Changes to Community Moderation deletions
Since its introduction back in 2007, the Community Moderation proved to be extremely effective and accurate: in fact, our stats say that over 94% of deletions by the community are correct and happen within a few minutes since content is reported.
With accurate reports, reliable Answers users increase their trust and gain more influence in removing content directly. On the other hand, people who report inaccurately will see their reputation quickly decrease and will have less power. You can find more information on how the Community Moderation works in our previous posts and in the help section.
Today, we’re introducing a small change to the penalties for content removed by the community. Similar to what happens with the traditional deletions by customer care, abusers will now be deducted 10 points for each question or answer removed by the community. This change will let us align our systems and discourage users from posting content against our community guidelines.
Although very effective, Community Moderation is not perfect and occasional slips may occur. If your question or answer has been removed by the community in error you can have your case reviewed by clicking the appeal link in the email you will receive. A customer care representative will check and, if they agree, reinstate the content and give points back. However, if the appeal is rejected, the content will remain deleted and you will be deducted 10 extra points. Before appealing we suggest reading our community guidelines and testing your knowledge with our community guidelines quiz: it’s fun and, if you pass, you will earn 20 points!
We strongly believe empowering the community is the right way for keeping Yahoo! Answers healthy and free from abuse and we think this change will have a positive impact. We look forward your feedback and we encourage you to continue reporting the abuses you find on the site: doing so will result in more reputation for you and a better experience for the whole community.
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-10 points means nothing to me. I thought from the title that there were actually going to be real changes.
I’m afraid that 9 times out of 10, when I or someone else reports an obscene or otherwise offensive question or answer in the Royalty category, the question or answer remains. We have found that the reporting function is totally useless, that we are unable to get rid of offensive posts. We have repeatedly begged and pleaded Y!A for help, but to no avail. “Community Moderation deletion” doesn’t work for us, and that’s a major problem, since we are inundated with obscene trollers in Royalty.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
*Hugs the big guy, the programers and yat*
Yes, I remember “way back when” and all reported content had a 10 point penalty.
I was wondering when y’all would go back to the basics.
I hope this will improve the quality of the Q & A and restore dignity to Yahoo!Answers.
Nice!
Ever since the July 2010 updates when the 2 point deductions stopped being deducted, the site has been spiraling down chat & point gaming keeping their ill gotten points having only the proof of their misdeeds removed.
This has been LONG overdue. It will be difficult for many users to swallow in the short term (having been conditioned that posting abuse will advance their user levels quicker) however after a re-education period the site will begin to look more like the original architechs had intended.
KUDOS to Yahoo for not only fixing this glitch but for taking the next step towards a user moderated site.
A good step. There was no penalty for playing avatar games under the old system. Now if the team can tell us what to do with all the violations that become immune when the CM system goes down?
I think this is a great move and agree with everything except for, “However, if the appeal is rejected, the content will remain deleted and you will be deducted 10 extra points…”
Seriously? Wow.
Yeah, I sort of cringe at the extra 10 points for the appealing if you get shot down. I was reported once for giving a musical answer connected to youtube as promoting my own site or something when it wasn’t mine, I didn’t own or post it, nothing like that. I lost my appeal, but I still believe I was within the guidelines. Either you guys need to take more time to explain why exactly, and even have a dialogue with the appeals, or you need to keep them free. I also would appreciate knowing just where I stand with questions reported. Ie, if I see someone bullying and attacking another submitter and I report them is it going to do any good because other questions I reported were determined to not be bad? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t report unless I feel like it goes against the community guidelines, but I’ve seen questions remain (like the Royalty person.)
Can you imagine the chaos that would happen if reporter trolls invaded?
Great – now you’ve given malicious reporters yet another way to injure the people they target.
Until you require reporters to point to specific guidelines that have been broken, and identify the specific text they object to, people will report users they don’t like for ridiculously vague nonsense like “misuse of the question and answer format,” which is not only meaningless, but is impossible to defend oneself against.
Until you start penalizing malicious reporters by deducting points from them when their reports are overturned, there is little disincentive for “report-monkeying.”
This will be nothing more than a license for malicious reporters to go mad.
Thanks a lot because some questions and answers really not able to read because of their non-sense or abusive language now yahoo answers.com become more healthy. I also get strange when a question like ‘do you know a prostitute’s cell number of ……….area!
thanks again to the yahoo team.
Why don’t people who falsely report answers be charged 10 points for reporting an answer if the answer they reported is put back up? I see reporter trolls all of the time reporting perfectly ok answers just because they disagree with the answer, particularly in the politics and religion sections.
Why not deduct points from people who wrongly report too? Report abuse is a big problem, especially in Religion & Spirituality.
id actually like an adittion to this rule, that people who report inaccurately also be penalized ten points per question, otherwise the people who do this in order to try to get others banned, and there are those people because theyve blatantly admitted it, will not only get the person banned but also take away all their points. this actually allows for reporting abuse to not only continue but be encouraged.
☼ The sun is shining again ☼
Is it just me or is Yahoo lazy? I’ve been reported wrongly several times and I just get ignored when I appeal. I don’t think I’ll be using this site much anymore. This will give those who report wrongly the power to hurt other users and Yahoo answers won’t do anything about it.
Nonsense, As soon as you start asking/answering valid questions on this site about piracy, drugs, or anything dubious someone reports and moderators just leave the question since they have 10000 to go thru and it’s safer to leave the question down.
I’ve had legitimate answers taken down for how to download a YouTube video , for where to find spice (sythetic weed banned in a few states but not all) and several other stupid takedowns with no other explanation other then a redirect to the policy page. Reporters should have to leave a 1-2 sentence comment on what is wrong and how it violates the guidlines. Then have that shown to anyone that has something taken down. Users would be able to give a response to it in the apeal rather then guessing at what the complaint was. Imagine saying you were going to be jailed and you could defend yourself, however, you are not told what the charge is. That is Yahoo aswers moderation policy right now.
Excellent! This is LONG overdue!
Sorry, but this doesn’t achieve a thing. I’m a Level 7 who knows the guidelines perfectly well. I’ve reported all sorts of abuse (including underage kids) and not once has the post been removed.
The solution is obvious. Allow only a small group in each section to report, and they’d apply for this. Their answers and reporting history would be reviewed. Even one instance of a clear cut false report would be enough to disqualify someone.
