The Answers Crème de la Crème
There are many reasons to love Yahoo! Answers. Some thrive on providing helpful answers that benefit the community. Others enjoy the access to so much useful knowledge with a simple click. If you’re an expert in a specific area, why not share what you know and become a Top Contributor? A Top Contributor is a member of the community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category.
How can I become a Top Contributor?
With a little dedication, you too can earn a Top Contributor badge. Check out Answers and pick categories in which you have the most expertise (you can be a Top Contributor in up to three categories). Answering questions in the most informative way will increase your chances of getting the Best Answer–and the more you actively participate, the better your chances of earning a Top Contributor badge. Remember that the Top Contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent participation in a particular category. If you stop participating, you will lose your badge. To recover your badge, you have to increase your activity in a specific category again.
Most community members on the Answers Leaderboard happen to be Top Contributors. The Leaderboard allows you to see who’s in the lead and what their stats are. It’s updated every week. Who knows? With a little work, you might make it there, too!
Keep in mind that while sharing what you know is encouraged, it is also important to make sure you don’t share anything that puts your answer in violation of the Community Guidelines.
Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know! 
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Aaaah, the thrill has died down. I use to strive for those goals, but the fun has died down. It has died down for fear of being more open with questions and answers and targeted by trolls – trolls reporting frivilously and falsely. The thrill has died down.
Jabril
“The Leaderboard allows you to see who’s in the lead”
In lead of what exactly?
Thanks for the reminder.
I lost my TC Badge(s) last year as I was involved in other activities.
I have a newly revived passion and have been answering more questions again.
Perhaps I’ll wake up one day soon wearing a TC Badge!
….. I just wish that they weren’t that gawdy orange color…;-(
It clashes with my avatar.
- As intriguing as this is, being one of many, the triumphs and tribulations amongst others unknown, it is apparent that some attain high credits through point gaining in one hand, and false reporting others of another, some do not come back or know how too late,
- It matters not of these points, what matters are some best answers chosen by the user, and some left abandon then up for grabs,
- Some answers from long ago are no longer relative, for example info for Yahoo 360 now being closed as well for Yahoo Geocities and others as time goes on,
- Some links that may have been useful are also broken or reset to new address no longer with same URL’s
-Also now some answers are sent out into the web elsewhere via rss feeds and what have you, with missing info or links, spliced and falsely inserted into other sites which little or nothing to do with the question or answer, every so be it, this is how the times are,
- More and more there seem to be hooks and lures that one nibbles upon, where one does not know to best leave alone, best be wary and also know to avoid the Spam & Phisheries of…
- It does appear that one can attain high points in one category, go off line to lose badge, then pop up in another category from seemingly nowhere, it does seem a hiatus is in order, sleeps,
Take care,
RN-Registered Nurse for over 40 years with exp.in multiple areas (even prisons…not as inmate, guys) most recently in Hospice caring for terminal patients to help both person going through final stages as well as families.Also have had companion cats for over 30 years- they rule & are spoiled rotten members of family.Recently disabled & often troll at night when nothing good on TV.
Yeah I’ve been waiting for a top contributor thingy for ever but I guess I’m just not good enough, but its funny how plenty of people with Top Contributor badges tend to give really annoying, stupid, or plain unuseful answers, like thats some justification for not actually answering the question.
The leaderboard is a mixed blessing at best. I would rather it not even be there; because it makes serious users of Yahoo Answers targets of trolls. Even worse; those with multiple accounts target users they don’t like and bombard them with false violation notices.
And where is my Top Contributor banner? Most of the time it isn’t even underneath my picture anymore. I worked hard for those points and I would like my banner back–permanently.
I totally agree jOzy!
I do not want nor would I accept a TC. The ones I run into in Cats seldom show compassion for the person seeking information. They seem to have developed a *party Line* they expect others to toe.
I think they have not gotten the memo about the recession, the lost jobs , the home foreclosures. That make getting the Vet involved as quickly as I’ve heard them demand, mean choosing food or vet bills for the cat. The common comment of well if you can’t afford a cat/dog elephant care you shouldn’t have one. While I’m sure they are well meaning Are these knights in somewhat tarnished armor aware what would happen if all the pets who are given substandard (in our dear TC’s opinion) care were taken to a shelter. there would be no room for the legitimate strays. So you can keep you TC commendation , It’s it’s been sullied by to many people Pretending to information they can’t support. Since you do not want on line challenges to your anointed as to how factual the information they push is. So many pet owners who cant drive at night are ordered to take their pets to an emergency vet when plain common sense would tell you to wait until morning.
Wow,tooting you own horn?
You might have cause to do so if you people actually did your jobs and moderated this site,instead of letting reporter trolls and butthurt teenage girls run the damn thing.
