Community Moderation revisited
It’s already been a year and a half since we launched Community Moderation on Answers. Every day, trusted users work together to report and remove any content that violates the Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service. Since this is one of the topics that regularly appears in the forum, here’s a refresher for those who would like to take part.
How does Community Moderation work?
Before:
Any user could report abusive content on Answers. A Yahoo! employee then reviewed the report and decided whether to keep or to delete the content. This system is still in place.
Now:
Thanks to Community Moderation, our efforts to control abusive content on Answers have greatly increased. Once a report is submitted to Yahoo!, Community Moderation measures the reputation of both the reporter and the person being reported. The system then determines whether it can remove the reported item directly from the site based on community input or whether further review is needed.
How does the reputation system work?
You must be very familiar with the Community Guidelines in order to become one of our trusted Answers users. As you develop a better idea about what’s acceptable on Answers and begin to report content, you will build a good reputation and gain influence. The more accurate your reporting, the higher your reputation will become.
However, if you abuse Community Moderation, your reputation will suffer. With a low reputation, your power to report and remove potential abuse will be reduced, which could result in a suspension.
The community is very important to the Answers team. Without it, the site is nothing, so we have set up protection mechanisms to filter out specific targeting of one user by another. Similarly, the system promotes accurate reporters, giving them more influence.
How does the appeal system work?
Although very effective, Community Moderation is not perfect. Incorrect reports will occasionally happen and some users will find their content erroneously deleted. If your question or answer is reported, we’ll send you an email stating that it has been removed. If you feel that the system was mistaken, first read the Community Guidelines to double-check. If you still think there’s a strong case, click the “Appeal” link in the email to submit an appeal. This will be reviewed by a Yahoo! employee. If we agree, your question or answer will reappear on Answers, and whoever reported you will have less influence when they report abuse in the future.
We highly encourage you to appeal if you’ve read the Community Guidelines and are sure your content has been removed in error. If your appeal is successful, not only will your content be reinstated, but also your reputation will be boosted and those that reported you will lose influence. Of course, we would advise you not to appeal for the sake of appealing, either. If your content truly deserved to be deleted, it is very unlikely we will put it back on the site just because you’ve appealed.
How do I report spam content?
Easy! Report an abuse and indicate that it’s spam. You might remember that we used to ask you to report spam on the forum. The Community Moderation system is faster and will help you improve your reputation if you report correctly, so reporting spam using the “Report abuse” button is beneficial for everyone.
That’s our update on how Community Moderation works. We hope you found this helpful!
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I just wish there were some way for us to see what our “reputation” actually was. Sort of as an adjunct to the “Top Answerer” thing that already exists, perhaps?
Community Moderation is still a joke and not efficient. Too many users are abusing it, and false reports are going through. And the appeal process is a joke, too.
“We highly encourage you to appeal if you’ve read the Community Guidelines and are sure your content has been removed in error.”
I have read them several times, even quoted them word for word. Filing an appeal is an exercise in futility, seemingly only providing more fodder for the trolls who report maliciously.
I no longer have any faith in the so called Appeal system, nor do I have any faith in ‘Community Moderation.’
How can Yahoo justify deleting a question or answer simply because someone does not share an opinion or a sense of humour?
You can’t. That’s why despite many attempts, not once have I ever recieved anything but a form letter in response to either appeals or queries. Even when examples have been provided.
I didn’t find this blog in the least helpful..or believeable.
_ some not so frequent users, do not know spam ad’s when they appear, and sometimes get over looked, basic spam is something like :
“you can find something here….( http -url link )”
it has nothing to do with actual question, you can check the users info, if it is missing, then they have been reported and removed, if they only have new user level and used less then limit, check further,
_ spammers use up 20 limit for new account, then use another new account, over and over, sometime you can notice “please wait there awhile” statement, which may be long enough to phish your info, or redirect to malware, if you are not certain, use yahoo search or google search for these links, if they appear misleading you could use a “Site Advisor” “Safe Web” add on that tags listed site as good or bad, not always foolproof, yet does assist,
_ if you find statement for answer with bleeped out text(” **** “), this may be foul language and not appropriate for answers,
_ when you find a response to question indifferent in opinion, best thumbs down, and move onto next question,
_ users still have option to block specific users from viewing their questions, as well to control who is in their contacts and network,
” ‘ave a nice day
You should enforce IP ban a little more, if not make it permanent, trolls get reported yes, but they keep on coming back even more angry and even more offensive, even if their accounts last a few hours, it doesn’t stop them. There is something you can do to prevent them from even being able to make a Y!A account? If so, please do so. There are too many people on here ruining the experience with offensive answers, especially in the P&S and the R&S sections
Is there/will there ever be any mechanism to view your “reputation” rating?
moderation? what moderation?
if i give an opinion, and someone does not like it, i get reported. if someone really does not like me, they go through my answers and report all of them. the trolls are still in control.
if i answer a question about sex, suddenly i hear the theme from Apocalypse Now as the yahoo men in black raid my computer, because the poster was only 13! the problem is that you do not have adult and children sections. children should not be asking adult men about a new position to try. only yahoo insists that adult men and little girls should talk about sex.
you allow someone to post, ” i only feed my cat once a week, i keep him locked in the closet all day, i let my dogs chase him he is bleeding and i dont feel like taking him to the vet, do you think i am a bad person’”"? but if i dare to answer” yes, you should not have a cat” here come the yahoo hit men.
any system taht uses it’s own community to moderate the forum will always be open to abuse.
Please give us a place where we can post the URLs of spammer profiles so that we can efficiently report spam.
Now we can not really get a spammer gone from the site, with the pinned thread on the suggestion board forum we were able to share, some people would hunt new spammers, others would report more posts, till no posts were left. (Or till the profile was suspended.)
We need something like that again!
I have to agree with the poster who says that community moderation doesn’t work.And I also agree with the poster wh says that there should be a way to know what one’s reputation is at Yahoo.
Too many questions are posted in the incorrect categories and I report them;nothing is done and I hope I’m not ruining my reputation.
I believe that people who continue to abuse the rules set by yahoo, should be IP banned,
Because there is no excuse for others to post rudly toward another person, exspecially when they don’t even know the person they are talking with.
Your system is a joke. We all know that Yahoo Answers favors the ostrich approach to the problems on this site. Well, I am here to wake you up. Did you know that much of the reporting is done by people with five different accounts? You had to figure this was going to happen especially with a points system that brings out a win at all costs mentality in some of the users. I also find it hard to believe that human eyes review appeals because every time someone appeals they get a form e-mail which usually says that appeal has been denied. The form e-mail also says that Customer (We Don’t) Care views the customers as an inconvenience to be dealt with. Community Moderation is just another way for Yahoo to pawn the responsibilities of running the site onto someone else so that they can basically get a paycheck for doing nothing.
The only thing this blog entry proves is that you can lie with the best of them because this whole entry is nothing but lies. It all boils down to numbers. As Barney explained, one person with one or more accounts can report and get content removed. It has nothing to due with reputation, etc it has to do with numbers. I refuse to participate in such a farcical system of justice.
I don’t believe that a Yahoo! employee actually reads when an appeal is requested. I’ve had a few items that were marked for deletion. I’ve appealed because the content of my post was not in violation. The appeal always comes back with a generic message about how the removal was valid. In no case does the Yahoo! employee explain what was violated and, given that it’s sometimes completely wrong, it’s pretty clear that there the Yahoo! employee is not bothering to do their job.
If Yahoo! is going to remove content, then they need to provide a mechanism for a real appeal: the user should be able to have an e-mail exchange with the Yahoo! employee such that the Yahoo! employee can fairly evaluate the alleged violation. As well, this allows the Yahoo! employee to give a detailed explanation of what was violated.
I’m sorry, but I have several cases where I can demonstrate that the content violated no rule, but my appeal was automatically rejected without any explanation. My e-mails are then ignored.
Why was my post removed??? What’s wrong Y Answers??? Can’t handle the truth??? Removing my post clearly shows that you don’t value your customers. If you were doing the best you can at running this site, you would view customer feedback as a way to help improve and you wouldn’t be threatened by it.