Way too many people have this power, and when someone like me reports an underage person, or a “chat” question about another poster in that section, it should disappear immediately.
Oops, forgot to finish! The ten point penalty won’t stop anyone. The only people who think 10 points is significant are people who are really new. The experienced ones aren’t going to worry.
So now you lose even more points because Yahoo doesn’t bother to truly look at an appeal? That’s a great way to get even MORE people not to appeal. Hey it will let you say look at how many were correctly removed though, since no one appeals. What a joke. I have to agree that when an appeal is won then the false reporter needs to lose points.
The last time I appealed, the appeal was rejected in less than a minute with NO explanation. I am not convinced ANYONE every actually read the appeal.
I REALLY HOPE THAT THE CM SYSTEM IS NOT DOWN. I HOPE WHAT YOU SAID IS EVEN TRUE AND CHANGE THE RULES TO MAKE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ‘EM VERY CLEARLY.
I don’t think this is severe enough. Recently I’ve had a number of my questions deleted for no reason (no, they weren’t offensive). Maybe I wanted the question there for me to reference later, such as the ones that had recipes.
Stupid.
This would be great if the appeals process worked which it doesn’t. I have appeals from months ago still pending. Of all the answers I’ve had deleted, not one of them was warranted and I’ve never had an answer restored. No one has ever explained how any of my deleted answers have been against the community guidelines.
Providing an answer that is unpopular to some is not against the community guidelines and that is ultimately what this all boils down to in sections like R&S. These policies might work fine in the Cats section but they fail miserably in R&S.
Yahoo needs to be more proactive in identifying trusted community leaders based on the quality of their answers not just their reporting practices.
I’m here to contribute (26% BA, in R&S) not to get points and it gets very frustrating to see my answers deleted by report monkeys who just game the system. If you want quality answers, you have to reward or at least protect those who provide quality answers.
Very seldom have I seen a rant or a nasty question/answer ever removed.
No one is awake at the helm of Yahoo Answers
Your yahoo reps don’t even read the appeal. I get reported for advertisement when I haven’t done anything like that, I appeal the process and the rep agrees with the community judgment. To sit there and say that 94% of deletions are correct is absurd. I don’t know even one person in the Y!A categories that would agree with that obviously biased assumption. Reps that don’t take their job seriously should be fired.
Its great that YA provides the ability for community to help moderate, but when this is done in isolation, its kinda lazy and incompetent of Yahoo.
We see the same old posts about escorts in india, forex trading, or templated replies to every question spamming the same old website.
Spam detection algorithms have been around for years now. Yahoo should know, since they use them in Yahoo mail.
Its really about time some proper spam detection was done on posts and replies, instead of just leaving the ‘community’ to keep your database tidy.
Deducting a few points is not going to deter anyone. Who cares about points really?
This change is pointless when:
1) Customer Services ignores the reports being filed.
2) The abusers does nothing but turn around and open another account, thus continuing the cycle of abuse (Special Education, People With Disabilities, and Culture- Other Groups Forums being the absolute worst).
3) There are known accounts of these abusers having multiple accounts (Again: Special Education, People With Disabilities, and Culture- Other Groups Forums being the absolute worst) and; yet, customer services still chooses to ignore it.
4) When these abusers with the multiple accounts falsely make reports on others but because customer services believes that the report was made several people (versus just one people with multiple accounts) these reports are taken as being legitimate when in reality they’re not legitimate at all.
Thanks for making this just a great &
interesting site, for staying in the game,
and adding this new penalty in the game.
We need to all think before we act,
and when we don’t do that, getting a
penalty like in sports can help us
‘get our act together’.
I realize what hard work you do,
and know I couldn’t do it. Glad
you folks can do it.
I am glad to see this, Team!
However, 20 points deduction should be ideal over 10 points for an abusive content. The penalty needs to be greater.
I am happy to hear that CM has a very high reporting accuracy. This is very good news.
Dad
I fail to see how this will fix the problem of ‘reporter trolls’ reporting questions that don’t violate the guidelines. You say that 94% of all Q&A’s deleted did violate the guidelines, so that means that 6% of all content will be wrongfully removed and punished. Would you be satisfied with the criminal justice system if “only” 6% of inmates were innocent and falsely imprisoned?
What a joke, and a poor excuse for not hiring actual moderators.
truly pointless
the real abusive posters don’t care about points, they’ll just make another account — witness the call-girl spam that persists
and the real abusive false reporters will love it, because they will be able to bury their victims faster – given that most attempts at appealing go completely unanswered
thanks for making Y!A an even worse place!
wow, nice post..at least there’s some improvement from yahoo answer.
The reporting system on Yahoo! Answers is Terrible anyway!
There are sooooooo many Violations that don’t get removed even after they are reported, and in some categories such as in the Vegetarian & Vegan category there are so much violations that sometimes the whole front page consist of about 50% violations!
Up until recently, I “enjoyed” a status as ‘Top Reporter’ and was glad to see my efforts being rewarded with the speedy deletion of (mostly) spam “answers” and/or questions with the few instances of blatant ‘point gaming’ or chatting in between. Now, it seems my reports are going ignored.
I do not abuse the system nor have I ever. I do not use the report features a tool for vengeance or malice and, again, my reports have been mainly for spam. Largely the infamous ‘Call girl’ spam, which has been flooding the site for months now.
Recently, a user went around posting ridiculously offensive questions regarding ‘the Jews’ and speaking in such malicious, disgusting and offensive terms and in obvious violation of the ToS. Upon reporting this persons questions AND answers I discovered (much to my dismay) that my reports were being ignored. Today, 48 FULL hours post-report this persons activity still remains visible.
Call girl spammers still remain. I recently reported several such spam questions AND answers to no avail, and two of those accounts still remain and questions intact. And I’m sure I was not the only one to report these users.
It seems somehow, my reporter status has mysteriously just disappeared.
Re-blog once you’ve fixed *that* little issue.
I have had many of my questions and answers deleted and it seems that appeals don’t exactly work. Judging from the answers and questions that I had deleted, they were in NO WAY contradictory to the community guidelines. It was not chatting, spamming or insulting and yet I had my Q&A deleted.
Bwahaahaaa! Thanks for the laugh! 94% correct! Maybe 94% of those that you actually address! You need to actually delete violations when they are reported, not lower the TR rating of those who are smart enough to see the patterns just because you refuse to see the forest for the trees.