You people really,really suck at your jobs..
Keep in mind that while sharing what you know is encouraged, it is also important to make sure you don’t share anything that puts your answer in violation of the Community Guidelines.
True, but on your end, it is also important to make sure that the content that is removed and marked as a violation is in fact a true violation of the Community Guidelines. Right now, you can put anything from A-Z and there is always a chance that it will be in violation. Of course you are not aware of this because Yahoo Answers, as always, chooses to take the ostrich approach to the problems on this site. What are you doing right now to ensure that people are receiving violations for actual violations and not for merely having an unpopular political or personal point of view. It is not the users that are the problem, it is the management of this site and their lackadaisical enforcement of the rules. It seems as if you are just making up the rules as we go along.
Some never get the point about Points. Even with Leaderboards and dynamic Top Contributor badges, quantity is not and never has been the same as quality.
Crème de la Crème? Only for some. Dairy cream is not the only thing that floats.
“The Leaderboard allows you to see who’s in the lead”
In lead of what exactly?
The problem with Top Contributor badge is that it is totally unrelated to the quality of answers given but mostly with the quantity of answers provided. It’s a bit of a meaningless accolade.
I’m rather new to answersyahoo- but I enjoy it very much. Its like an open door to what I love the most about myself- being a know-it-all.
I don’t get the Top Contributer thing. I mean I understand the picking your top3 knowledable topics ect., I don’t understand the actual point of becoming one. Do you like get on yahoos payroll or something? Get your own advise column? do you get questions that were asked in your area of expertise emailed to you and you alone?
Please let me know as I had a TC answer one of my questions- she was the only one in fact who answered me. At first I felt happy that a TC would take the time to answer my question, but her answer was vicious, mean and not at all helpful. She like ripped my head off for even asking my question!
Well, for one, I (and in fact, many in the board I contribute actively) know what’s going on here — people gang up against each other, discuss who to target, in an individual chat forum called chatzy, and target the said user until his/her account is suspended. Repeated appeals don’t work. Now, don’t give me the ‘you shouldn’t worry if you didn’t violate any ToS/Community guidelines, because we all read the ToS/CGs more than once before posting, and we’re also made to read them more often than anyone else since we get the most violations, therefore we ensure that they don’t violate any. I can say that I’ve gotten the most violations in this category, not just because I violate ToS (which I do, of course, on occasions), but just because I belong in a ‘faction’ that’s unpopular in this forum. Good luck ALL!
I see many “top contributors” that are simply MOST contributors. They ask dozens of trivial questions and provide simple minded answers by the gross. Best answers chosen by voters are often the result of people simply acquiring points. They pick a “best answer” without even reading the question OR the answers. Then there are the folks who have multiple accounts and both ask and answer their own questions and THEN actually choose themselves for best answer. Met a guy here the other day with 100% best answer status. Read his profile and low and behold, all the questions were from the same two people and he was the only person to answer.
Top contributor means very little anymore. Not to mention the report monkeys who stalk those with whom they disagree.
Do you guys think that Top Contributors are usually being stalked? As one, usually I was the first person to submit the answer to a question, and the next thing I knew, I got a thumbs-down. I edited my answer to include why I got it, and came another one. It’s sometimes frustrating when people do not appreciate your help, and many a times, I have deleted my answers just because of those culprits!
the leader board should be removed. it’s a joke. it just encourages people to put 1 word answers so they can answer as many questions as they can in the shortest amount of time possible. how is that being helpful? being helpful is providing as much info as possible. for most questions, how is one word helpful? it also encourages people to find ways to cheat.
Been there, done that.
I have been a participant from the beginning, and consider the “top contributor” rating one of the worst changes Yahoo! Answers has made. I generally find “top contributor” means most superfluous and most useless answer. In order to get the status many of these answerers provide the shortest answer possible, and simply play the numbers. Since it is often based on mindless voting, self-voting, and voting fraud by multiple accounts, it is a meaningless moniker. Where there is no bad intention, it still only indicates who is recently most active, and has NOTHING to do with quality.
I do my best to avoid being a “top contributor” these days.
After a real lot of answerings whole lot of similar booring questions with a comparatively low rate of best answers, so then my badge comes up and then it goes away and then returns……
This status symbol is strange. When you don’t have you want it. But when you’ve got it, its no big deal. What does it do for you, since you already know how great (or otherwise) some of your answers can get.
I wrote to Yahoo in December of last year with an idea on this very subject! I was told they would get back to me but I never heard a word! I have witnessed twice since being on Answers, people giving answers that were dangerous if not fatal! I reported it both times and never heard a word! I have been at my craft for almost 25 years and took numerous years of schooling to be where I am today! I enjoyed helping people when I had extra time at night or on the weekends.I never did it for points I did it to maybe save someone money on service calls or keep them from tearing up equipment worse. The final straw was I caught an individual asking me questions then using my answers to better his status? Yahoo could do much better with this concept but they won’t listen so I chose to stop answering. All of the comments before mine sound like they come from intelligent people who were looking to help and became frustrated like myself! Come Yahoo you can do better!
