Yahoo award you when they deem it appropriate?
I went to badges and there was a cut and paste to put on your page, but it doesn’t tell you where to paste it.
I wanna badge!
From everything I’ve seen out here, top contributor badges seem to go only to those who remain absolutely, politically correct. True knowledge of a given subject has no impact on the issuance of badges, as long as they NEVER get a question/answer deleted.
Why limit badges to contibutors in a particular category, what about those of us who answer in many categories, and have been members over 3 years since Y/A began? Once you’re past level 7, there’s no incentive besides just answering.
And BRING BACK THUMBS DOWN FOR QUESTIONS TOO while you’re at it.
Now this will give users some insight on what you wrote in the blog.
People who are complaining about the “Top Contributor” badge are missing a particular problem.
You are complaining that the badge only goes to those who are most active versus those who give the better answers. I have to ask, how do you expect it to be? Do you think that Yahoo is going to staff up to have people sift through the millions of answers a day to award the badge themselves? You are asking a lot from a free service. Awarding the “Top Contributor” badge to the more active users allows for an automated process which does not require human intervention (no extra staff).
If you are complaining that there are knuckleheads who give bad answers and go back to vote for themselves, I say, that you should go back and vote for yourself too. There is a problem that there is a shortage of voters. I go back and vote for my answers and I am hardly suprised to find that I usually win because no one else is voting at all
thank you for the information!
a very interesting information about badges…
i like the colors u applied…
It really hit me how useless the Top Contributor bad was when I got one. It doesn’t mean anything.
Whatever.
Man, why are there people getting worked up over this blog? LOL, this is just a web forum.
I find it hilarious that people would be getting so angered over what someone on yahoo is “badged” as. If you know their answers suck, who cares what Y!A thinks. If you answer every question with good answers, people will notice you and you don’t need a badge for it.
How about another badge that reads “Top Whinger” for all of those who are having a cry because they don’t have the badge. Actually there are a number of good ones I can think of. “Top Asker of Rhetorical Questions” “Top Have a Chat with Contacts in Question” or “Top It isn’t Fair” “Top I am just here for a Laugh” “Top Trolling for a reaction from anybody” “Haven’t got a clue but I will answer anyway”"Top crazy but love the contact”
Oh btw thank you for sending the badge so promptly they are reasonably priced and I wear mine to special dinners and also casually around the house.
Way to go YA team
I think badges are cool!!
of course only the experts……
How come there’s no badges on the Polls & Surveys section of Y!A ??
lol, in your description of Top Contributor you say “To learn more about Top Contributors, please review Top Contributor help.” with a link to a paragraph that is nearly identical to the one you just wrote.
Whatever mechanism you use to pick TCs is a joke. There are a handful who are really good answerers but the bulk are just opinionated bullies who get a lot of best answers from like-minded opinionated bullies.
What about KPs?
I’m proud of my badge if for no other reason than that I’m proud of my answers. (although I do sometimes give in to posting a sarcastic or stinging remark for those kinds of questions that seem to “just ask for it.”) But I work pretty hard to give real, helpful answers that do more than give “yes” or “no” or “ditto” type responses. I not only try to give factual and practial information, I like go tell WHY my answer applies and HOW it works.
I am, in fact QUALIFIED to provide these kind of responses, by training and experience. If I happen to have to share the badge with somone else who’s earned his by proxy names or otherwise, oh, well. (there used to be a guy in one of my categories that would pick up 100 “best answers) in a couple of days. NOT 100 points, but 100 “best answers) I know for a fact that I haven’t. I LIKE the idea that some readers vote for my answers and am especially gratified that askers also select my response as the best.
The badge isn’t to show of to you guys. It’s to make ME feel better about my contibution. I do wish the badge wasn’t so transient. I, too, went on vacation and lost my badge in two categories. Interestingly, I was still getting tons of “best answer” emails, but, I guess because I took a pause answering, my “best answers” weren’t enough to maintain the badge. I, apparently needed to keep “stoking the fires” with responses. It does, kinda, cheapen the badge. More like 12 carat gold instead of 18.
I don’t care for badges or anything like that. I answer questions for amusement.
I will never give smart@ss answers in Mental Health but in P&S anything goes. LOL
there should be some way to identify those with the credentials to give serious answers as contrasted with the “opiniaonators”. Especially in the science and health related Qs.