“Trusted reputation” and “community moderation” are pat phrases for the blank checks people who don’t want to have to work have written themselves. That simple. When you cut the work out of running your site, you cut out the benefits such work would create for it.
my only wish is that trusted reporters had the ability to report a user as a spammer, malware spreader or fetishist who get his/her jollies by asking the same questions over and over. Then the system would be mostly perfect.
I must voice my objection to one poster’s guidelines: “if you find statement for answer with bleeped out text(” **** “), this may be foul language and not appropriate for answers ”
Oh, and reporting starred text as possibly offensive is quite useless, and otherwise good answers could be reported using this criteria. The star filter is not a good indication of the offensiveness of a word. I’ve had perfectly innocent words starred out in my answers for no reason. In cleaning and laundry I’ve had a few very famous brand names of a cleaners constantly starred over as if it were an offensive word. It’s also quite common in Dogs, where pne word is often starred and the word starred is in no way offensive or obscene when used in context with dogs. In real estate the word for getting a value of a property is often starred, how can we *assess* how obscene that one is? It isn’t at all, nor is assassinate or assumptions, and all these have been starred on me. So that admonition that starred text should be reported as offensive is a little too harsh; especially without context.
I’m willing to bet that no one from Yahoo! bothers to respond to these comments. That will prove what I said: they don’t actually have people that take the time to read.
Yahoo!, care to respond to show that you’re actually paying attention?
In theory, the system works. In actuality… As far as I can tell, the system needs to be reevaluated.:
In order to be an informed Y/A user, I have read the community guidelines many times. I have still had perfectly good, valid questions deleted, and have seen other users in the same predicament.
I completely agree with the person who said appeals mean nothing – With every appeal, I ask to be informed which rule I am violating (so as not to accidentally misstep again). I have never received an answer. Instead, I receive form letters stating that my appeal has been denied. Also, the one time I was told my appeal was successful, and that Y/A would resubmit the question for me – it never was.
How can you be sure a question is reported for the correct reason? How many times are questions deleted for the fun of it, or through a misunderstanding? True, profanity and offensive content should not be permitted. However, most questions (asked by all users) seem to be deleted out of malice, someone not understanding the question, or because everyone’s sense of humor differs. (For example: There is no reason to delete “Do you have any good news?” How does that question violate the Guidelines?)
Form letters may make Yahoo! personnel’s jobs easier, but I want to know there is a real person on the other end of the e-mail – not a robot. (How do I know that 1 in 2,000 questions aren’t automatically deleted, or that only 1 in 30 appeals are granted?)
…I will trust the Community Moderation system when I can be guaranteed that every reports are actually investigated before being deleted, and that all appeals are carefully read, researched, and considered.
The moderation system is a joke. Too many questions or answers get deleted because someone simply doesn’t agree with the answer or question.
Yeah right, it’s a shame that one lone person sees some questions in violation and their one vote to report doesn’t stand a chance amidst the other reporters. The tattling trolls, oooops I mean the so-called trusted reporters don’t be in same categories and MISS some that need to be reported. Yet, standing alone a low-level reporter has to hope and pray the Yahoo team sees their report of a violation.
Sean, if there was a badge of sorts, then people would simply block the badged members
Joke is right. One need not look far to see about 40% of all content and answers do not fit the guidelines. When a question is reported, it’s gone. When and answer is reported there is no way to reanswer. When an acount is suspended it’s forever, with no reason given or proces to be reinstated. You can create another acount, but you cant get that one back. How much sense does this make? NONE
It it is not insulting, profane, or harmful to minors then let it slide!
Hi everyone – thanks for all the feedback so far. We do in fact read your comments here and on the forum. We know the Community Moderation system is not perfect and we are always looking at ways to make improvements. Thanks for your participation and support.
Mitzi – Yahoo! Answers Team
I wonder why you don’t expand the concept. Set up another level that a member may aspire to. One made up exclusively of reliable members. They get access to a category of appeals which they may answer just like questions. The appeals are also voted on by the reliable members to send to the appellate with commentary by the staff that may include reposting of the original question and a vindication of the asker.
amblinal’s idea posted on February 23rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm is pretty much the best solution I can imagine. I really hope someone is listening.
You have violated the Terms of Service. How did I do that?
Let’s revisit shall we?
Question posted in Religion & Spirituality
Does anyone have any experience in opening their third eye? Can you tell me what its like?
Additional details prompted by Yahoo Answers!
I am looking for anyone with any experience with having their third eye opened. Any information will be helpful!
Someone please explain to me why or HOW this violates the Community Guidelines? The appeal didn’t work. You don’t give explanations you give verdicts.
I was contacted by Yahoo to give input on various things on Yahoo. My opinion COUNTED!!! Right. I stopped giving input to any surveys at all when I got this violation notice.
Moderation doesn’t work. Nothing will work because you have to have respect for the first amendment and people’s right to free speech. Your Community Guidelines violate the first amendment and are therefore unconstitutional.
You are unfair and you let idiots do your work for you. Shame on you. I wonder if you keep a tab on how many accounts you have suspended without just cause.
I have had this e-mail account for years. YEARS before Answers or 360 existed. As a loyal customer of Yahoo I get treated like dirt as do thousands upon THOUSANDS of your other customers. I wonder how your advertisers feel about that.
It doesn’t make any business sense to offend your customers. Especially not in this economy.
Trolls run Yahoo Answers. How about revisiting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
I don’t think a public icon like what a top contributor has, but more perhaps a private (meaning user only) seen chart or graph on reporting status would be good, no one knows if they are diong the right thing, or if they are suffering from bad reputation, it just happens. There are so many people who get mad at “delete happy” people out there, that they make even more “questions” to ask about what is going on. I don’t think community moderation is working as well as it should, there still should be a team (perhaps of users with good reputation) that can actually delete the questions instead of just reporting them and hoping another person with good reputation does the same thing.
What a joke. First they brag how great their system is. Then they come on oh we read your comments and know it isn’t perfect. Then why did you write a blog acting like it is? Oh yeah because they think this system is good enough. The reason is because they don’t have to do anything. I see spam all the time, same sites usually, and nothing gets done about those sites. Maybe if Yahoo would prevent you from having more then one account at a time it would help, because trolls would have one account and it could stop the points gaming of voting for your own answers 5 times(with 5 different accounts) and giving yourself BA by asking a question with one account to build up another.
What you are saying is that before, a real yahoo employee used to review each case and now it’s an automated system… that enables you to reduce your actual manpower and the effort you put into it.
You try to bill it as an improvement when it fact you’re getting lazy and have reduced your efforts and automated the system. It doesn’t work well and you don’t seem to care.
I have contacted you over and over about malicious obscene and offensive post by a few individuals and nothing is ever done. I post less and less every day and so do many other good users because you won’t do proper policing and enforcement.
Jean
I believe the yahoo answer moderators are very biased. I really think the system needs to seriously be revamped
What I want to know is why Yahoo! won’t tell a person what he or she posted that deserved a suspension.
My Level 7 account was suspended last year. Why? I have no idea. I had insomnia and would spend hours and hours on Answers. I could spew out hundreds of answers per day. The morning I was suspended I tried to appeal, but how does a person appeal to “You know what you did.” If I ever get suspended again for “You know what you did” I’m contacting my attorney that very day. I guarantee you that I was maliciously reported. You investigated the hate email I was getting and took action, but I bet you told him “You know what you did.” when you suspended him. The next time I get threatening email I’m filing a police report.
It would be nice to see the level of influence the reporter has though, and I would still like to see a much easier way to tell a user their question is in the wrong category without going through the reporting process. Maybe just a button to click on, saying “this might be better suited to a different category”
I want to stand up as one who had my answer removed. I put in my appeal and received an email stating that it should not have been removed and it would go against the person who reported it in error.
After I post an answer to a question, I never see the question again, to find out what other people say after me. Is there a way to keep track of a thread?
If I post an answer about a sensitive subject, I always take great care never to use offensive words or a disrespectful attitude. But sometimes I find that the whole question has been deleter before I even get to post my reply.
Having a bit more feedback would improve the Answers boards for the majority of decent users.
There has to be a way for a multi-billion dollar technology company to moderate its categories and determine TOS violations better.