The people who complain about making it easier for people who falsely report on a regular basis to torment legitimate members are forgetting a few things that make it difficult for a single or even a few members to get a question removed without cause. Unless you have a reputation that is extremely good especially in terms of reporting violations it will take multiple reports by different members with neutral or fair reputations to get a question removed quickly or even at all. With a history of false reports you eventually have little or no influence at all when you continue to report.
You don’t know how many reports were filed when a question is removed. It could have been many people with average reputations or just one or two with extremely good track records. I for one use the thumbs down when I disagree with an answer that is not a blatant violation (it would be nice to have a thumbs down for questions that are poorly worded or offensive but not to the degree that makes it a violation) and only report things that I am sure violate the guidelines. It does seem like questions I report get removed within minutes much of the time (I am sure others also report them) so I think my reputation is pretty solid but answers that I also report rarely get removed. Answers that violate guidelines usually seem to be spam for one of several other websites and often are posted by repeat offenders. I’m thinking that less people notice and report answers that are in violation so they are less likely to get removed, even if they are an obvious violation and the person who reports has a fair or even good reputation for accurate reports.
When you get an appeal to a rejected answer. your customer rep need to check if the answer is a correct one and not opinion.
And what about the clones, not the clones they made in one of my famous movies, the one they use to vote on undecided question, Ok, i fad only one vote, mine, n/p, another answer has 2, the answer that won, has 4, but it wasn’t an answer, it deferred to another answer! That answer it deferred to had 0 votes! The day I voted for myself, 2 answers had 2, mine had 1, ok, so it was not the good answer, I vote myself, cmon, why would an answer that deferred to the 0 vote answer suddenly get 2 more votes? So I look at the winner’s profile, 40% best answer, none from asker, all by voters, all by 2 votes, most lousy answers!
Interesting turn of events.
This is the second time in a long while that I’ve seen the Yahoo! Answers Team taking a more active and visible role fighting against abuse on Answers. First making the team email address available for those wishing to report point gaming and category trolling or for users enquiring why they have been suspended. Now with this 10 points reduction, giving trusted reporters more power to make an impact against abuse…Maybe Scott Thompson is finally taking note of Answers
Y!AT you’ve done your bit, hope CC does theirs when it comes to appeals…
Just when I thought you guys couldn’t fail any harder at running a forum, I get a gem like this. -10 points for unsuccessfully appealing a deletion? Wonderful. Now, after my appeal is auto-rejected by a bot, I get to enjoy another penalty. I feel so special.
You might as well put up a billboard saying “ATTENTION REPORTER TROLLS: Welcome to Yahoo! Here’s some extra ammo!”
Thank you YA! I have worked very hard to report trolls and abusers of this site. Now I can work even harder and be more effective. I do not use the report feature to attack posts I don’t agree with. I use it to delete posts that are breaking the rules and community guidelines. now… it’s troll season and there is no bag limit. Be nice or leave.
What’s the point? You guys ignore so many questions that should be deleted because they violate the YA guidelines.
There’s one in the Canada forums where he is looking for hookers in Halifax.
I guess that somehow isn’t illegal?
This could bring a tear to a glass eye.
The worst offenders, for offensive posts, can be found in the Sports category, in the cricket section. It seems that racism and racist comments are the norm, and allowed to remain. These border on hate speak, but yet the user just creates a new account and carries on without any further penalty.
Trolling is also rife, and what’s worse is that the blatant trolls are allowed to remain, whereas a lot of legit users are being harshly penalised. I know of a user who had an account permanently suspended for answering a question that was controversial, but as the issue was also in the headlines, the included links to printed newspaper reports wasn’t considered when the decision to suspend was taken.
Some common sense is what is required from the mods, and the first thing that needs to be done is to start moderating as per Y!A guidelines, not what they decide is right or wrong.
How often has a question/answer been deleted because a mod finds it offensive, but it is still within the Y!A guidelines?
I like the suggestion that reporting abuse be limited to some trusted members who would apply for the role and commit to it.
I have reported some very very clear examples of breaches of the rule eg the promotion of Indian based
Prositution services. Even if the detail of the question is deleted – the question itself remains. So the trolls win again their ad remains.
Also have reported blatant points scamming. You never know if they did anything. It wouldbe great to know if action was ever taken.
How about knowing what your trust score is.
So, good they are doing something, but there are other ideas to be considered
To add further, those with multiple accounts should be weeded out and removed. There are mony instances of the wrong/incorrect answer being awarded points because it was posted by 1/. the asker’s alternative account, or 2/. a friend who is playing a point scoring game.
I’ve seen answers that have given links to further info, and the posted answer is full of correct info, only to have a totally inaccurate and false answer get the 10 points.
This isn’t going to work. Once again, Yahoo is putting a band aid over a gaping wound. I’ve appealed a violation notice and Yahoo didn’t have the decency to respond. They’re quick to slap on a violation but seriously negligent in the investigation. So now I’m supposed to believe this in our best interest? I don’t think so. I’ve also reported a question which was the commision of a crime. In fact, all the answers to that question reprimanded the poster of the question. You think that question was deleted? Nope. Guess Big Brother is monitoring these comments. Let’s see what happens with that.
Lastly, there have been answers deleted that suggest the asker look for the answer on google. WHY? This is something we’ll never know. If it is recommended that links to answers are posted, but links to google are deleted, what is the use?
Not good. Because appeals don’t work.
This is a step in the right direction. Thanks for change.
Hmm, guess I was one of the 6% that wasn’t in the correct & timely category then. I lost an account because someone had reported an answer I made years back, it was also one that was picked as a best answer by other users. Some troll thought it would be funny to report it. despite it not being offensive or illegal or breaking any rules it ended up with admin blocking that account & despite me appealing against it they refused to reinstate it. I ended up having to create another account to continue using the service & ended up losing all my points & my best answers. I hope this will now change things for the better – though I doubt it very much!
I think there should definitely be a penalty for someone who falsely reports a question. Or, if a certain percentage of their reports are overturned, they should lose the ability to report at all… in places like R&S, for example, people are constantly being reported for expressing unpopular views or just for disagreeing with someone who likes reporting people. It’s a bad situation that is only going to get worse now that there are higher penalties for being reported. And this extra 10 point penalty for appealing unsuccessfully just shows that Yahoo! is simply too lazy to actually respond properly to appeals. I am quickly losing any respect I had for this website’s administrators.
