Five golden rules for answering questions
A month ago, we presented a blog outlining the five golden rules for asking questions on Answers. After receiving positive feedback from the community and based on your suggestions, we have put together the five golden rules for answering questions. After all, what would a great question be without a great answer? Here are the rules for giving high-quality answers, which will certainly improve the site’s content.
1. Remember that you are answering to help the asker: Don’t answer just for the sake of getting points, or to advertise your own questions to the community. If you don’t know the answer, skip to a question that you’re more knowledgeable about. And remember, we now have suggested questions for active users (these are questions that automatically appear on your homepage).
2. Be polite and respectful: No one likes to be ridiculed and insulted. If you don’t agree with the wording or subject matter of the question, offer your point of view in a constructive and respectful way. Yahoo! Answers is a diverse community where everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you feel that a question or answer violates the Community Guidelines, report it. Learn more about the reporting system here.
3. Use correct spelling: Avoid SMS or texting language and grammatical errors. An answer filled with spelling mistakes and typos is confusing and doesn’t improve the quality of Answers. The more understandable your answer is, the better its chances of being chosen as Best Answer or making an impression on someone else.
4. Be relevant: Don’t digress or change the subject when answering a question. Give a concise answer that sticks to the point.
5. Link to existing sources that have the answer to the question: If you know an excellent website or book that might help, mention it—as long as it’s not spam, of course. Also cite your sources; they are always helpful if anyone wants more information.
If you want to know more about this topic, don’t hesitate to visit our Community Guidelines and our Help pages. Feel free also to share with the community some tips of your own.
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Stupid Yamster telling us what to do
You still have never adressed specifically what constitues a rant or rave?
I try to follow these rules at all times. But what I really hate is when people give me a thumbs down, merely for stating my own opinion! Just because you disagree with someone’s views, it doesn’t mean you have to undermine their answer!
I want too know why I keep getting this message on my computer and then it closes?
lexplorehas caused an error in MSHTML.DLL.
These are good & the ones who read this will be the ones who already try to comply with the Golden Rules. Unfortunately the ones who need to read them, most likely won’t. any more than they do the community guidelines.
Good job trying though
My issue is questions that are made only to promote political or other causes. Questions like why is so and so doing such a bad job in “blank” position.
I would like to see your next post cover the do’s and don’ts of reporting a question or answer. People improperly report other users simply because they disagree with their point of view.
1.) No. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I’ll answer anyway telling them so. I KNOW the questioner appreciates it, so don’t lie to me.
2.) If I don’t swear every other ******* word, it’s a ******* waste. ****.
3.) wuts th pnt o splling crrectly. ur a ******* nerd.
4.) That kinda reminds me of the time I got the runs in the middle of the dessert. Let me tell you about it . . .
5.) Visit http://www.peta.org/ or die. And no.
This is good.But I agree that only those who generally comply will keep doing so.As usual,there’s always one to spoil the fun.Although I find some of the questions pretty questionable,they are amusing,and the serious ones generally get an honest response.Keep up the good work.
#6. Even if your answer is 100% correct, and direct to the point, it can still be removed as a TOS violation. You can appeal, but since the people/machines taking care of appeals don’t have a clue as to what a correct answer should look like, your appeal will be denied.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
I like the guidelines. Good logical rules.
I totally agree with the guidelines but I have to add there are some very inane questions and the spelling can be horrendous. It’s very hard not to comment but will try.
How about rules for posting questions? No questions asking people to do someone’s homework, about hair, makeup, clothes, regarding boyfriend’s, girlfriend’s, best friends, etc,, whether you have an illness, are pregnant, or the flu, asking how to “loose” weight, what you should eat, drink, where to go to school?
Until you begin to deal harshly with your Y/A stalkers, those who follow other posters around y/a with the sole purpose of either leaving nasty remarks or a multitude of thumbs down on solid, thought based answers, then all of your work is for naught. In the time I’ve been on y/a the same people are getting by rudeness and nasty remarks in spite of the number of times they’ve been reported. What’s up with this? I think we, the y/a community deserve an answer.
I REALLY try to always follow these rules. but sometimes I don’t understand just why people would not follow it. and sometimes my questions got deleted with any reason I don’t understand. I thought I’ve read and understand the community guidelines but why did they report me?
My only problem is when I ask a personal question people always give rude answers and it makes me really upset.
Stephen K needs to read and follow rule #1…”Remember that you are answering to help the asker: Don’t answer just for the sake of getting points”
#6. Even if your answer is 100% correct, and direct to the point, it can still be removed as a TOS violation. You can appeal, but since the people/machines taking care of appeals don’t have a clue as to what a correct answer should look like, your appeal will be denied.