Due to the fact that many “clans” or “gangs” are forming on Y!A a multiple number of reports can mean that those of the same clan reported a person who may have a legitimate question or concern about them.
Also, the whole idea of a “trusted reporter” is surreal considering that the Yahoo! staff often may have a different opinion as to if a question is a violation. No rhyme nor reason to what is going on.
So what happens when someone who is not a “trusted reporter” reports some illegal material – it then stays on the www and in the community for days?
Can’t make head nor tail of this, never could and account suspensions are a joke – a person will just start another account and often come back in a more inflammatory manner because of the original suspension, actually some users brag on their name or handle “John Doe’s seventh account” or “John Q. Public’s sixth account”.
Ladies and gentlemen at Yahoo!, this is not rocket science, perhaps more focus should be put on monitoring more accurately the categories that have more violations than others. For example, there are many categories where I can get informative answers often without insults or mocking, but on the other hand in some categories that is all one gets when asking a legitimate question, … these are the ones, … the ones that tend to have the most violations that Yahoo! should focus more on to improve the quality for its users and customers.
This “update” is a rehash of what we already know.
The system IS NOT FAIR and NEVER WILL BE while reporters are not required to give a REASON. Without that, no amount of reading the guidelines if going to help a user recognise where they went wrong.
Even here above we have people saying they ASK FOR A REASON, thereby ruining their ONLY chance at appealing.
You MUST put in a full list of Reasons, radio-button choice, and pass that on to the reportee. The “can’t do for legal reasons” excuse we’ve heard against this is nonsense.
With compulsory identically worded reasons, you would also be able to keep STATISTICS, in order to actually know what is going on, and going wrong, on your site. MANY of the problems could be reduced by retuning the reward/punishment balance. But you can’t do it because you DON”T KNOW.
Get serious about this, please, Yahoo. The report form right now does NOT EVEN COPY the details of a question, or the comments to the BA,or the Source box for an answer, yet that is where the violation might be…….and the person can WIN the appeal because YOU didn’t bother to take a copy of what they were reported for.
Don’t even get me started on the impossibility of reporting 75 closed-profile spammers x 20 answers each with the “report button”…by ONE reporter who can do only 5 per profile anyway (others can’t be told about it because you’ve closed the spam-report thread).
Whose side is Yahoo really on?
Whose SITE does Yahoo want to save?
Sure as hell you’re doing everything back to front on your own.
I know my content that was removed by community moderation did not violate the guidelines, but appeals never work, so I have no faith in the system.
Moderation should be about *what* is reported and not *who* is reporting it. YA may well agree in practice, but its language about “trusted reporters” says the opposite. It looks bad. And it basically gives a green light to people who are out of control.
New users are essentially given the message that they’re not trustworthy until they’ve proven otherwise. It should be the other way around. I’ve NEVER seen that anywhere else, and YA is the most poorly moderated message board community I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been on some wild and wooly boards.
I think there is no substitute for professionals. I assume Yahoo cut the budget for moderation and told everyone to “spin” the lack of consistent *independent* moderation as “community moderation.” Unfortunately, the poor devils who get to read posts like this are not in a position to do anything to make using YA anything less than a Kafkaesque experience.
Yahoo’s blatant and senseless discrimination between “trusted users” and everyone else (whose money is just as green to its sponsors) is totally senseless; it creates paranoia among users, it caters to self-appointed board police, and it serves no business purpose.
If you really want to see how it SHOULD be done, visit imdb.com. Try to report a post, and see what happens. It’s awesome! Apparently it’s worked very well for them, and it should work equally well for YA. SURELY you guys get more reports than you want.
YA should just get rid of the whole “some users are more equal than others” language. What purpose is served when people are reporting stuff right and left just to see if YA, which knows nothing at all about any of us, considers us worthy of its attention. If you don’t trust me and I report illegal material, YA is very foolish if it looks only at my name and does nothing. I don’t know whether I’m trusted or not (and I don’t check to see) but *I* know I’m honest and I don’t expect to be treated any other way.
Again, the focus should be on WHAT is reported, and not on WHO is reporting it.
YA is not going to get every single silly technical violation out there (and sorry, knowledge-sharing DOES involve chat sometimes). Shouldn’t the goal be NOT to indulge the control freaks among us, but to keep the worst abuses (trolling) off the boards so people actually enjoy being here (and stay longer)?
I think your lives would be a lot simpler, and so would everyone else’s.
Thank you
Community Moderation WORKS, you say???
Then why are sections such as P&S, CE, R&S, Politics, Elections, Ramadan, Dogs – and numerous others – even bigger cesspools then they used to be?!?!?!?!?
All that you have done is let the Lunatics run the Asylum – and if THAT was your intent, then I would say that you got EXACTLY what you wanted!
>:(
The system is definately flawed. I was accused of “Chatting” with an appeal denied because I went to wikipedia and defined eating dog, human and rat feces as PICA. I am informed enough to know the person was asking a question about a misunderstood eating disorder. I gave an answer from wikipedia for gosh sakes. Like so many of you, I asked for an explaination and got none. Also if an appeal is denied, you lose 10 points. I am not too worried about the number, because I am at level 6, but the sting of unfairness was raw, because it was punishing me twice for something I did not do. I am on this site to help people and to learn things, not to engage in rudeness. The system needs fixed
I realize and respect that it’s virtually impossible for there to be any particular set of rules and guidelines that will always be one hundred percent “fair” to everybody, especially in governing a large group of individuals. There just isn’t any magical cure-all to please everybody.
I do, however, have two suggestions which I believe could and would eliminate a large percentage of troll abuse and random, improper reporting. First, modify the site so that nobody is able to arbitrarily add another user as a contact on a whim, leaving them free to scroll through another’s Q’s & A’s and report randomly just for fun or spite. Instead, change it so when one wants to add another user it must be done via a request email for the recipient to either accept or deny.
Second, and since so much of the trolling is done by individuals who create multiple accounts and who, as a result, have no concerns about being suspended, change the site so that nobody under a level 3 can report. If a troll has to spend time being nice and work to get to level 3 then I imagine far fewer would be willing to go through the trouble. Of course I suppose that might not really be fair to the legitimate level 1′s and 2′s. So perhaps as an alternative to that would be to block and suspend the entire Yahoo accounts via their IP addresses after a certain number of warranted account suspensions.
Otherwise, I think Y!A is great! Thank you for listening to my imput.
Oops, I kind of bumbled here exploring my home page. I’m still pretty new here, was still trying to understand what a troll really is (except just bad). This is a new learning experience. I see some valid concerns here, and answers to some things I didn’t inderstand. Everyone here must have had a V, I did. But I think we all got away with a few silly subtlties on some occasion. Few people like a snitch, I saw some stuff voting where someone would copy and paste the same answer over and over, promoting the sale of Pokemon cards, I didn’t get involved. I was a little wary of the “abuse” thing, I didn’t understand it.
They say everyone hates the police ’till they’re being robbed. While voting 3 nights ago, I clicked on a URL ’cause the answer seemed funny, only see a website that had no connection to the question, and instantly my “real time” anti virus ware told me I was being attacked, and by what virus. It was real bad. I had to unplug my powerstrip to get off the page. When my software had finally killed it, all I could think of was “Get the hamster guys quick! (sorry, YA)
Luckily I had emailed my three fans, and my TC responded and took the ball. Turns out this guy had laid the “landmine URL” in other places, too, waiting to hit other people too, like the ones commenting here. She did the legwork to validate it, reported it, and made me do it to, and you’re durn right I did. Man, these guys were fast, I never felt so good as when that answer disappeared.
I had misguidedly posted a question to ask YA staff to email me about a big problem I was so desperate to reach them, because I didn’t understand how to use this asset. I had to email an apology the next day to the TC that fussed at me for misusing the question forum, because I had been rude to him in my anxiety to help protect the other people here. Sorry YA, but at least my girl showed me how to get you properly the next time.
And if it ever comes down to protecting the other members from actual harm again, I’m gonna holler for them again.
For now I’m going to forego judgement on this system, several people probably got their bacon saved that night.
Well, YAT if you are reading these, you do have one big mistake in the new Community Guidelines Help File. Read the section
Do I lose points when my question or answer is removed by the community?