It is sad to see so much “junk science” being spread around.
I was awarded a Top Contributor back during ’07 and then it was mistakenly taken away! WHY! I have authority on a vast array of subjects! Community affairs, volunteerism, Photography, religion.
It’s pretty amazing to me the amount of venom that these things seem to generate, particularly amongst those who bemoan the quality of the answers. With three degrees in Maths, Law and Everything Else, why the heck do you care about a little yellow field of pixels under you name. Surely the people who claim to care so much about the intellectual quality of the forum should be those least interested in such frippery and trash? Leave the TC badge to the “14 year old moron who answers the most questions and goes back and votes for his/her own answers” – they like that sort of thing.
For what it’s worth, I think that the criticism of the criteria are a bit harsh as well. I’m currently (I think) a TC in the Religion & Spirituality section, and I certainly am not “politically correct”. I try to make my answers amusing, and informative where possible, but I’ve been guilty of trolling on occasion, and I’ve picked up plenty of violation notices and removed questions/answers. If I can have a TC badge, then I think that there’s no fixed perspective on what’s “proper” at Y!A
I kinda like my badge, in a sad sort of way, but if I went on holiday and came back badgeless, I don’t think I’d be venting on the web. It’s nice to have a holiday.
The “top contributor” system is deeply and irreparably flawed. Therefore, it should be done away with.
In fact, Answers should be put out to pasture. It sounded like a good idea on paper, I’m sure, but it’s not useful at all. Yahoo, you guys can’t even enforce your rules.
I don’t get it. The top contributor badge is described as the following, “The Top Contributor badge is used to recognize a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category.” From reading the comments the exact opposite is stated saying that top contributor has to do with the # of answers contributed, not the content. Which is it? If the latter is the case, maybe it should be renamed “Person With the Most Free Time on their Hands” badge. Sitting in front of a computer, contributing useless answers just to get a badge, does not deserve recognition.
all a top conttributor badge means is that somebody answers a lot of questions in a certain section ,whether the answer is right or wrong,and most answers are rubbish or very dangerously wrong in pregnacy section ,this should be done away with
Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!
sorry, I just could not resist.
Just another comment to the “top contributor” badge, in the respective answer communities, this badge should be disputable with the same respect as an offending answer.
For example, if an un-knowledgeable member with this badge has many complaints about posting wrong information, the badge should be removed.
I would think this can be achieved quite simply with the number of “nay” votes, but then again I do not know the internals of Y!A
cheers!
The TC badge is actually not misleading at all. It’s the people that assume just because someone has the badge means they are knowlegable.
TC “Top Contributor”
Just meaning that person contributes a lot to that particular category. I think you have to keep an average of ….like 5% or higher of “BA”
So you could answer all day everyday with answers that make absolutely no sense, and get that badge.
So I don’t think they need to do away with the badge I just think people need to learn the definition of “contributor” lol
Besides *who cares* it’s just y/a its not like your going to receive some prize for it.
I’m not dissing the badge, i suppose it would be nice , but I answer questions for the sake of helping people. I don’t care what catergory, if I think I have a good answer, I say. I never claim to be a professional @ anything, I just have an opinion on alot of issues & life experiance on even more. I know people appreciate me for what I contribute to them and I’m pretty sure they don’t check to see if I have a badge before taking any of my advice. As for points, I could care as less about that either although they are nice indicators to show ME that I am a contributor towards an important issue in the eyes of the asker. I think Y/A has more important flaws that need attention other then Badges, but lets save that for anothe day. Forgive any typo’s, I’m poor speller, I’ll admit it. Thanks for hearing me out.
The above “post” are better than the funny paper!!!
I ♥ my badges!
Jezz, why does anyone even care about these silly little badges? I’ve had one for awhile and it is quite obvious that they are SOLELY based on mathematical percentages. Maintain a certain percentage of overall best answers, and maintain a certain amount of best answers per week in a specific category, and boom, there the badge is. Unless you take a break for a week or 2 of course, in which case you need to re-earn it
Didn’t there used to be a badge for reporting people who were violating the rules…if you reported enough people accurately I thought you were given some kind of badge…?