What is also needed are rules for asking questions. Some of the dumbest misinformed questions clog the Politics & Government section. Could there be a way to thumbs down questions or give minus stars?
ausome
I always have trouble understanding other user’s answers when they don’t use correct grammar. I always try to cite where I found my information from. Some people simply link to Wikipedia, but that doesn’t always help the person who asked the question. I also like to check several sources outside of Wikipedia and than send them multiple links along with my paraphrased answer.
Very concise. Thanks. 1 thing I don’t like is when people try to cyber-chastise you & talk down to you like a naughty child, & they act like your problems are theirs. If they’re SO frustrated by my question, then they should do like rule # 2. I have a lot of family-related issues & self-issues, & I come for advice, & people blame me for my problems, not knowing what happened, & they make me feel worse. I sometimes wonder if we were webcam-to-webcam, if you can see their raging temper. I’m not here to be silly or ask for attention. My problems are unusual, & I have a disability. I consider myself a Y!A veteran, since I’ve actually been here since 2006, but people treat you like you don’t belong here.
very nice advice : )
everyone should stick to them, don’t you think?
Why not have a singles and dating category by age groups? Im tired of seeing those teenagers questions. Not everyone is going to apply by the 5 golden rules to answering questions. Who takes this site seriously anyways?
Very nice .. Let’s all wish all people follow guideline # 2, it’s very improtant.
thanks Yahoo ! Answers.
“Yahoo! Answers is a diverse community where everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”
Incorrect…should read: “Yahoo! Answers is a [semi] diverse community where everyone is entitled to their own opinion as long as the opinion or idea conforms to someone else’s opinion that makes a choice not to be offended.”
Anyone can choose to be offended by anything at any given moment. Should I suddenly feel the word “with” is used in the “wrong” context, or just choose to take an exception, in general, to the word; or if an idea is “unreasonable” or contrary to my particular beliefs, even though it is not violent, etc in nature, I can report it (anyone can choose to be “disrepected” by any idea – by submitting a person for a violation for expressing and opinion is being equally disrespectful in return).
Also, why isn’t the person’s text reporting the violation passed on the the alleged violator? Further, why doesn’t Y!A specify which guideline or TOS has been violated? It would make it easier to validate / defend an answer in the request for reinstatement…or is that not what Y!A is interested in, true diversity?
thats lame… actually because of your 3rd class management no one cares about yahoo answers now days…
This applies everywhere except the Polls & Survey section. We rarely get serious answers there.
What you need is to make a suggestion to the asker of the question …
If you feel the need to ask a question – please resolve said question …
It is disheartening for those who go to lengths
to research an answer to a question only to
have the person who “wanted to know” not
even bother to acknowledge anyone’s answers –
not only is it rude but leaves the question
open to the offenders with multiple profiles
to “vote” for theirself
There should be a penalty for not
resolving your own question
I do get tired of people wanting answers to homework questions. I understand if someone is stuck, and maybe needs help with a question, but to just post their entire homework??
This is what I don’t consider answering a question properly: when answerers scold the people for asking a particular question, like the ones in Books and Authors. And some are quite snide and rude when answering like that which is uncalled for. People asking for help with their homework, for a book summary, websites for reading books online are looking for help just like anyone else. If you don’t like or agree with those questions then fine. But don’t use YA to get up on a soapbox and lecture these people on how wrong their questions are. Odds are they’re not going to care that you don’t like their questions anyway. They’re looking for help with a question and you’re not really helping them, at least in the way that they want. Plus, you’re getting points for doing essentially nothing but telling someone that they’re wrong about something.
If you don’t like their questions then here’s a thought: don’t answer them! Ignore the questions. If no one answers them then they just might stop. If you still feel the need to scold and lecture then email them. If you can’t email them then move along and try to really help someone else with a real answer.
Candy: Personal questions are by far the most difficult to answer because they (the users) will never know the full story. Most wish they could give better advice, but like you said, they don’t know you. There is only so much people can do to help before they lead themselves to the conclusion that part of your problem/s may be yourself.
I hope that doesn’t sound like I’m insulting you. I’m only trying to reason why you might be having trouble asking for advice.
Does this “answer” meet the above criteria?
Perhaps starting up a course of deep, long-term psychiatric treatment would be in your best interests before anything else.
If not, why was it not deleted? Especially when I reported it. Could it be that the answer came from a Top Contributor which means that he or she is above the law? The funny thing is that this answer got 6 votes for best answer and I’ll bet anything that this person voted for him/herself 6 times. It is hard to take these blogs and the Community guidelines seriously when people like this get away with violating them. Wake up Yahoo Answers! Stop preaching responsibility if you are not going to hold ALL users to the same standards. Stop wasting time with all of these cosmetic changes and start working on the REAL problems that you would be aware of if you would actually read these posts and your forum. I often wonder how a million dollar company can employ a bunch of people with 5 cent brains.
