Letters…we get letters!
Well, maybe not letters, but we do get a lot of email. And folks, while we do read them all, we regret that we can’t respond to each and every one. After all, you are part of a very large community-34 million* people visit Yahoo! Answers each month! While we appreciate the time you take to send us a message, it may not be the optimal way to resolve your particular issue. In fact, most of the requests that come through our inbox often could have been reported using existing methods that are faster and more efficient than sending us an email. So what’s the best way for you to contact someone on the Answers team? It depends on the situation.
We’ve put together a Q&A to help direct you to the right place, whether you’re offering a suggestion, flagging a bug, or reporting abuse. Using the proper channels for communication is the best (and fastest) way to get in touch with us. So here we go:
Q. Where can I report a bug or glitch?
A. Report any bugs or glitches you see on Yahoo! Answers on the Suggestion Board. But before posting it, please run a search to see if anyone has already reported the same issue.
Q. Can I report abuse on the Suggestion Board?
A. No, the Suggestion Board is not a place to report abuse and those posts will be removed. To tell us about any abuse you see on Answers, click “Report It” under the question or next to an answer. You can include any additional details in the text box provided. Remember, the Suggestion Board is a place for Answers users to:
- Share ideas for the product
- Get technical support
- Report bugs and problems
Note: Team Member Comments
When an Answers team member has responded to a suggestion, a purple “Y!” icon next to the comment and a green banner reading “Yahoo! Answers employees have reviewed this suggestion — thanks!” will appear.
Q. How do I report abuse on Yahoo! Answers?
A. To report content that violates the Answers Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, go to the page where the abusive question or answer appears, and click the “Report Abuse” button associated with it. To report abuse that does not appear in the question or answer (such as harassment, obscene avatars, etc.), you can still click the “Report Abuse” button and describe the abuse in the Additional Details box provided.
Once you’ve reported the violation, you’re done! There’s no need to email the team.
Q. I reported someone for abuse and now I think I’m being targeted. What should I do?
A. The only way someone can find out whether you’ve reported them for abuse is if you say publicly that you did (for example, calling people out as trolls in your questions and answers, emailing or IMing them, or posting to their profiles publicly on message boards and forums). Whether or not your accusations are correct, calling people out publicly is disruptive to the community and does not help clean up the site. Instead, please report abusive questions and answers using the “Report Abuse” button. Trolls post inflammatory messages to see how others will react, so don’t encourage them by responding or by giving them extra attention.
Q. How do I report point-gaming and other behind-the-scenes abuse?
A. If you suspect someone of abusive behavior and it’s not apparent in their questions and answers, use the text box provided on the “Report Abuse” form and include details and links.
Q. I received a violation notice. Can I appeal?
A. Yes, you may appeal once. If you received a violation notice because Customer Care or the community removed your question or answer, and you feel you did not violate the Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, you must appeal using the link included in the notification. You can read more about Community Moderation here.
For additional tips and information not covered here, please check out the Yahoo! Help pages for Answers Help Topics and the Community Guidelines.
We appreciate our active and energetic community and we want to thank you all for your continued support and understanding.
* comScore, February 2009 (U.S. figures)
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The report abuse is not working!! i have reported so many questions and they are still posted.
So an innocent person can only appeal once but a tattling, falsehood troll can continue to report false reports and just get a low rating. Sheeeesh, the unfairness.
Hi Y!AT
I like this blog!
And I know you read my emails (well I hope you do
Also I have been on the suggestions board from time to time
…Just having a break from it all right now, but I had a quick look on Answers saw this and couldn’t resist a comment.
About reporting abuse…I’m ‘fairly confident’ that I’m reporting abuse on Answers ok (though I don’t report as much as I should)
But a question for you Y!AT…When reporting abuse on the Suggestions Board do the CG apply or the TOS?
I just asked a riddle and someone reported it! I couldn’t find what was wrong.
I made an appeal form but it barely worked.
Everything works fine. Except the Avatar. She was so pretty I thought I would not get a straight answer. Sorry. Thank-you anyway. Truly Susan D. S.
How many more of these breathers will happen I have lost 6 points already
“The Suggestion Board is not a place to report abuse”??? Have you read the Suggestion Board lately? It is littered with reporting of abuse, including posting links to Q’s and A’s, Y!A profile pages, Y! Profile pages. It is no wonder that you see so many posts in Y!A talking about the SB ganging up on people and calling them the trolls.
Several Points
1. The report abuse function is working on and off these days. Avatar games and “Am I pretty?” questions are taking days to remove or they are not going off at all. You have not fixed that problem. Also, answers that are violations are only being removed one per question. This is on and off working. But avatar playing may have 30 violation answers. Good users are trying to help. YAT should also help.
2. The responses of the YA staff on the suggestion board is very, very poor. When you respond, you MUST come back in a few hours because far too often, the response has nothing to do with the problem raised. Too many times after the YAT response there will be dozens of posts saying “You misread – that is not what we are talking about”.
3. Post suggestions – until you explain whay you are censoring suggestions from users, you need to stop spreading this PR. You are censoring users even when the post is clean and on point. The problem is that the posts are Yahoo critical. Censor porn and hate, don’t censor people that point out the problems with YA.
“Q. How do I report point-gaming and other behind-the-scenes abuse?
A. If you suspect someone of abusive behavior and it’s not apparent in their questions and answers, use the text box provided on the “Report Abuse” form and include details and links.”