Points? Seriously? I post answers in LGBT to save peoples LIVES. Who cares about some silly point system.
The only way that this will be beneficial is if appeals actually get read or addressed. I have appealed what I felt to be wrongful deletions 5 times and only once did I get a response. I don’t consider copy and pasting a viable explaination when an answer is challenged. I’m not going to lie, I’ve had some answers that fall outside of the guidelines (User above or below questions) but when I have an answer deleted that doesn’t deserve to be deleted and I take the time to appeal it, it should be addressed. Also, if an answer is wrongly deleted, if for once Yahoo reads an appeal and if the deletion is re-instated then I think the user that reported it the answer/question should be docked points as well.
…and yes this is getting too controversial. For those of you who think that Y!A is going great, that is not true. There are a lot of loopholes going on with the system. I hope there is some kind of YARA [Yahoo! Answers Reporting Army] going on. Otherwise, this site will be the full of violations. We can’t help it.
Within the last week, I reported two unbelievably filthy questions regarding bestiality by the same Yahoo user in the Pets/Dogs section. I copied the questions into the ‘report abuse’ windows, to be certain the moderator could take action immediately.
I bookmarked the questions to follow up, and both of those questions were still there two days later, nothing was removed. My little 13 year old niece reads the Dog section of the Pets category. I was thoroughly disappointed with the Yahoo moderators and considered canceling my participation in Yahoo Answers.
I can see this being abused left and right. There are some users (in the Wrestling Section in particular) who have strange, childish vendettas against other users. They would abuse this new found power to harm others. The Moderation System needs to be changed drastically. Implement some changes that affect the ones who act childish and report questions for no reason, instead of those who post honest questions and get deleted.
I like the changes. Can this be taken further still?
If possible if a question has been deleted can the question also be taken out of the category all together? I have used time trying to answer a question only to discover that it was deleted when I tried to post my answer.
No, you are wrong. I not only had my answers deleted, but I actually had a previous account suspended. Why? Because someone in the so-called community didn’t agree with my viewpoint on matters. So they had my account suspended. I clicked the button you mention to have my account reinstated. What happened? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No emails, no mention of Yahoo reviewing the details. Absolutely nothing.
“Since its introduction back in 2007, the Community Moderation proved to be extremely effective and accurate: in fact, our stats say that over 94% of deletions by the community are correct and happen within a few minutes since content is reported.”
Your stats are wildly incorrect. Most of thetime when I report someone who posted a response to my question, it is never removed. I have never incorrectly reported anything on yahoo answers, but my reports are usually ignored anyway. Also, there have been times when one of my answers was deleted because of incorrectly reporting it as abuse or some other violation of TOS, when in fact, I have never committed a violation of TOS. My answers are always actual answers, I never spam or engage in abuse, and never post links to sites that make me money. I do not ever commit any other violation, either. But I have had one account suspended already, and inspite of many appeals made by me, YA refuses to re-instate my account.
I am a trained welder, who also has extensive experience in other fields. I would be on YA a lot more, providing valuable help to many, but with all this crap, it is too much of a hassle. So I’ll just keep asking my piddly little questions as I find I need to, and give only a couple of answers here and there to unimportant questions in order to keep enough points to ask a few more piddly questions.
I really don’t have any respect for YA.
This doesn’t address any problems at all. Quit wasting your time with crap like this and deal with the reporting troll issue that has been a problem for as long as this site has existed. The suggestion board is filled with complaints about this (including the most “approved” suggestion of all time), yet you’ve done absolutely nothing to alleviate the situation, at all. The problem with community moderation is that it gives the same amount of power to trolls as it does to serious users, and trolls don’t care if their account gets suspended because they can just make a new one and go right back to trolling. Reporting isn’t that valuable of an ability that level 1′s and 2′s would be adversely affected in the slightest by not allowing them to do it.
Bad idea. Now all the trolls have to do is report us into the ground. Way to hand the control right over the trolls yahoo!
Nothing new under the sun. You still have to be “reputable” in order for Y!A to remove a post, and they won’t clarify what “reputable” is.
Being a level 7 Top Contributor certainly isn’t.
So your statistics show 94% are accurate. What about all the bots or the spammers? Do they count in that percentage too?
Jade, someone sounds like a stalker, you know if a question has been up for 48 hours and if two of someones numerous accounts are still up? Just saying, seems that that would require some extra searching effort lol. But I do know what you all mean by the call girl spammer but every time I see his questions theyre deleted within seconds. Maybe yahoo just runs slow some days with all the reports filing in.
I have to agree with Lili who just posted about finding the reporting feature useless. Our top category answerer routinely bullies people, calls other users stupid, and hurls insult after insult. Yet that person still has their account. Docking that person 10pts is pointless. I’m tired of seeing questions and answers stay up because MORE than 1 person has to accurately report it. If a Top Ten level 7 answerer with an account in good standing reports something you should remove it.
You’re only making matters worse, Yahoo. Get rid of the reporting system. The only problem today is reporter trolls.
The ability to report an item (question or answer) should be restricted to those with some minimum number of points, like 200 or 500, to be sure they have played by the rules at least a little bit. If a new user is able to “report”, then there is a viable way to game the system: create lots of accounts only for flagging and flag away answers to keep your answer in the running for points.
I can’t count how many times I have reported answers that are clearly violations on the community guidelines but they are rarely ever deleted.
What burn me out, report it and get back an e-mail. That say we need more info, and question or answers or question is still there. So i do not report them anymore, it just a waste of time
Yuuuup level 7
How does this help users? This is nothing more than another thing to help trolls to abuse the system if they want to report someone unjustly b/c they don’t agree with an opinion or just b/c they don’t like the user.
I appreciate the effort taken to try to improve the community. And if a question or answer is removed for any reason, I do think the person should be docked the ten points. But taking away another 10 points just for appealing seems very wrong. Even on a message board, a person should not be penalized for trying to vindicate his or her rights.
I would also make sure that reporting had tangible consequences for the person reporting. Give them two points for correctly reporting, and subtract a few – maybe five – points for incorrectly reporting. I realize that Yahoo wants to encourage reporting. But the risk is that people will over use the feature, and get good posters suspended. I fear that over time fewer “reliable” YA users will use the service, or will not give as comprehensive an answer, for fear of losing the account.