Why not let the people themselves vote on who is or isn’t a top contributer? Maybe have a “ranking” shown by their avatar on how helpful the community thinks their answers are…maybe we could vote on the contributor as well as giving thumbs up and down for the answers…or just “stick” the number of thumbs up and thumbs down they get from others from their answers (and/or questions) as a stat that appears by their avatar. (?)
Also instead of just having a “Top 10″ rankings…why not rank everyone, or maybe the Top 1000 contributors…?
A lot of complaints about “top contibutor”, personally I think it is a good idea however it should be disputable. Too many reports and / or down votes compared to the number of best answers and / or up votes, remove the label.
If you don’t like the sort of answers that TC’s are giving – then DO SOMETHING about it…
* PICK the Best Answer whenever you ask a question.
* REPORT non-answers, and those that otherwise break the rules (including those that can do HARM to another person).
* VOTE on whatever questions you answer – and either pick your OWN answer, or one that IS worthy of being picked as Best Answer.
* GIVE consistently good answers – so that you earn a reputation in “your” section as a reliable user. If you feel the need to Troll/Chat – do so in ANOTHER section.
* CORRECT any bad answers you come across – just don’t “Call Out” that user.
Following these simple little rules can almost guarantee a TC badge – if you’re active enough.
But why bother – they just tend to make you a Troll Magnet…
>:(
Mandie, to “contribute” means just that. If someone asks in the Baseball section “What is your favorite food?” and someone answers “Bacon,” how in the world is that “contributing”? That’s like putting counterfeit money in the pot. It’s not worth anything. Therefore, it is not a contribution.
Answers is a complete disaster, and Yahoo doesn’t care. This is evident by the lack of any response by the staff to constant complaints about abusive users.
Those of us complaining about “top contributor” status are truly dedicated to trying to make this concept work. Unfortunately, we’re being drowned out by the infants Yahoo lets run the place.
But Yahoo doesn’t care about us.
Yahoo, clean up this mess or turn it off.
Mandie posted:
“So I don’t think they need to do away with the badge I just think people need to learn the definition of “contributor””
My dictionary defines “contribute” as “to give (money, food, etc.) to a common supply, fund, etc.” [the second meaning, "to furnish works for publication" doesn't apply here].
So to contribute means to give something – normallly understood as useful stuff – (as money, food, etc in the definition above). If all a user is giving is poor answers, then I suggest “Frequent Answerer” would be a better name for this particular badge.
I don’t mean any disrespect for the good, knowledgeable and responsible users who also happen to have a TC badge.
But the badge doesn’t mean anything when the way it’s awarded results in these quality users being lumped together with those that are exactly the opposite.
I’ve had several accounts, one after the other. I always end up getting a Top Contributor badge for Astronomy and Space, but I usually lose it because I said something unpopular or impolitic in an answer. These TC badges are political things, stuck on you when the staff likes you, taken away when the staff doesn’t like you.
I was top contributer for like 2 weeks one time. But top contributer is only availble if you got what, 25% of your answers best and choosen by the asker? I think the badge should be changed a little by, hmm, voting and all categories? well, the voting might not work, hmmm,
“I’m not dissing the badge, i suppose it would be nice , but I answer questions for the sake of helping people. I don’t care what catergory, if I think I have a good answer, I say. I never claim to be a professional @ anything, I just have an opinion on alot of issues & life experiance on even more. I know people appreciate me for what I contribute to them and I’m pretty sure they don’t check to see if I have a badge before taking any of my advice. As for points, I could care as less about that either although they are nice indicators to show ME that I am a contributor towards an important issue in the eyes of the asker. I think Y/A has more important flaws that need attention other then Badges, but lets save that for anothe day. Forgive any typo’s, I’m poor speller, I’ll admit it. Thanks for hearing me out.
Comment posted on January 31st, 2009 at 12:41 pm by Lillsoma”
“Why not let the people themselves vote on who is or isn’t a top contributer? Maybe have a “ranking” shown by their avatar on how helpful the community thinks their answers are…maybe we could vote on the contributor as well as giving thumbs up and down for the answers…or just “stick” the number of thumbs up and thumbs down they get from others from their answers (and/or questions) as a stat that appears by their avatar. (?)
Also instead of just having a “Top 10″ rankings…why not rank everyone, or maybe the Top 1000 contributors…?”