Thanks for restating the guidelines to the people that already follow them….
But can you PLEASE adress the trolls which are apparently are in your blind spot?
You can find them in ANY section and it only takes like a minute anyway…
I like that! Majority doesn’t.
Why was my comment removed? All I said was that one guideline for answering questions should be that you shouldn’t use your answer to lecture people on how wrong their questions are, the way some people do in Books & Authors. There’s a few people there who jump on questions that ask for homework help, a book synopsis, links to free reading sites, etc. I said that if you don’t think those questions are valid fine, DON’T answer them; move along to another question. Don’t use those types of questions to lecture and scold people (some in a nasty or condescending tone) about how wrong their questions are. Most don’t care that you think they’re wrong, they’re just looking for a REAL answer to their question. If you want to lecture them then do so by email and if that’s not possible then DON’T answer that question. You shouldn’t be allowed to get points just for scolding people.
Okay, that’s weird. Now I see my original comment! It didn’t appear on the main page of the blog, when I just checked it a minute ago. Strange.
Good advice. I am guilty of giving silly/crazy answers sometimes because I have a “dry sense of humor”. Don’t mean to offend people though and will try to be more informative than funny in the future.
Wow! positive feedback I missed it.
This is really good because I myself have experienced getting answers like LOL or another question which really didn’t help. I just do hope that people will follow these and that they won’t abuse the thing which they call “freewill”, which is sometimes misunderstood by many.
the other thing is that REAL moderators need to patrol the sections on a daily basis
the other problem is in the XBOX section is all the people asking for free xbox live trial codes, i hear of a lot of users questions being deleted for no reason, well…delete all the xbox live free trial code questions
Good common sense rules, only some people think they don’t have to follow any rules. About spelling and proper grammar: At first I was also guilty of correcting them, until I realized not all askers have English as a first language. But for those who do have it as a first language, there is no excuse for bad grammar, no punctuation and incorrect spelling. There is a button for “Spell check”, and if you don’t have one on your computer, there is a book called the Dictionary. Using text and twitter abbreviations is also irritating when emailing, answering questions, etc. The only things is that when I try to use proper punctuation, I get a “suggestion” of using too much punctuation. Maybe you need to revise that notice for those of us who use proper punctuation.
I’d actually like to see some changes in the reporting system and how it’s decided what answers get deleted. I once answered a question of someone who admitted to abusing animals and was thinking of progressing to harming people. I told that person to please seek professional psychological help. I didn’t use any nasty language and I wasn’t mean in any way. But I got reported because the person who asked the question thought that I was insulting him/her because I recommended psychological help. I couldn’t figure out why on earth whoever reviewed the question and answer couldn’t see that my recommendation for psychological help was reasonable based on the question that was asked. For a long time afterwards, I was afraid to answer any questions at all because there seem to be no reasonable guidelines for reporting. Anybody can be reported (and risk losing their Yahoo account) just because a mentally unstable person decides to report you for no good reason!
And while some legitimate and well-meaning answerers get reported for no good reason, there are those who ask questions or give answers that promote animal abuse or make fun of someone’s problems and they never get reprimanded. I assume that they don’t face any consequences because I keep seeing the same ones continuing to show up.
I am DISABLED. Iti s hard for me to type. Harassing me over not being grammatically correct or having typos isi ILLEGAL accodring to US FEDERAL LAW (ADA) If i take the time to corect everything-i will never gert to mosr quetsions —and often those people with have no answer or wrong answers…part of my disability is exhaustion–i am just too tired to tak eth time to correct my typing
Lol blah whatever…If I have a serious question the last place I would look for advice is this site right here
http://answers.yahoo.com/
Does this “answer” follow the above criteria?
Perhaps starting up a course of deep, long-term psychiatric treatment would be in your best interests before anything else.
Or does this count as an answer because the user who posted it is a top contributor who is basically above such things as laws and community guidelines? What is also funny is that this alleged answer received 6 votes for best answer. I am sure that this user used six different accounts to vote for him/herself. I also reported this answer and it was never deleted. It is really hard to take your blogs and guidelines seriously when when you hold about 40% of the community to the standards and allow 60% to act as if they are above the law. Yahoo’s response to this is to take the ostrich approach to the problem and create another cosmetic change to tell the community “See, we are doing something to earn our paychecks”. Unfortunately, what you are doing is not what the community wants. Successful businesses got that way because they listened to the customers and gave them what they wanted. Yahoo seems to view their customers as an inconvenience to be dealt with.
Yeh uh, I pride myself on giving somewhat light hearted answers. thus the name: Wrong Answer.
Nobody likes a rule nazi.