With all due respect, I think this proposal goes to far.
PS Just as a side note, I notice that sometimes a questioner picks a best answer, and if that best answer is deleted the whole question goes away. Should a questioner have the right to appeal the deletion of the answer? Sometimes the answer does not merit deletion but the answerer does not bother to appeal. Just a thought.
As you can see from my comments, I enjoy the service. I hope to continue to use it for a long time!
Well, a step in the right direction, but you need to:
1) Change the rules so that only a single report is needed to remove answers that are obvious spam. I’ve reported answers where the poster has clearly copy-pasted identical spam links to several questions in the same category, and they are still there now.
2) Ban the above accounts immediately. No appeal.
3) Penalise people who report questions and answers that *don’t* violate the T&C of the site. Don’t just remove 10 points – you can get that back with a few one-word answers! Instead, remove an entire level, with the opportunity to appeal.
4) Make it a requirement that you must be level 3 or above to report a post, for anything other than a spambot post, phishing or illegal activity specifically.
If you want to really help the YA community then stop reporting from being a numbers game. there were several devastating “report attacks” last year where groups of people got question after question deleted in various sections because they knew that if enough people reprt a question (regardless of reputation) that question gets wiped.
If a question is reported, it should be reviewed by a moderator before a decision is made to delete it – regardless of how many people have reported it.
Now why don’t you lazy bums at “customer care” do your freaking jobs right and send out violation notices within 48 hours like your promise.
Don’t take away points. Take away their account. Deletions are meaningless because these abusers think answering/asking bad questions is just funny game to them. Deleting their account will keep them from putting up useless questions every again.
Thank you, programmers! Hopefully this will make the community a more fun, safe, and less annoying place to be.
This has been in effect for a while. Each time you get a violation you lose 10 pts. Nothing has changed
I hope that you guys continue to improve this area of Y!A. I’ve reported these chats, rants, blog type entries by these known trolls before, but their questions never get taken down. They put some fake question in the hedding and procced to answer it themselves or give their stance in the details.
This is extremely good news – as a start.
But it doesn’t address the problem of high-level (and hence high-trust) misusers. Any number of Y!A sections contain in-groups of high-level regulars – chatters / trolls – whose posts are virtually report-proof to the majority of Y!A users.
What mechanism can you offer for dealing with these?
WOW!that isgreat,now if a pre-screenie,filterwased to detect viruses ,inserted into answers,thatwouldbe nice or howabout our f,riends,that open,twenty new idenities to manipulate.or is that a thing for the sec serv
It is a step in the right direction, but still not tough enough to discourage those who abused this to get BA. There is one answerer who is a top contributer and has used this method to knock out others. This answerer has rapidly climb the rankings to the number two spot in the weather section. Since he many accounts and he uses only those other accounts to male false reports. t/herefore, this 10 point taken off from his other accounts will not hurt his main account a bit.
So likely to make any effect when trolls, generally, make fake accounts.
Thus, methinks, they don’t care about penalties.
This is an early April Fool’s Day joke, right? So called Community moderation is a fiasco. The system is wide open to abuse by unscrupulous individuals and organised groups using the thumbs down system and multiple accounts.
As others have pointed out the Appeals system is also deeply flawed. Among some users there is the suspicion that serious slanders and abuse have, in the past, not been properly or seriously investigated by Yahoo staffers. So much so that at least one user came to the conclusion that Yahoo staff are themselves biased.
“Community moderation” may be a success in that it has saved Yahoo thousands of dollars as a cost cutting exercise, as the originator of the system boasts on her cv, but Yahoo Answers as a forum for exchanging knowledge and expertise is a laughing stock. In particular the politics and religious sections of Yahoo answers have become havens for blatant racists and bigots, often in posts that are an obvious violation of Yahoo’s own Terms of Service.
The system of Top Contributors badges is also a farce. The quality of answers or questions asked has nothing to do with the awarding of such things seemingly. It is based on quantity rather than quality. But that is another question that the Yahoo Ansers team should address.
Oh, fantastic. The report monkeys will have fun with this.Many report answers that are the least bit humorous…I will have to prepare for this account to die.
Bullshit, I asked a normal question and it got deleted, I appealed and it got denied and now I am doing the customer care crap that never works. Yahoo is going to the dogs.
Mello, no, sometimes all it takes is a troll who thinks theyre being funny or for whatever reason has a tiffy for questions/answers to get deleted. Like the reporting sprees that were happening last summer in P&S, some days literally every single question (including ones that didnt violate the guidelines) were being deleted within seconds and it would go on for hours. And on one of those days a user going by “Emily Flint” admitted in a question that she was deleting the questions and was saying that she was going to take over yahoo and we would never ask another question again. Well she had multiple accounts but they were all level 1s, not sure how you could build a solid or even fair reputation by then, especially if the reports were coming from the same IP address.
So now we’re to be charged 20 points for a question or answer deletion? 10 for the deletion and 10 more for the “appeal” that generates an automatic rejection?
I don’t get “violations” very often but the appeal is always either ignored or I get the automatic rejection email. I have to send in a “second appeal” and invariably the “customer care representative” agrees that I did not violate any Term or Guideline and the answer gets restored. So the question is, do we get those 20 points back? Or does the automatic rejected appeal still count for a 10 point deduction? It’s not the points, it’s the principle of the thing. If I have to file a second appeal every damn time some “report-monkey” targets ME, and am found not-guilty, I should get all of my points back and the reporter(s) should be deducted those 20 points for their false reporting.
Reporting should be an earned privilege, not an automatic “perk” just for creating an account(s). Level one and two accounts should NOT be allowed to report; it’s far too easy for “report-monkeys” and other trolls to create multiple accounts just for reporting. There are enough higher-level users in each section who will protect (via reporting) legitimate level one and two users who are being targeted by trolls.
A “community” of snitches, just like a plice state’s network of informers.
Who needs this?
I have mixed reactions to this new process based upon personal experience and concerns about those who answer reporting posts when, by appearance, doing so is a popularity contest.
And than when appealed receiving no response from YA staff.
While I am, under no circumstances, a person who posts abuses and generally, offers supportive and informed information, to be advised of one my answers being removed and my appealing, not receiving a response to my appeal leaves me in the dark despite my having read community guidelines and taken the test earning the points.