Have to agree, cause there are sooo many people who deserve the badge but don’t have it and people who do have it and don’t need it. It seems kinda like just some bragging right. There are people who do deserve the badge and get it, but maybe we could have something where the community gives badge points to peoples answers with every thumbs up?
“People who are complaining about the “Top Contributor” badge are missing a particular problem.
You are complaining that the badge only goes to those who are most active versus those who give the better answers. I have to ask, how do you expect it to be? Do you think that Yahoo is going to staff up to have people sift through the millions of answers a day to award the badge themselves? You are asking a lot from a free service. Awarding the “Top Contributor” badge to the more active users allows for an automated process which does not require human intervention (no extra staff).
If you are complaining that there are knuckleheads who give bad answers and go back to vote for themselves, I say, that you should go back and vote for yourself too. There is a problem that there is a shortage of voters. I go back and vote for my answers and I am hardly suprised to find that I usually win because no one else is voting at all
Comment posted on January 30th, 2009 at 6:18 am by Malik L”
No, we don’t expect y! to look at every single profile, we just want to be able to pick our TC’s.
It doesn’t matter to me either way. I’ve had the badge and then 2 days later it was gone. Why? Who knows. Who really cares. hehe I will continue to use Yahoo Answers as a past time in order to kill time. This is whether I have a badge or not.
You earn the badge based on recent participation: TRUE.
People with the badge have shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category: FALSE
It’s all based on participation, regardless of what you say (as long as you’re not reported). So many spammers are “top contributors”. Yeah, they contribute answers, but they don’t say anything worth reading.
Some top contributors do deserve it, but it’s still based solely on participation. If Yahoo says otherwise, then I’d like to know why anyone in the Philippines or Malaysia category is a top contributor, since those are almost entirely composed of spam/unrelated questions and answers.
Mandie: Am I right in thinking that you have to keep above a 5% Best Answer rate to get a Top Contributor? If so, I should have had one ages ago. I joined about 4 years ago and I have never fallen below 30% Best Answer rate.
216 Answers, 71 Best
Incidentally, if you are wondering why my number of answers is so low over 4 years, its because I actually think about what I am saying and only answer questions about subjects in which I am proficient, unlike people who post absolute giblets just to gain points
I miss burger king!
Sometimes I post enough to get a Top Contributor badge in the Cats section. Sometimes I run out of tactful ways to say, “Take your ill or injured animal to the veterinarian NOW,” and spend my time online elsewhere. I have mixed feelings about it. Yeah, it feels good to be recognized, but I have noticed that I get more thumbs down when the badge is there. The quality of my answers do not change – believe me, when I’m answering the same darn question for the 40th time, I do give the same darn answer – so apparently there are people whose knee-jerk reaction to seeing the TC badge is a negative one.
I’m sorry there’s so many that don’t like the TC label… I worked pretty hard to get mine in Gardening… I give good answers, good advice and link to websites that back up what I suggest… I think I earned mine….
of course, there are those few who aren’t exactly on top of the current info or just don’t care, but those are usually obvious… for my own use here, I tend to look more closely at the profiles of those who are TC’s… the tale is usually told there…..
There is way too much spam going onto these answer boards. I love the point system and the TC system, but have you ever thought of giving TCs or people who’ve made it to lvl 7 the power to delete questions, rude or offensive comments, and eliminate trolling in general?
It’s something much needed, and the TCs of these forums would relish the opportunity to manage some of these comments.
And yet, there are still complete idiots who give the most ignorant and biased answers and have the TC badge and; therefore, made it a joke and a half.
If you don’t like the sort of answers that TC’s are giving – then DO SOMETHING about it…
If you really think about it, the TC Badge IS fair.
It’s all about the points, yes, but it’s more about assisting people. The more questions you answer, the more points you receive and hopefully the more people you help.
Continue answering with in the same category you rack up points “in that category” It’s simple really. And it’s just the way it is.
If you hop around category to category, just saying– “yes you’re right” 2 points NEXT CATEGORY–>
“sorry ’bout that he’s was wrong” 2 points NC–>
“that movie was great” 2 points NC–>
Well your not really contributing, you’re just racking up points.
Then it’s not wanting to assist, it’s wanting to play.
It REALLY is that simple.