How, exactly, does this work when the reporter’s “trust level” is high, and the reported content is removed from public view automatically, and no human ever even sees the report, let alone the text box within it, unless the reportee appeals the violation?
what is this tim
Let’s not do anything about the reporter trolls and teenagers posting ten thousand Tokio Hotel/Jonas Brothers/Twilight/Am I pretty/Wrong category/I’m gonn report you if you disagree with me garbage.Let’s tell everybody how hard we’re working.
Whatever.
Sorry, the abuse reporting process is a joke and the “appeals” process doesn’t even amount to a joke.
How is it an answer a person gave over a year ago can suddenly be a violation? Once a question is closed the ability to report it, or any answers to it, should be removed.
Further, a REASON should be given for each violation. You’ll note there’s a place for “reason” but it’s NEVER filled in. This leads me to believe that you’re making it up as you go along.
I feel that I am being targeted and do not know why.
If you have some idea I would like to know.
I agree, the appeal process is ridiculous.
I agree with Jabril, and even when you appeal the one time you’re allowed and still don’t agree with the outcome, you’re screwed, right?
There has to be a better system then this. And giving people a little more leeway with humorous questions wouldn’t be a bad idea either. A lot of people are amused, not offended, by them.
so if an answers user, sends you harrassing email how do you report that, you report it by looking through all the yahoo pages, and then get told you need to include the email headers..you can send the entire email and still get told this. Emailing through answers is just another way some harrass, and obviously yahoo doesnt care, or it wouldnt still be an issue.
You get reported and yahoo doesnt tell you why the question or answer was taken down, you can repeat what ten other people say and because you get reported yours gets taken down but the other ten dont. That is asinine
Oh yes, I do a lot of spam reporting for obvious spam, but I am a bit unsure if to report or not in cases where some people (kids!) blatantly post homework questions? Some copy their homework word for word and ask for answers without even trying for themselves… it’s clearly an abuse of the community and they need to be reprimanded.
Sometimes I even suspect some aren’t even 13+ as required per the rules.
Also, can we please get some kind of count in our profiles of how many accepted spam reports we’ve sent. If there’s no confirmation other than the thank you screen, it’s easy to lose motivation to report more spammers. “Was it successful, did my report really help?” are questions that I ask myself.
I would like to suggest that the Y/A people encourage other posters to report violations. Y/A should post this encouragement in the specific categories where most of the abuse is taking place. For instance (auto)
insurance and registration is becoming nothing more than a place for solicitors to post their links trying to get people to buy insurance. These posters actually get paid by these less than legitiment sites each time they post a link. Some legitimate questions end up with nothing but posting for insurance quotes. These paid “whores” must be stopped before they ruin the entire category and in the end Y/A itself
If you report too many answers, they will flag you fir reporting too many. That is why I have only reported 3 in the whole time I have been here. Pick and choose the worst ones. If you over report you will get a low rating, Proud MOM.
I got a violation for nothing, but the same trolls are on here all the time.
I got a voilation the other day for a football Question…it still got taken away ad no abuse,offensive language,anything at all.I dont see the point of appealing,you get nowhere.
I agree completely. I had a answer that was reported and the person looked for my answers just to report them. I was also sent horrible messages through YA! I applied and was my answers were reposted but I lost out on several best answered as a result. It took three months for the appeal process and the person doing the reporting later apologized to me for getting out of hand. There has to be a better way.
The spam is horrible. I have noticed the same spam posted by 6 or 8 different profiles. This means one person has multiple profiles or the are working as a team. This has to be addressed and soon.
Should I report chain comments? I know all of the staff are busy, but please update the guidelines to cover new problems.
Hey – Great to see you guys promoting the Suggestion Board! I hope we see more new posters there.
That said, I’d like to echo Anoneemuuse’s concern about what happens when users with high ‘trust’ ratings report systemic abuse. Only the instance that was reported gets taken out in that case. We need some way to flag spammers and career trolls. Reporting 6x on an account takes time away from answering
Thanks for the information, YAT. More blogs concerning CM is always appreciated!
Hello Y!AT,
I keep receiving violation notices when I answer questions about homeopathic dilution remedies. My answers are fact based, with citations, and focus on the fact that such treatments have been proven time and again to be nothing but placebo.
However, some other Y!A contributor(s) report abuse against my answers, and I’ve even had an account suspended.
My question is this – how do I find out what I did wrong? My answers are factual, supported and calmly worded. When I ask for an explanation as to what is wrong with my answer, I never get one.
How can I alter my answers to fit within the Y!A guidelines if I don’t know which guideline I’ve violated?
Or should I just avoid this topic completely, and not attempt to provide an alternative view?
Thanks and Regards,
RickK
I asked a question “What are some good riddles/jokes?” and it got reported. I appealed my question but my appeal was declined. There are too many trolls out there and many times I appeal my deleted/reported questions and they remain deleted. PS: I thinkwe should also be able to have more than 200 contacts. Thanks!!
It says you may appeal once if you get a violation notice.
So… what happens if you appeal TWICE??
Why is it seemingly impossible for the YA team to actually respond to an “appeal” except for sending the normal stock form reply?
I would like to know why my answers account has been suspended but all I get is a stock answer.
I would like to know the point of deleting an answer and suspending a user when the answer in question has been sitting there for 6 MONTHS.
Also, since when have verifiable facts been considered a violation?
Come on YA – you supposedly read all mails.
Surely a question like this from a Level 7 contributor warrants more than a stock form reply.
AA
Hmmm here we are over a year later, no new comments and still nothing has changed.
Appeal Schlemiel
They really need to notify people as to why their Q&A’s were removed so they don’t keep making the same mistakes. It doesn’t make sense…………
I guess we get what we pay…..Nothing…