The actions of those reporting need to be examined and content of questions as well as answers, in my opinion, need to be carefully reviewed by YA in lieu of casually scanned “to get another one done.”
I agree with others that this is just another ploy for the Yahoo staff be lazy. Those who report false answers should be penalized, not just those who are reported.
I have been a victim of someone reporting my answer because they disagreed or are trolls wanting the best answer. This is not fair to us who actual give real answers that don’t go against the guidelines.
Do something about those who wrongfully submit an answer!!!
Pathetic. You can have all my points they mean nothing to me
Who cares about points? It’s not like you get anything for them. I have reported vile, racist or anti-Semitic material, and nothing happens. Meanwhile, post something that a right-wingers don’t agree with, and you get a violation notice. Any protest is usually ignored. YA is such crap, I don’t know why I bother anymore.
who really cares
theres spam on here all the time its very Pathetic
and child like acting its what someone says that flames others into a rage , and whos to really if someone is play favs or not .but some others this is there life
some could be trapped in there apt
the far of going out side so ask yahoo it there out let
to the real world.some of us like to help others out
At least the trolls will be happy.
Perhaps you’d like to explain to us why reporting obscene/offensive questions and answers in the Royalty category accomplishes precisely nothing. We’ve been begging and pleading for help for months, but the reporting function is useless. The offensive questions and answers remain no matter how obscene they are. I’d really like a personal answer to this question, since no query I’ve sent through Feedback or Customer Care has ever been answered.
But it’s always been 10 points. Even questions and answers that shouldn’t have been removed…and frankly, only confirms that some of these trolls are working for Yahoo in customer care to begin with. Just gives them more power, really.
Penalising people for bad content is good, but is it not a little unfair to penalise those again for appealing. This might put people off actually appealing against it and increase the number of people reporting answers or questions for no reason at all.
appeal emails should completed with links to original answer. that’s will make user can re-check their answer. some deleting email notification coming after 2-3 weeks. how come we remember it.
but never mind, i won’t expected you’ll change it. or aint read this. answer.yahoo.com is good site. but not sure will be better.
This is all well and good but there are several people that post so called questions that are against the guidelines. They also post answers and comments that do not follow your rules. They have been reported and yet their questions/answers remain.
The people I am thinking of post back and forth insults to each other about police and law.
Most of us couldn’t care less about losing an additional 10 points. Y/A is waaayyy toooo lax in actually reading appeals and giving more than a nanosecond consideration or thought to the appealing persons reason. Also, lately when one appeals, we don’t even get the courtesy of a notice that the appeal was rejected.
Well, I’m not a rah rah YA person and I’ve already delivered my scathing comment upthread. But some of these comments illustrate the flip side – many users are idiots.
To the guy who thinks it’s ok to supply a google link to answer a question…you can’t be serious! If someone goes to the NFL section and asks what year Tom Brady was born, the only correct answer is to give the year. It’s a stupid question, but linking to google is a violation. And this guy doesn’t see that?
Anyway, I still say the problem is that too many people are allowed to report abuse. And in cases where it’s clearly done as part of some game, the rest of us with legit reports suffer. I think a person should lose their account when this happens.
I have been reporting really obscene questions and mostly answers in the Royalty category for months now and I now that other members have because I have emailed them for help, nothing is done by Yahoo and the content of the Qs & As is getting worse now that the trolls know that Yahoo is doing NOTHING about reports. The most vile adult content and foul language is permitted by Yahoo. It makes no difference to the trolls, they lose one account and their backup accounts are used. One, who uses the name of Fiq regularly has his/her account suspended and within minutes the new one is being used. There is another troll that uses the avatar name Troll and is a Top Contributor and has been bullying the same person for months, no ammount of reporting has done anything to stop the bullying, vile adult content and foul language, the troll knows that NOTHING will be done, but when the person being bullied retaliates, he is penalised. The whole system is wrong, it’s a farce. If they don’t care about losing an account what difference is ten points going to make to them?
In addition to my original post:
With regard to the initial violation notification please consider changing that notification so as to contain:
1) the specific question and/or answer that is in violation
2) If an answer is in violation, the answer itself
3) the specific community guideline(s) that is/are violated be sent in the original notification.
(What has happened in the past is the answer is removed and as such the question and the answer by the person answering can not reviewed for continuity sake.)
In my opinion, to assume YA moderators are well informed is to provide no benefit of doubt to answerer and to ignore appeals (past personal experience) with the deduction of 10 points by no means reflects the spirit YA desirers to foster.
Consider the more information within the original notification would not only serve to clarify and perhaps educate the violator, it might also reduce the amount of appeals.
In my opinion, education is a more effective solution to reduction of appeals and respectful avenue for those whose intent is to be genuine when answering or asking a question as well as conducive to the spirit YA is attempting to foster.
This is horrible! You read all the time of users deleting good honest Q. If you leave it up to users,will will be forever fighting in here & it will take away any joy & fun we try to have in the 1st place! My exsperiences in tese type of sites are a disaster b/c of ppl who simple do not like our Q&A..So much of our time will e fighting the deletion constanly and whoever agree’s to this will soon find out! Be careful what u wish for esp on the muslims cats…you will loose good honest users & have the lairs & low life sorts & i am wondering if that’s what yahoo wants…The more hippoctatical the user,the more ya hoo like em huh?I guess i’ll go elsewhere this is not what we good users signed up for//and i mean a user/s who are accepting of others ppl and theiridea’s and thoughts.This is the worse thing yahoo can do!
Y!A should also explain why some perfectly acceptable questions do not post to the main borad so others can see them. There seem to be certain unknown words or concepts that are not allowed. I wish Y!A were more forthcoming about this. It would seem less arbitrary to users.
PS I do appreciate the deletion of the trolls, though! Good job.
Also when we do report a user for these things…we too get a deleation & a violation for doing so! Help the comunity or help ourselves for being punished for it. Yahoo punishes the ppl who do see these things & reports them,& keeps the users Q&A as is & does nothing! So?what are we doing? Who are we really helping?Also yahoo needs to stop users from deleting our post y would they give anyone esp users the right to judge other users? That’s like giving the keys to the bank to a moron/idiot! This is more harm then any good the more power to the users,the more we will have to hate yahoo & it’s lame users…who wants others to JUDGE our work? Can i do it? Sign me up!I ‘ll get rid of the hippocrates so fast b4 u say yahoo they will be ya’gone!