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/answers/moderation/moderation-04.html;_ylt=AoDdbmHPsuStLkkOAujlIVCU4CR4
People are still claiming they are losing violation 10 point penalties, but nowhere can I find any curremt mention of this in the new version of the Help file. Whichever way is true, you need to straighten it out or irate users will find a way to take you to task. Maybe a post on consumerist.com.
I don’t know about the rest of the Y!A site but, in the politics section, it seems all the top snitches are nothing more than glorified trolls. They gang up on people they don’t politically agree with. You people should just raise the age requirement to participate for the hot spots like GBLT, religion ,and politics because no matter what you do, the trolls run amok in those categories.
You say that if we’re reported, we will get an email stating why. I don’t get them. The only time I know I’ve had a question or answer deleted is when I go online to YA and am told I’ve lost points. I never know why I am deleted. Further, appeals are futile. Whereas, I have had some success with them over a year ago when I first came on here, now it’s simply a waste of time. Really, who are these members with “great reputations” that are in charge? C’mon! Also you really should enforce some sort of IP ban on the really nasty, scary trolls that keep getting deleted and come back in the blink of an eye. One of them has threatened me more than once and, somehow, even knows my email address. How’s that possible unless he’s hacking into your system or he works there? Either way, it’s not good.
I actually managed to appeal one violation…but the fact is that the Community Moderation system just doesn’t work, period. You say that false reporters will have “less influence” but the fact is that to people who go on Yahoo Answers regularly, the whole thing just seems automatic and we highly doubt if any Yahoo staff actually verify reports. If someone doesn’t agree with you, all they have to do is click the “Report” button. All it takes is for one or two trolls to click the button and that’s it, you will get a violation and your answer will be deleted. Some people have even said outright that if they don’t like your answers, they will report you. There have been MANY Top Contributors who have been falsely reported and even had their accounts suspended for no reason. In the Photography category, fhotoace was falsely suspended, but then there were so many complaints that his account was reinstated.
So tell me…what SPECIFICALLY will Yahoo Answers do to prevent people from making false reports, simply because they don’t agree with an answer, or because they have something against the user? I think that until you address that problem, the Appeals system should be much easier and more efficient. Or better yet, do a better job of verifying reports. Maybe only Top Contributors should be able to report violations.
I think Y/A has improved this year. I really just want to read and possibly answer some questions. I don’t want to read classified ads and chat or rant stuff. I think the community and Yahoo are doing a good job at reducing that stuff.
But, there are still trolls targeting me because I am a TC. It’s not fair. Can you set a system that filters abusive answers and questions when they post them?
problem is, yahoo doesn’t seem to care or realize that those who get their answers reported and have two strikes against their answers.. are reported by those who have more than one account.. thus, all you need is two accounts, report the person twice and wallah! you get your way in removal of answers you don’t like!
isn’t it magic?
doesn’t take rocket science to see this.. there’s some trollers and troll hunters who do this.. soon as they get an answer that’s questionable.. they report it with one account.. then log out..log back in and report the answer again.. thus, there’s the two qualifiable reports that remove an answer.
MEH! i say!
I think the committee is very important to the continuing use of this site. But I also feel that if someone appeals and is denied, the reason for the denial should be given. I lost an appeal and still do not know what rule was violated even though I read over the rules several times. This does not help to resolve a problem if someone does not understand what the problem was in the first place.
I’m grateful to Yahoo for setting up this free service for us. I understand that no free service will be perfect because investing staff time costs money.
It amazes me how rude and demanding some people can be about a free community service like this.
I’ve used Yahoo email for many many years now, then started using Geocities for web hosting. I’m really pleased that Yahoo keeps expanding the free services it offers. I know Yahoo makes money out of the services ultimately, but I like the way they choose to get most from advertisers rather than users. Thanks Yahoo!
The **** for rude words stumped me the first time I saw it appear in several of my posts about breeding dogs. Then I realised that I need to talk about ‘female dogs’ instead of b*tches and all is well. Not a big deal – yet some users get their panties in a twist about things like that. Better to blank out a few non-rude words than leave material uncensored.
There is one issue that I would like Yahoo to consider. Many of the questions and answers appear to come from young children. Sometimes answers are ruder than they would be if people knew that the asker was a child. Plus the kids questions get a bit annoying if you’re looking for real questions/answers rather than some of the nonsense the kids post. Is it possible for users under 16 years to be identified in some way – a special icon – so that they are easy to identify?
Someone said (and I wonder if they were speaking tongue in cheek or not):
“How can Yahoo justify deleting a question or answer simply because someone does not share an opinion or a sense of humour?”
Answer: Um…because those answers are, 99% of the time, against the terms of service. It’s not a forum to discuss opinions and isn’t a place to put silly answers. Both of those are considered point gaming. So to REALLY answer your question, it seems that the Community Guidelines are upheld and when you appeal them, they are not changed.
“How does the appeal system work?”
It doesn’t. Period. A perfectly good question or answer gets a violation with no explanation of EXACTLY what the problem is. You appeal it and it gets denied. Reminds me of the show trials they used to conduct in the Soviet Union.
Congrats on your great “success” with the updated Community Moderation. Really Yahoo, give yourselves a pat on the back.
Oh how nice another multi billion dollar company like ebay firing their employees and wanting the ” community ” to do the work for them. thank you Yahoo !
The Appeal system is a joke. NOBODY EVER GETS REINSTATED-and false reports ALWAYS go through and get approved-the spammers and trolls honestly have more control over Yahoo! Answers then Yahoo! does…
I feel like a lot of my questions get deleted. I would like to be able to view them.. so i can LEARN from what i wrote to write it more palatable to the Yahoo sheep.
Thanks.
I once was reported because I said sl — ut and it was censored by yahoo, probably users thought I said the f word. and I appealed, it reinstated, then after awhile, yahoo team remove the content again. it is strange since it was normal answer, and people use it in real world not to hurt any. it just mean girls who have sex easily.
so yes it is a joke, this reporting system. another answer was removed although the question is a trolling question, instead of removing the question, yahoo removed my answer. huh, what a joke.
you guys encourage spam, and trolling , if you don’t let users stand up to spam and trolling on your site. I don’t care now anymore about the status of Yahoo Answers. it is your problem, why should I get my answers and reputation reduced for nothing.
I would like to see a way to report offensive avatars. I am frequently in the R&S section and have seen many offensive avatars. One in particular I found very offensive, in that a leader in the church I attend was mocked by someone’s avatar.
Please address this issue if you could! Thanks!
shockingly, i actually had an appeal overturned once. a girl posted what we thought of the name “grumpy fudge” for dog. i said it sounded like was constipated. BAM! im a bad person. so i appealed and it actually worked.. once. in the many times ive been reported. /sigh
the thing that bothers me most most most.. is people that dont answer your question. when im totally confused about something and i go to Y!A to look for an answer, and wait around until i finally get a reply.. its really really frustrating when the reply i finally get is: “wow i don’t know. thanks for 2 points!” and theres nothing i can do about it. or “when do birds migrate?” A:”why birds, dogs are better pets”. there needs to be a better system for getting rid of these types of answers.
i also agree it would be nice to see our ratings for the same reason. lots of idiot posts that i report are still there.. so chances are my rating is useless.
I also find Community Moderation a joke. Since the…system…was installed, I have had questions regarding points of law removed, and seen questions regarding sexual abuse valid psychosexual conditions removed while I, a professional psych nurse, was in the process of writing an answer about how to seek help. The prevailing idea seems to be that, if it mentions a certain significant part of life, it must be pornographic. PLUS…we supposedly get emails when our questions are deleted. Yep, laughing at that, too…I find out when I try to read the responses.
Some days I can barely use my account due to glitches in the system. I think the YA community would be better served by coming up with ways to stop lethal links, discourage false and harassing report activity, and find a way to correct the disabling glitches rather than spending time having 6 month- 2 year old questions removed. Invalid suspensions are getting ridiculous.
Wow.. someone did use the ‘free speech’ option.
But, is spamming a virusriddled website free speech?
Or is spamming a website for answers outside Yahoo Answers free speech?
Because, these are the ones i do report, to be honest.