Oh yes there are many reasons to love yahoo answers.
I have yet to find one.
Suspending the accounts of top contributors,without a warning, after only one violation is marvelous indeed so what is the point of earning the “badge”when you can loose it in a instance.
Money is god many would say if they were not so fearful of judgment.
All will have to answer before god for their sins one day.You can hide them before others but not before god.
With little work you can earn your badge and with little work you can loose it as well.
You just have to be open,honest and objective.
In both cases.
My answers are often plaguerized by others who are attempting to gain more points. Healthy competition is good and incentive is good but on the world wide web, it can fall into the wrong hands. If there were more ways to combat – or even monitor – this problem, I’d be more inclined to join in the competition. As it stands, I’m not as dedicated….
The overall leadedrboard is a joke and not accurate and in the Pets top ten answerers are non existant.
Why bother with Top Contributor status when you arbitrarily take it away? How can you be a top contributor one day and not the next? It’s meaningless one way or the other, but why bother giving it out when it can be taken away without reason or comment?
Second Post…
Hi Y!AT
We seem to be having some problems regarding leaderboards on the UK site.
Can you help?
i can’t even click links in most answers now, which makes most of the answers impossible to tell if they are right
For the past two years, I have answered the Weather section, read and learned a lot too. I am a Top Contributor, I enjoy the title and I have never seen trolls of any kind in that section. We, hobby meteorologists, are nice and friendly people.
Have a nice day, everyone! *
Michel
* by “nice day,” I mean: Sunny but not too hot with perhaps some early morning fog patches … Okay, I’ll shut up and leave the room!
Top contributor badges are given as a result of how many questions you answer, not having anything to do with the quality and helpfulness of the answer. I’ve had the badge and lost it several times just because I was busy doing other things and not on Y!A…I mean, I DO have a life outside of Y!A. I think that the Top Contributor Badge should be given on merit…not to someone who just answers a large volume of questions. Then the badge would actually MEAN something.
Perhaps it should be made clearer to all of us involved that TC does not have to signify this person is necessarily going to be the best answerer in substance, just that he/she is a strong contributor – that is why they have the title Top Contributor. Putting issues aside regarding self-voting issues etc., it’s up to people to decide for themselves what they think about a TC – some are not so good, some are excellent in their field, and many give a variety of answers depending on what they feel like.
On another note, what is the point of being a TC if people feel they have to be so cautious by hiding their Question and Answer profile from the public? Some regular users want to hide their personal questions for their own reasons, that is their choice, but how odd that a TC should hide his/her answers in a field that they are a key contributor in? Of course, it’s the trolls again, but if I had to hide my information because of trolls, I personally would not gain a proper experience if it was just based on points and status of being a TC.
I see many “top contributors” that are simply MOST contributors. They ask dozens of trivial questions and provide simple minded answers by the gross. Best answers chosen by voters are often the result of people simply acquiring points. They pick a “best answer” without even reading the question OR the answers. Then there are the folks who have multiple accounts and both ask and answer their own questions and THEN actually choose themselves for best answer. Met a guy here the other day with 100% best answer status. Read his profile and low and behold, all the questions were from the same two people and he was the only person to answer.
Top contributor means very little anymore. Not to mention the report monkeys who stalk those with whom they disagree.
I am reprinting this one because I agree
wholeheartedly on almost everything…
with a minor exception…
I am a top contributer and leader for the toy section –
… this I obtained due in part to my abilities of finding
things on the net that others might not {and it even
surprises me when I do so I am not patting myself on
the back }
I have had to on many occasions give myself the top
answer in due part for those that ask questions with
no real intentions of resolving the issue… and that
hurts
I do not personally care for taking the time to
research an answer and have it not get the
recognition when it is clearly the answer sought
after — this is why I have had to vote for my own
answers
What frustrates me more is to have my researched
answer be topped by someone who writes
“look it up on google” ….
and I have actually lost a few with that answer
There are still glitches and bugs in the system
that need to be taken care of
Nah. I got suspended for no apparent reason. I didn’t violate any guidelines.
“with a little work”-
What they mean by that is:
Don’t have a life and spend ALL your time on YA or we will take your bage away the moment you stop answering questions.
Where’s the only report violations golden rule?,and why are invalid violations that are appealed almost never considered for reinstatement?(you’re not fooling anyone with signed automated replies). The biggest abuse on this site is the abuse of the report button and Yahoo’s unwillingness to rectify it.(or inability).