->I have been reporting really obscene questions and mostly answers in the Royalty category for months now and I now that other members have because I have emailed them for help, nothing is done by Yahoo and the content of the Qs & As is getting worse now that the trolls know that Yahoo is doing NOTHING about reports. The most vile adult content and foul language is permitted by Yahoo. It makes no differ<–
ABOVE IS A BIG PROBEM IN YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!
Above is just the type of user who i am worried about!How & who judges whats obscene & whats good/bad or inderfferent? They are the problem more then any troll even! Sometimes we feel a lil funny,mad,sat etc & this user will be the one who will judge us & not be accepting of these facts! This is why it won't work!
Yeah, I have an addition to my comment as well. There’s 4 or 5 questions in the NFL section right now on the top page that are obvious spam about buying jerseys. I reported each of them 4 hours ago. They’re still there.
This is what is so frustrating! I’m trying to do my part, but it’s unrealistic to expect someone to keep reporting abuse when there’s never any result.
Yahoo Answer will you look in to this , i have report it , but been the only one to answer , it will not get to you
Mayhem
Member since: February 20, 2011
Open QuestionShow me another »
Is this a good suicide note to post to the world?
I’m so ******* tired of being single, so ******* tired of waking up alone with nobody to love, and falling asleep with only my dreams void of reality. I’m so ******* tired of all the hatred I received, all the people I have helped, yet I only end up deceiving myself. I’m so ******* tired of feeling worthless, nothing but trash, nobody’s dream, and nobody’s reality. I’m so ******* tired of life, watching the world float around me, I’m nothing but a waste of space. I was just like everybody else, I had feelings, fears, and a soul. I was still alive. They tainted my heart, corrupted my beliefs, and destroyed my spirit. Why am I still walking this barren land? I am a disgrace, as a result I desecrate myself. My body is no longer my temple, I was born to die. I’m nothing but a walking zombie, just floating around, living in a certain way, but that’s it. I’m dead on the inside, forever and always. I shouldn’t be alive. I’m useless, dead, scared. Nobody needs me, so I’ll be gone, out of your way. Nobody ever cared maybe now I’ll be free. I hide my internal tears with external happiness, It only deceives you and me… for at least a minute. There’s no more satisfaction, no more happiness, no more truth. This is it, hopefully the world burns without me in it. I’m out guys, this is to all my current friends, people that I helped who forgot about me, traitors, douchebags, random people, and anyone else who will gain satisfaction from reading this. You’re welcome for the temporary entertainment. It’s been a horrid run, but one that’s worth remembering because of certain people, and to Nicole, thank you for allowing me to live a little longer, you may not know it, but you meant the world to me.
23 hours ago – 3 days left to answer.
Is is one of the biggest problem , if you are the only one to report it, then it 90% will not get send.
Good idea in theory, but what about the trolls who don’t care about points?
How about a ban after reaching a -20 score?
The problem is that YOU [the community] can’t deal with this situation.. The violating questions and answers are still there…
Oh, for those of you who give 4 – 5 stars, you think that Y!A system is good, but it’s not… The system is the total waste of time. No appeals read, no problems solved… Those people have the disgusted mind to say that there is no “Y!A crisis”.
For those of you who give 1 – 3 stars, I believe you know there are loopholes in the Y!A system. It’s indeed the total GARBAGE due to unresponsive Community Moderation. We would rather make our own reporting army and show that our side is better than the Community Moderation. Sorry about this Y!A, but this is true.
So when are you actually going to START removing violations, thus making it worthwhile to blow your horn about docking 10 points for Community-reported violations?
This is dumb. They’re going to be punishing people that didn’t do anything wrong. One of my questions was reported and I appealed because there was nothing wrong and the person said that it did break the community guidelines, but wouldn’t even bother to tell me HOW it broke them. I even explained that it didn’t and used things that Y!A has in the community guidelines quiz when I appealed and it was still deleted.
I’ve been successfully reporting spam, adult content, insulting and rant for years. I recently had 2 instances where peoples posts or questions were over turned when they were actually in violation because they insulted others in their details added later. Apparently, your people aren’t reading the entire post. Allowing top contributors the right to have posts removed is a great idea but it would also be a great idea to READ the entire posts of the abusers. All you’ve managed to do is convince me not to bother to report anymore. I’ve reported 2 filthy posts that are still up because my credibility dropped for these 2 instances. I’ll not waste my time reporting any more.
There’s another outright violation that wasn’t removed. An answer telling someone to delete their system32 folder which will render their pc useless. I report it, it’s still up, how many unknowing people will read this and end up spending a small fortune to get their pc repaired? That’s the last straw. To you users, beware of even using answers to solve your pc woes. Sorry but I won’t bother trying to have them removed if Answers is not going to remove them.
it would help reduce abuse if privacy was only available above level 3 or after one month a spammer or abuser can have 20 accounts with 20 answers or questions and the pattern is hidden so answerers can’t see they are wasting their time
It’s all very well increasing penalties for “violations” but it still doesn’t address two major problems plaguing Y!A:
1) poorly written Community Guidelines which is some cases are either nonsensical or so open to interpretation that they might as well not exist; and
2) report monkeys who are quite happy to exploit those poorly written CGs to maliciously report innocuous content.
Come up with a sensible, coherent set of CGs before taking knee-jerk actions like this. Address the inherent faults in the system; anything else is just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Leave the users alone & let the ‘decnet’ accepting users be the judge if anyone must judge..we have our ways. We been here long enough to know who’s who & know that if a user posted what another may find offensive,we know they are kidding & being playful,angry,sad etc..
It’s not right for another to judge one post or any of us & get rewarded for it. I’m glad this isn’t how our legal system works. Many users i see do not have a sense of humor & some are way to radical & what one calls awful another may see it as delightful..I say tomato’s & you say tamuto’s…
I have never in the history of myself being in here seen so many violations on me! It’s uncalled for! Also others to were reported allot lately & wrongly..this is insane & a really huge bad idea & mistake..it will be a battle & a disgrace and many will leave yahoo.Too many deversitys in here w/too many cultures,some don’t even understand our launguge well let alone know our humor,meanings of words etc..& some are down right ignorant & uppityto even judge a stone,some are vengeful & some are mean..see?