Any silly answer, which i may not agree with, simply gets a thumbs down. (one click, not 3)
However, sometimes you see people using abusive or threatening language towards an asker – should that be acceptable?
In the Family and Relations section, you sometimes see very serious question about, for example, abuse or rape – and then some troll answers that ‘it was your own fault’… is that really acceptable? Or should i report those as being insulting or threatening?
If standing up for those weaker than myself against trolls and insensitive clots makes me “a person that uses 5 accounts just to report” – so be it.
At least i know the truth about me – and i never report ANY answer just because i disagree with them.
They get a thumbs down.
And Yahoo – please work on the appeals system, so that an actual human sees them.
If something gets deleted, isn`t the person at least in the right to know exactly why?
Not everyone has English as a first language (such as myself) so we could by accident use words in a manner that could be seen as offensive. But, if you do not tell, how are we to learn?
I think what Y Answers needs is moderators who are not involved in the competition for points. The competition for points tends to bring out a “win at all costs” mentality in some users resulting in things such as the creation of multiple accounts and reporting perfectly legal questions and answers. Allowing the Community to report is a lot like the NBA or the NFL allowing the athletes playing on the field or court to referee the game they are playing in. The calls would not be objective. I also think that categories such as Politics and Government or Religion and Spirituality should either have a disclaimer notice (letting people know that there might be content that might be offensive) or be done away with totally (after all, it is said that you should not discuss politics or religion with strangers). Another idea would be to abolish the points system. It seems that this is the root of all evil. The Customer Care is the worst I have ever seen in my life. They should be called Customer (We Don’t) Care. In a previous blog entry, it was said that Community Moderation has been 96% effective. That is a laugh. I would say it is more like 64% effective.
I totally agree with MJ. I don’t use the imdb boards, but they sure do work better than here. Ask a community to moderate itself is like forcing a Lord of the Flies situation, it’s dog eat dog and that is NOT the way to run any system. The trolls are vicious and run this place without any real challenge. There are decent people on here who spend ages building up their profiles, answering questions respectfully and then a troll can come along and flatten that in a heartbeat. This system is deeply flawed. We should be able to see our own reputations, delete dodgy answers on our own questions, and moderators need to be in place to delete spam that is not picked up by reliable users. The way YA is run now is bordering on illegal when you actually think about it. When a message board system is turned over to the users, anything can make it onto the boards and can go unchallenged for a LONG time. The mind boggles when you consider what that could mean, especially when you think about the different types of people who would be able to ANONYMOUSLY make contact with each other, some not with the best intentions. This system MUST be changed and regulated or there is really no point in having it at all.
The reporting is NOT getting better. Most people just conclude that reporting is a waste of time so we don’t bother. You can still see threats, trolling, porn, etc., in almost every category at almost any time. Report it and nothing happens. Not complaining, here, just YA should be labeled as a free for all instead of misleading people into thinking it somehow isn’t. The trolls clearly run the boards which keeps a lot of us away.
Can someone explain how to find out why you were suspended?
FAIL!
obviously the community has spoken..
i think it would be wise to rethink community moderation.
Yep, I agree with Frank, Jay, and the others who say the appeal system is a joke.
As a top answerer, trolls hunt down MY answers and report them. I appeal, as my answers do NOT violate TOS, and have NEVER had an appeal overturned.
Clearly, whatever automated robot is responding to my appeals and changing the name at the bottom of the letter, an appeal is a waste of my time, and a futile attempt to appease the top answerers, who are the ones putting in the time and effort to make YA work.
I notice Mitzi came here to speak for Yahoo! and said… nothing. This is what we’re talking about. Instead of actually responding to the substance of what’s being raised here, she said that the system wasn’t perfect and thanked us for our input. In other words, she didn’t bother to take the time to actually consider what was being said, research answers, and come back with something of substance. Mitzi: is there a reason for your, to be honestly, useless post? To let us know that you’re here, but that you’re not actually bothering to care? Because that’s the way it comes off.
I would hate to see what the site would look like without Community Moderation. Things are bad enough as it is.
I am relatively new to Yahoo Answers, but already I am seeing some flaws that colour the entire concept. An answer that offends the asker, not matter how politely or careful phrased will often result in a violation. Until I hid my questions and answers I was getting several a day. Now it is one a week or less, but I have yet to get one where it was justified. Telling a teenager who was asking about criminal activity, that they will end up in gaol resulted in one. Today, making a humorous reference to the God Father movie in response to a question related to bodies floating, not sinking, resulted in another. There was no bad language, no real reason for a violation other than it was reported as such.
It means that the real control is with those people who open multiple accounts and rort the system. If you cannot give a valid, honest answer without bad language or bigotry, racism etc., if you are obliged not to offend the asker, then what is the point of YA? It has no credibility.
I am a fifty-five year old journalist with five children and yet if I answer a teen honestly – from experience – and they don’t like the answer, they get it pulled as a violation.
When you appeal, unless it is with Yahoo Answers UK, it is often reinstated. With the UK branch it seems never – no matter how reasonable the responses was.
I hope that they develop some better techniques to stop bias and asker censorship being a primary criterion for a violation.
I have had several answers reported, and I have appealed, and won several appeals. It’s quite obvious to me that my appeals are generally being reviewed by a live human being!
“Incorrect reports will occasionally happen”
OCCASIONALLY??!! Are you all NUTS?? It happens ALL the time! The trolls are the cause of this and you all do nothing to STOP them!
How about implementing some guidelines for the Suggestion Board/Forum? There is so much abuse going on in there, it’s appalling. It seems that it’s ok for some to insult other users there, just because they know they’ll get away with it on the SB.
Community moderation is not an effective means. It’s subjective, based on how that particular person feels and there’s room for a huge margin of error.
I’m tired of getting violated for no apparent reason.
I’d just like to comment Magyver was very lucky to be in an area where the local TC was a decent honest user, prepared to advise and help the newer arrivals. THAT is the kind of good user who deservedly is more trusted by Yahoo than others are.
Others should not take it as an insult. It is not that you are NOT trusted, it’s that you are an unknown quantity when you are new. How good a reporter you are (which includes how well you understand the rules) can only be found out by observing how you do it.
“False” reports often turn out to be good ones, the user just not understanding the rules involve. The language should be changed — we say “abuse” to mean breaking the rules, many understand the common language meaning of “@#$%^” and are horrified to be reported for “simple friendliness” (aka a chat vio).
If reasons were given, together with the relevant CG clause, lot more would know what they did wrong, lot fewer would appeal, and CC would have more time to spend actually READING those fewer appeals.
Anyway, there is nothing new in this blog. It is just trying to promote the same unsatisfactory system we’ve had for 18 months, with no attempt to face up to the FACT that it is not satisfactory.
There are a million ways to blame Yahoo for their procedures, but ultimately it is the users who have to make the site work.
Is it really that hard to make one’s thoughts known without vulgarity, an insult or some other childish comment? Is it that hard to post a question in the form of a question and to answer the question asked? Of course not. but many people fail to do so.
Overall I would prefer a site where every post is monitored by a Yahoo representative. But that system too has its drawbacks. Nothing is perfect.
I am not perfect either. But I try to follow the rules in posting and reporting. Again, it’s not that hard. And i try not to encourage trolls by engaging them. Just a silent click of the report button is all it takes. Maybe ignoring them will make them go away.
What a joke. I don’t think anyone reads the answers or questions that are reported. I have been reported for absolutely ridiculous reasons, including “not a question or an answer” when it very clear WAS an answer, usually one that had gotten several thumbs up.
Meanwhile, I have reported racist or anti-Semitic or just plain objectionable questions, and they remain.
This is a farce, for all their nice talk.
PS I would also suggest that yahoo somehow monitor people who block almost everyone and have extremely high best answer ratios. They are probably point-gaming with multiple accounts and no one would know.
I’m sorry.. when I shouldn’t be saying this.. but that system is not properly working.. I from a little step from loosing my account because of report.. and I respect the rules.. and other users
What I have seen here is that Yahoo answers delete some answers without explaining a valid reason. All they say is that the answer was in violation of the rules, but they don’t explain why
Appeals are useless. They answer that your posting was in violation of the rules and that’s it.