I once reported some-one for posting a question, ostensibly about help with an essay…the essay was about ways of torturing a small child…he even wrote what he had already written which was horrific, and then asked for other suggestions.
I ran a check over a period of time….obviously, AY didn’t consider what he had done as a violation since his question remained. Yet, I see others who have deletions over petty little things.
I don’t believe human beings read these things.
From what I’ve read on this comment page it looks like Y/A has more tweaking to do regarding the abusers to the the 5 Golden Rules. I must agree with several of the posters here about reporting abusers & how many still get away with their abuse & others are penalized because the staff has not thoroughly checked into why the member was reported for a violation.
As for spelling and grammatical errors, as you stated…Yahoo! Answers is a diverse community with members from many different countries that not always speak English as well as others, & the spell check doesn’t always function properly,(*note: no spell check for this comment post).
Please take some of the suggestions from this comment page to the Five Golden Rules to heart as many here are trying to contribute positively for the betterment of Y/A.
111
Why are my questions not being posted? I asked a question, and it is nowhere to be seen. And stop unfairly removing our questions and answers and then not putting a reason it was in so-called violation.
！！！
Under your “Be polite and respectful” you might want to remind your audience here that not every one is a US citizen and so there are other ways of spelling words – remind users that there is a global audience and respect should extend beyond agreeing or disagreeing with the wording or subject matter.
Sadly these are the 5 things most people DON’T do on YA. A pitty there’s no the thumbs-down button doesn;t deduct points for lack of netiquete.
guh…shoulda grammar checked before I posted that… >_>
I think that too many people don’t look over their comments to make sure they don’t have typos.
There are so many things these rules skip that need to be emphasized. Here are some:
Don’t curse.
Don’t duplicate your answer.
Don’t duplicate your question unless you didn’t get any good answers the first time.
Don’t report an answer or question for abuse if there’s nothing on it that’s against the rules.
Don’t answer or ask a question that could possibly be against the rules.
Don’t be a ‘report freak’. If you keep on reporting answers or questions that you aren’t sure about, people will hate you for it, especially if you didn’t need to report it.
There are probably more that I can’t come up with. Oh well. You get the point.
Do I get points for responding to this? (joke)
Just wish this courtesy was shown by most atheists in the religion & Spirituality section.
And many of the questions are shown to mock the Christian faith.
As a man thinketh, so is he.
even if you follow all these rules there is no guarantee you will not be receive a violation notice.
Is not following numbers 4 and 5 a violation?
Yahoo reporting is complete rubbish. I got an answer removed without warning or explanation, I think just because I linked to a picture of a nipple — when the question was about someone’s health concern in this area who was very worried!! If Yahoo had taken two seconds to look at the actual answer and realise it was the ONLY one which addressed the healtch oncern of the questioner rather than just an “oooh i don’t know, see your doctor” they would have realised they should have deleted every other answer first before removing mine, as those answers actually violated community guidelines by not answering the question.
It’s a disgrace. Y!Answers wastes precious space on the web with false rules and guidelines that it does not follow itself.
well that is nice but I wonder what are the 5 golden rules for asking a question since two of my questions were taken down and yes nobody did answer them but they were taken down and not by me
What really gets me frustrated is when a “Top Contributor” answers a question and gives a thumbs down to every other answer just to make theirs look better. I’ve had it happen to dozens of my answers!
Thank you so much for posting these five rules to live by here on yahoo answers.These are great rules and what people like me live with everyday here.Being the top answerer in my section ive always remembered the true reason this site means so much to HELP others with there questions.I would like to thank all on the yahoo answer team that use this site to make the world a better place.
I enjoy all of yahoo answers. It gives me something to help someone else and makes me feel good to be able to offer a few words that might help. Some of the questions are truly not able to understand how they even were passed to qualify as a question, but as you say it is a free opinion and just move on to another question that makes sense. Thank you for being here yahoo answers.
The politics section is way too inflammatory now, so I don’t even go there anymore.
And how to answer questions like “How do I look” and then they post picture of a beast from a movie. or those who post too long question, explaining “Does he/she love me?”
how am I supposed to read all that and answer. my strategy, if you don’t know the answer at least answer, I don’t like my questions go without answer.
Personally I like the 5 Golden Rules but in reality they are a joke because Y/A doesn’t even respect them. If I asked the question : My husband is getting very violant with me and has slapped and hurt me several times. I know I should leave him but I feel sorry for him what should I do ?
and the answer is DUH ! is that an answer the asker was looking for and why didn’t Y/A remove it. I tell you why because nobody from Y/A really monitors what is going on and they just remove Ques. and Ans. to make it look like they really care.
this is annoying. iv waited like 10 hours now
NOT AGAIN!!!!!