You like it, good. You don’t like it, good
We don’t care
i mean.
you’re saying.. that because of the reputation.. a person can erase a question easly.. but what happens if that person erases the question because of a personal problem, that’s really dumb.
And how do you mesure the “reputation” can I become a trustable user for you?
All I know, is that in this forum, everyone is being reported so much that a lot of users have lost their accounts, and they can not appeal because they don’t get nothing from it.
We never win, we never have right in this place.
For me, and not only, I’m talking besides a lot of users, this place have been denigrated.
Hi team – I’d really, really like to see you all address how to recognize and report spam and malware in a blog. Most users are probably not aware that you have asked us to use the CG violation radio button for this.
Speaking of radio buttons, why not bring back the radio buttons abuse categories? Far too many violation notices go out with no reason given. It is harder for people to learn from their VNs if no reason is given.
Your appeal process is a joke. Not to mention that whoever does the reviews must be way left leaning.
Well… after reading about 95% votes AGAINST the present system, whether ‘new and improved’ or not, it seems that the appeal process is an illogical extension of the report function.
I’ve had a few V’s overturned, but that was a while ago, nothing since then. Is there any chance of having a V notice reviewed by a small volunteer committee of YA-ers? I’d be glad to be one of say, a 5-person ‘revolving’ board. We could each vote on the validity of a V notice. As mentioned, there are MANY trolls, often with multiple accounts, who just report people for little or no reason except ignorance or malice. And the poor sap who gets reported has about a 99.99% chance of getting a non-specific ‘we find you are INDEED in violation’ yada yada yada form letter.
Another thing: if you downgrade a ‘legit’ answerer because trolls have targeted him/her, then that poor sap actually reports a valid violation, you seem to be saying that the sap’s reporting will have less/no influence. How screwed up is THAT?
Please, YA, take some of this to heart. Plenty legit folks here are being victimized while trolls are being rewarded… let ‘the good guys’ help out. Otherwise, you lose credibility and probably a smaller audience to buy your advertisers goods.
The problem (sometimes) with many who think the appeal process is a joke, is that they do not realize that if they are getting questions or answers reported, more often than not, they are so sure there is no violation because they don’t have an understanding of they Community Guidelines. They are just assuming (sometimes understandably) that what they posted isn’t a violation. I think the Guidelines need to be more visible on a daily basis, with home page, rotating postings of various rules and explanations of those rules.
Apparently the system is a joke, my account was suspended. I have no idea why, because there was no information directing me to the infraction. I just was notified of a suspension and offered an appeal, which I took. However, my appeal was denied, and again, no information about my violation was provided. I answered about 10 comments and asked 1 question…am I just supposed to guess which one triggered this? How could anyone possibly learn how to conform to the system when you are kept in the dark as to what you did wrong.
Measures the reputation. What are you advocating lynch mobs? Just because 20 or 5 people don’t like what someone says, doesn’t mean what that person is saying is the truth or rude.
I wonder if this “yahoo employee” that you are talking about even exist,if he/she does maybe taking naps more than work,i had been reporting violations.not often either as you may think,and nothing seem to happens,also you need add more enforcement in trouble categories such as:religion,cultures and groups and government,this last one is a mess when many people show how ignorants they are when it comes to answer questions about immigration using racial slurs at plus! it is really disgusting there.
It you want thinks clear as you are recommending can you provide some information about the profile of the “yahoo employee” on duty???,also we feel intimidation when you are supposing that we may “lost reputation” if we report accurately.
I am not mad at the site or anything i swear guys!! i just very concern about this because i really care,i spend many hours at day using this site and i enjoy it a lot! but some things need to be fix.GOOD LUCK!
BY THE WAY don’t you think that we have the right of knowing who’s reporting us and why?,stop protecting this trolls i may say!
I am going to start a protest and encourage everyone to join me. Until the current system is fixed, I refuse to buy or use any product advertised on Y Answers. I hope some of the advertisers are reading this and are aware of how much business they have the potential to lose.
I’m not convinced by Yahoo’s “community moderation”. The fact remains that the moderation here is inconsistent and fundamentally unfair- some people will be violated for trivial nonsense while others will receive no violation at all for using expletives and racial abuse. As far as I’m concerned it’s a charade designed to give the impression that Yahoo is acting with due dilligence when the reality is the violation system is completely inadequate.
Community moderation is a joke. You report someone over and over for the same offenses and yet they’re still allowed to post as much as they want. I’ve had someone who has harassed me over several accounts and all Yahoo Answers has done is ban his account. He’s made 5 accounts and has had each of them banned, but when I asked for a IP address ban, they refuse. This person is not only breaking the Yahoo rules, he’s breaking real life laws on stalking and harassment and yet they let him make new accounts so they get more users. I’m tired of the Answers blog and all of the other featured articles readily giving themselves a pat on the back when they don’t deserve it.
You have got to be kidding me. If this is what you folks call moderating then seek employment elsewhere. I have stopped asking questions because they get deleted for the simple reason that people don’t like me. No rules are ever broken, and to appeal this..yea right, as if…And maybe one day you folks will learn how to place questions in their correct category such as the many daily questions about gaming that end up in the military section. Yahoo needs to hire me to moderate this section. I guarantee you that I would have that section to top standards. I am nearing my 60th thousand point and I know the crowd. I also can clearly see when they open multiple accounts and just troll along. The reasons these idiots are present is because there isnt someone here to get rid of them. The solutions are NOT difficult, but Yahoo just seems to not care.
Go on patting yourself on the back, Answers “team.” Reality is, this “reputation” algorithm is a failure. There’s a guy in the Baseball section who uses monikers that include “X” and “Dork” who has run circles around your hands-off moderation policy. He keeps posting troll questions and you keep letting him do it.
Further, your little algorithm allows regular users of a section control who has a good reporting reputation and who doesn’t. This enables the scofflaws to take over a particular section. If there are enough scofflaws, questions and answers reported legitimately are reported by only a handful of us who are truly dedicated to following the rules. The result is your little algorithm discounts the reports.
Wake up! How is it that one user can ask the chatty question “Who’s your favorite baseball team?” and have it deleted (which it should be), but another user who asks the same question gets away with it?
Algorithms are no match for human intelligence. This is a losing battle. Face it, you don’t have enough employees to keep up with enforcing the rules. It’s time to use moderators to screen questions or shut down this joke of a “service.”
I’ll give you a perfect example. A guy posted a very sexist question in the Women’s Studies are. OK, fine. Not gonna report that just because he’s a jerk. But, his avatar’s name is Mike Hunt. Say that out loud and then see if that’s appropriate. That, I did report. Needless to say, the question is still there. But I point out that someone’s spelling is wrong, and I’m “insulting other members.” No, I’m insulting their spelling. If I wanted to insult them, I’d call them illiterate idiots–and since that’s true, I still shouldn’t be reported for it, but I would not protest if I were.
Yaaawn! I still think that you are full of it. You’re just letting the crybabies and liberal agenda fetishists run the show. So quit breaking your arms patting yourselves on the back.
Why moderate it at all? It wasn’t the lack of moderation that got you in hot water with that shyster, Steven Galton, it was the fact that you pretended to have standards in the first place. Why engage in the pretense at all?
I’ve noted with some alarm your deletions of perfectly valid questions and answers simply because somebody on your staff didn’t care for their implications. Either that or heaven forbid that someone should have a strong opinion about something. Ohhhh! I really hate his opinion! He’s a troll! Better report him! (Whine!) I’m proud to say that I’ve never reported any poster — not ever. I figure that all posters have the same rights, and that the only guy who deserves no consideration from me is the fool who thinks he has a right to not be offended.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that the only questions or answers that are safe are those with which Yahoo staff personally agree, so don’t pee down my leg and tell me it’s raining. You guys aren’t improving anything, you’re just tamping down controversy. I have no respect for it.
The problem with allowing items to be delted “based on community input” is that the “community” has learned to band together and manipulate the system. What this does is taint the integrity of this forum by allowing questions and answers that have NOT broken any guidelines to be deleted by those who have their own interests in mind. The idea here is – we should be able to see ALL our responses, not just those that the “community” finds suitable.
With CM comes the power to abuse. Those in power fight tooth and nail to hold on to it, and those without power fight just as hard to remove that power from the abusers.Don’t give me any garbage about “reduced trust for improper reporting” either. Reporting cliques render that argument null and void. So both sides are constantly waring with each other over how the site should ultimately be. And these two warring factions have to fight. Trolls and trusted reporters run rampant, trying make Yahoo as their own personal playgrounds, as Yahoo certainly doesn’t care, and even distances themselves from the debacle that has become Answers, so they can claim ignorance if sued. the Y!AT has all but disappeared form the SB’s, as apparently awarding a Golden Hamster is much more important than actually maintaining their site and addressing the concerns of its users. Until Yahoo goes back to a more HANDS ON APPROACH, Answers is doomed to self destruct.
Also, Yahoo needs to evolve beyond the Q/A format, and allow THOUGHTFUL discussion. Not all answers can be answered so basically and eventually, who knows when, people will run out of questions that can be answered in the ask-answer -Heaven forbid you discuss it- format.
i have no faith in your review.
1. i’ve had 2 questions deleted recently. neither violated standards. and neither was restored. in fact, there is no evidence, 2-3 weeks or more, after i complained that anyone even looked at the question. the first question was long, and i suspect that reviewers are timed, and if it’s long, they don’t even bother to think about it, but let the complaint stand. thanks.
2. when i complain, i always ask “Why? What standard was violated?” there is never an answer other than, “It violates standards.” SO, i have no idea what i did wrong. other than offend someone else’s political view. and, other than not answering, and pointing out errors, what i could do differently.
maybe you could reinstate the old system where there were comments attached to new articles. despite idiots, that was far better than this.
As a member for almost 3 years, and former TC in 2 categories, I left Y!A when you brought in Community Moderation. Sick of the abuses. Have recently returned to see the site out of interest, and there are clearly more abuses and complaints than ever.
Congratulations at your success.
What is this “a year and a half” since Community Moderation was launched!? I’m pretty sure it was only last late-spring, early-summer!?
I am feeling very frustrated by this total chaos, and I am about ready to give up on Yahoo Answers completely!
This system works only *for* nasty trolls, and is entirely *against* honest users.
I am tired of getting content deleted when there is nothing abusive or offensive in it.
I am tired of nasty, offensive, and bizarre questions being posted and getting away with it.
This system isn’t working.
Don’t you folks get the message?
(It wouldn’t surprise me if this comment even got deleted!)
Y!A’s moderation technique is a joke. I’d say it’s about as effective as a band-aid on a gunshot wound. If someone gets into a little hissy-fit because they disagree with me, they report it, and it gets removed. This blog is laughable!! Go ahead and pat yourselves on the back for the “awesome job” that you guys are doing…
Just read a few of the other comments here and you will see you are NOT doing a good job.
Or do you have to read to work at Yahoo?
This may sound overly dramatic, but Yahoo’s refusal to state clearly WHICH RULE you have broken is unparalleled in the history of civilization. That simply is no way to treat a human being.
Sorry guys I am going to agree with everyone here. I have been a huge fan of Yahoo Answers for a few years now. Even making it a part of presentations at SEO conferences. But one of my answers was reported recently. It was in no way suspect based on community rules so I appealed the decision. The appeal came back a day later as denied. I asked when I appealed under what community rule I was in violation so that I could correct my future responses if in fact I was missing something. I got no answer. Nothing to tell me why that answer was in violation. There is no way these things are reviewed by Yahoo employees, and if they are the employees are in a 3rd world country.
These comments should say something to you and the new CEO needs to see what is going on.
Why do I keep getring oops yahoo is not available its taking a breather yet other users continue to post, I am a level 7 user with top contributor status
I find yahoo answers to be a joke, too. The moderators do not do a good job. Plenty of times i have gotten my answers deleted for the dumbest of reasons. When I try to appeal, I’m told by some generic email, “That it was, in fact, a violation of guidelines.” I have seen the most offensive and racist answers on here, and i have reported them and they have not gone away. But I get an answer deletion for saying, “Ok.”
DOES ANYONE ELSE HERE THINK THAT YAHOO IS TROLLING US? Seriously, it fits the definition: someone posting something quite obviously wrong/incorrect, and sure enough, more than 100 people have taken the bait and have RAAAAAAGED about it.
10/10
Woooow, is this gonna open the flood gates. Y!A moderation? Seriously? I am CONVINCED that trolls with no lives beyond haning out in their mother’s basements fuel this entire project.Not only can I get reported for stating that I am, in fact, employed/ a tea drinker/ the owner of a cat/ cancer on the cusp of gemini because some idiot got mouse clicking happy, but now these idiots can email me. I shouldn’t have to block my account and give them the satisfaction. And why, for the love of God, is there no way to report someone who sends a harrassing email?
Beyond that, the appeals process is a complete and utter joke and I’m afraid to think of what losers with pocket protectors are sitting around the water cooler “making sure we play nice”. I mean, can you people even read? The things users get reported for are dumb enough, what did you possibly hope to accomplish by sending out the generic messages that PROVE nobody has even read the appeal or the question involved?
I’m going to stop now before I have an aneurism.
From what I see, “offensive content” sometimes means “not giving the answer the questioner wants”, or even “refuses to play along with illegal/immoral requests”.
Someone reported an answer I had made when the question was about the bank and I listed the web address for the questioner. After that, I’m leery about reporting anyone. There is one person, one of my group, whose questions are deleted at least half the time – I presume because of sexual content, yet he is still posting questions. The ones that get through are valid and specific to a topic, so maybe that’s his saving grace. There are other people who answer with a stock: you can learn money by going to: who I am letting other people report. I can’t believe I sound like someone who got stung and now is pouting, but it really hurt and there was no response to my complaint about the rebuke.
I appreciate that there are guidelines and that so few people don’t abide by them and enjoy answering questions. So, all in all, I appreciate whatever is being done to keep this site useful.
Self moderation is a joke and so is the appeal process. I asked if the Canadian rock band Saga could be considered a progressive band. The question was reported and deleted. When I appealed I was told my question was in violation of Terms of Service
I believe Yahoo Answers was set up with good intentions .The idea of so many minds adding new facets of knowledge and support to sincere people
is such a good way to say to everyone concerned
I care and here’s help.Free speach is great but it doesn’t include profanity,harassment or vile insinustions playing graphly and subtly upon words.
Considering the emense undertaking of such a great amount of people problems on a consistant bases
with so many veriable offenses conserning integrity
that unless intent is obvious there may need to be
levels of evaluator’s at yahoo for various levels or facets of offences.I.e.Spam errors(easy or obvious)
judgenents to the much harder perception of intent.
Also consistantly offensive accounts that show imature poking of fun on to the dedicated vile manners against others.Because some people wont govern their behavior towards kindness I believe rules and laws are necessary.Responding nege
atively towards profanity is not unkind.It is responsible
stewardship,even if it is in jest because all are affected.Good manners and good stewardship is everyones business.All things can be done peaceably and decently in order.As far as improvement I believe it will come in time as we begin to understand the motives and imaturity of those that offend and those that truely appreciate what a great opportunity we have in sharing both our joy and grievences to both yahoo and our fellow avatars.Right now I’m grateful for the candybar but though i’m greived to have to go to the bottom of a garbage can to get it , I understand why.Some grew up under unmannered roll models,and while hurting people hurt people also need compassion they also need rules and law to protect others.
To speak out is good.To be heard is better.
Okay guys, many of you have no ideal what your thinking or talking about. Most of you know why your suspended or your question is deleted. Your acting like you don’t. There’s no excuse. You fully understand the community guidelines but think their inadequet. A lot of you are acting very sly and crafty. Thats why Answers doesn’t give a rat sh-t to look at your foolish childish complaints. Stop posting whatever it is your posting, because you know it’s offensive. And it usaully is no the truth. I’m glad they have it like this, anymore control would not make it enjoyable, and the trolls, are not really snitches more so just honorable people who report anything that has no business being on yahoo answers, but you call them snitches. For the people who use multiple email addresses, their not a big problem. If you continue to break the rules on the forum your done, and if you keep doing it they should ban the IP address, END OF STORY. This was meant to be like an early 90s informative site, if you have a problem with that, go to another site. But please don’t act like a parasite to the yahoo staff and then try to justify your foolishness, your only hurting yourself, soon yahoo is going to do a massive sweep.
I hate it when people have titles like this in their question.
My dog?
I have a boyfriend?
I kiss Tom Cruise ?
Living in Florida….?
I hate this so much
Well, Answers, is anybody going to address the overwhelming rejection of your self-grandeur?
I guess not. That’s all we get from you guys: big talk to the masses about how wonderful you think you are but no response to overwhelming criticism.
Could you at least answer these basic questions:
(1) Why can users block other users from viewing questions? By allowing users to do this, questions cannot be reported.
(2) Why is it OK for a user to block me from voting for my own answer?
(3) Explain to us why “What’s your favorite baseball player?” can be a violation today but not tomorrow, but be a violation again next Monday, followed by not being a violation three days later?
(4) Explain to us why my reporting reputation should be damaged just because others in the group are (a) indifferent to reporting because they know it won’t do any good or (b) the lunatics are running the asylum.
So today I can report, properly, the chatty question “Who’s your favorite baseball player?” If someone else agrees, the question is deleted and my reputation goes up.
But if someone asks that same question tomorrow and I report it but nobody else does, my reputation suffers.
Explain that. Please. Enlighten us all. Demonstrate that you actually listen to us and actually care.
Community Moderation is, like everyone else said, a joke. And stuff rarely gets reviewed.
I had an account suspended because I asked in the Polls and Survey Section “Do you remember that TV show in the 1980s, 3-2-1 Contact”. I was sent a violation notice and then suspended for asking that question. I appealed to no avail. You guys have lost your minds and care nothing about our appeals.
To the previous poster who wrote:
“I had an account suspended because I asked in the Polls and Survey Section…”
Was this your one and only violation? – I certainly hope YA does not suspend an account for such a minor violation.
So is anybody from Answers going to give us some answers, or are you just going to bury your heads deeper into the sand and pretend Answers is the greatest gift to the world?
It’s so nice to see the Answers staff so responsive to its clientele. It’s time for Yahoo to pull the plug on it.
That’s great! Yahoo Answers is going to turn into as safer community.
.
Yahoo! Oh, Hi There!
I completely understand & agree 100% that members need to earn a reputation as either a Good Reporter vs. Not so Good. BUT……….
It’s my opinion, that Yahoo! Answers Should Allow one or more If not ALL of the following curiosity’s;
1. Notification via e-mail,of an acknowledgment from Yahoo! Answers, of our Report. Letting us know if we were the 1st to report & a 2nd report is necessary, in order to have the content removed. This Could Allow Us To Request An Other Member To Assist.
2. When we give our description as to, WHY we find the content in Violation…KEY WORDS {perhaps not published to our community} used in our report be given Priority, thus automatically requiring it to be viewed by an actual person eliminating the need for a 2nd report.
3. Perhaps, once the decision has been made by any given member to report a Violation. Once we have have “clicked” on report, there could be a BRIGHT FLASHY NOTICE, informing us that We are the 2nd to report the content, & an other member agrees that it should be removed.
4. SHOULD Yahoo! Answered implement my suggestion #1, In that e-mail there be a type of graph or like a thermometer type scale in which we are informed of our Reporting Status. I recommend MY Thermometer, that would indicate with a DARK BOLD LINE toward the top showing that we are a STAR REPORTER!! once the RED reaches that LINE. IF our reports start to wane our RED LINE would lower down & begin to show a GREY Color, stating, HEY, You are Losing It or Abusing It!! You could even give us Yahoo’s Famous “OOPS!” or maybe a’lil “tsk tsk, Shame on you!”
I THINK It Is VERY IMPORTANT That We Members Know EXACTLY Where We Stand, In Regards To Our Reporting Violations. HERE IS WHY…..
**IF and WHEN We Report Content That Is CLEARLY A Violation…. And That Content Remains… We { Me/Myself } Become EXTREMELY Discouraged, Thus, Throwing Our/My Arms In The Air, With A “WHY BOTHER?” Attitude!
Yahoo! Answers, Has The Point System In Place To Encourage Participation, Although This Is Public, So I Suppose This Makes A Big Difference. BUT, Thousands of Us Members Would Continue Answering Even With-out The Points Being Public OR Non-existent.
I Personally Care Less About The Points, Except For The Fact That It Is A Measurement/Scale Of My, Knowing That I Am Doing GOOD For Thousands Of People, I Don’t Even Know & Never Will! {probably}
We/I Would Appreciate A Type Of Measurement/Scale, Similar To This That Allows Us/Me That Same GREAT Feeling!
It’s Really, Simple, Common Sense.
You Express That This Is OUR Community, & Clearly The Community Has Spoken. It’s What We ALL Want & Many Like Myself NEED, In Order To Continue Reporting Violations, & Know That It’s NOT All In Vane!
***
{plus, when I see horrible “F” words & “sexual” content & near naked Avatars, I shutter when I think that a 13 year old child may be the next to view such language, & imagine them posting a 411 to all his/her contacts -OR- the thought that it could be an 80 year old woman, that suddenly is grasping @ her lil’heart in utter shock, & she too posting a 411 to all her 80 year old contacts in her lil’ sewing circle, requesting they all NEVER return to our community}
So… P L E A S E ….Yahoo! Answers…. I Urge You To Create Such A Scale. It IS or Should I Say WILL Be The MOST Spectacular Improvement That Y!/A Could Make. With all due respect, Y!/A, I would even go so far as to say, that you are Morally Obligated.
{ would you ever believe I have received a violation for chat! I call it an expression of being passionate about the topic at that time. }
I Thank You Very Much For Allowing Me To Express My Opinion In Regards To This Popular & Never Ending, Until The Community Gets It…ISSUE!
Most Sincerely, Lillsoma ~_~.
.
Is it possible for anyone in the Answers community to have a suspended account restored?
Or does yahoo have a diffent dictionary and thesaurus to the rest of the world?
Suspended means temporary doesn’t it?
I am only educated to post graduate level and hold an English language Masters degree (MSc).
I would love to know whether Answers moderators actually understand the meanings of the word Suspended?
I think it would help if VNs cited the reason for the report, and, even more importantly, if appeal denials provided specific reasons for the denial.
I have had a few appeals denied, and in none of them was a reason for the denial given, despite the fact that I gave very specific reasons for the appeal.
This Kafka-esque nonsense in which people are reported for unspecified reasons and have their appeals denied, again for unspecified reasons, has to end.
This whole place is a joke. The trolls run the place. For example, in the NASCAR section we constantly get asked “how do I watch NASCAR online for free” or “on my pc” EVERY FRIKKIN DAY! I report them, and then guess what, my top contributor goes away. I answer yes or no questions, and get my answer removed. i appeal and ge the form letter saying i violated…..Thank god for FACEBOOK, most of my friends form Y!A have gone there because of the B/S here.
I have to agree with the others who say that Yahoo favors the ‘lowest common denominator’, i.e., the trolls and ner’er-do-wells. Some jerk in Home and Garden asked, “I just cut off 3 fingers with a saw. How do I get the blood stains out of the carpet?” Like any normal person who just lost 3 fingers would be more concerned about stains, never mind not being able to type the question. I answered in the same sarcastic fashion if this idiot had been a cast member of the film “Dumb & Dumber”. You already know who got reported. Not the troll who asked this moronic question, but me. Sorry…if you’re going to act like an idiot in a public forum, you deserve public ridicule. If Y/A wants to improve this site, then find a way of keeping out/punishing the trolls, not those who try to stand up to them.
Please protect answerers that are reported unjustly.
Otherwise, they do not risk their UserID to answer.
Purpose of reports are to be cruel when they disagree.
An effective appeal process would heal this problem.
The appeal process should have the specifics prefilled.
Upon speedy review, corrective action should be swift
to restore a person’s ID, answer, and Y!A reputation.
By deleting questions willy nilly, Yahoo demonstrates zero respect for people who thoughtfully answer questions.
The only people whose efforts get validated are ones who have nothing to contribute, and are trying to have other people’s content removed out of disrespect.
Therefore, I shouldn’t supply the effort anymore.