Too many to let us be judged,b4 u know it,we accepting users will appear 2b terrible b/c of another judging us constantly just b/c they can? Accept the things u can not change,change the things u can,& have the wisdom & courage to know the differnce..in other words…
DON’T CHANGE A GOOD THING! LET US USERS DECIDE WHO’S WHO IN OUR OWN COMMUNITY/S K?
and w/Joy posted>>
sounds very good to me. thanks.
BUT YA HOO KEEPS THIS YAHOO-
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
*Hugs the big guy, the programers and yat*
PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I CAN THROW UP BIG GUY!
Obviously I can only speak for my own section, but this is going in completely the opposite direction of progress. One of our biggest problems is that people deliberately report questions/answers, simply for the amusement of annoying perfectly innocent users. This wouldn’t be a big deal, if the appeals system actually worked. It’s bad enough that every now and again we unfairly lose our accounts (the appeal system for this does not work either) and have to create new ones, but losing 10 points every time we’re reported is just rubbing salt in the wound.
Thanks, Answers, why not try fixing what’s actually broken for once?!
I want to know how yahoo handle problems with Y!Answears Vietnam staffs; they are all communists, they got other members’ accounts suspended because those people who asked about human rights and disscussing about issues of freedom of speech in Vietnam! Those yahoo staffs are not working under yahoo’s policy or Yahoo Inc supports communism?
Thanks for reading.
I think that some people who answer questions with rudeness and not actually answer the question should be banned if they do it in more than 10 posts.
There needs to be more transparency in the community reporting system. A reliable reporter who suddenly feels his influence is gone for no apparent reason needs to know if his reports were deemed unreliable and if so, for what reason. With the community being blind to this aspect, there is no way of knowing or reporting if there is corruption occurring on the inside. Many users, myself included, feel that appeals are not even read because of internal corruption, most likely laziness as there is no reasoning given to the rejection. Though it is most likely laziness, one cannot dismiss the possibility of political or religious motivation for an unfair rejection of an appeal or a demotion of reliability. Only by making the system more transparent by including more feedback and making it available to the public will users feel more confident that it works. Reporters should get some feedback as to what reports were considered unreliable if any and who made the determination and why.
That is all very well but I have lost seven or so accounts due to trolls and stalkers here.
What are you going to do about that? My answers obey your rules yet still time after time my account has been deleted and so I have to make a new account.
So does this mean that a real person will respond now instead of the form letter, and then no additional contact? I’ve appealed many deletions that I feel should not have been, and all I’ve received is the same form letter over and over again.
I really think that this is Yahoo’s idea of handling it: ignore the problem until the person appealing goes away.
Your rules are fair, I think not. You only protect people who are of your own “kind,” anyone who is not is never protected, and you know what I mean. You are grossly unfair in your appeal process, all you do is send the same letter to annoy people and hope they go away, that is a lowlife’s method of resolution.
Deducting points for deleted questions and answers, and losing ten points on a rejected appeal is the best, most fair way. It will discourage users that continually disrupt, corrupt and discredit categories.
All people need to do is stay within CG when asking and answering questions. Simple.
Blatant breaches are still prevalent, especially those from underage users. Escort services in India are still making an appearance, but are getting deleted almost instantly. However, racist comments, hate speak and baiting is rife in the cricket forum, so nothing has changed there. I doubt it ever will!
I think I was one of the first to post a comment on February 24th when this notice came out. I have just read all 136 comments and lo and behold mine was not one of them. Not only do some questions and answers get deleted but comments do also. Mine has disappeared. What gives?
My comment was about why after questions and answers are reported they are still open, in voting or resolved and still not deleted. I have reported well over 250 questions and answers as they have: vulgar language/avatar, abusing other members, chatting, ranting, point scoring, being mean and belittling people and their questions, answers that are not relevant to the question eg. hmmmm, what, idk, trolololo. Before I report questions and/or answers I reread what is reportable.
Please Yahoo don’t wait for 2 or more users to report abuse. When something is reported please read it and then decide. There are questions that are clearly ranting as the user is complaining about the site they are using and yet they remain. One question contains almost every 3rd word is the ‘f’ word. Clearly that should be removed but it hasn’t.
Yahoo please take into account all these comments and work together to get rid of the trolls and abusers who wish to bully and belittle people who only wish to help those that have a legitimate question and need answers.
Pointless and frankly imbecilic change.
The abuse these days tends to be people who falsely report. I have repeatedly attempted appeals, only to receive no response at all!
You need to limit the powers of community reporting, not enhance them!
Why don’t you ever listen to your users? *sighs*
Yahoo continues to give the power to report to those who are not really members of the community because they don’t even answer, or ask, questions. Why is the ability to report an earned privilege?
I only report Q&A’s that are obviously offensive, and yet they remain. My Q&A’s get wrongfully reported, and are immediately removed. Appeals are obviously not even checked. Yahoo Answers will continue to lose credibility as long as they continue to support reporters who have not earned the privilege.
The problem is that YOU [the community] can’t deal with this situation.. The violating questions and answers are still there…
Oh, for those of you who give 4 – 5 stars, you think that Y!A system is good, but it’s not… The system is the total waste of time. No appeals read, no problems solved… Those people have the disgusted mind to say that there is no “Y!A crisis”.
For those of you who give 1 – 3 stars, I believe you know there are loopholes in the Y!A system. It’s indeed the total GARBAGE due to unresponsive Community Moderation. We would rather make our own reporting army and show that our side is better than the Community Moderation. Sorry about this Y!A, but this is true.
* Edit *
And really, I don’t give this garbage change.. Y!A Team is really posting such orphaned news about the system that they will handle the situation, but they won’t. Complaint, complaint, complaint!
Please give this blog the 1-2 star if you believe Y!A Team is not even making the single process in helping out the community.
As many others have already pointed out, questions/answers clearly in flagrant violation of the guidelines remain even if they’re reported, while questions/answers not so clearly in violation are promptly removed, with nary an explanation as to why other than a link to the guidelines. This is based on the highly shaky assumption that the guidelines are applied in a consistent, coherent, and transparent way. This just in: they aren’t – not even close.
There should be a button for REPORTING A USER since not always the account gets deleted (I’m not talking about spam bots- but more of accounts that are clearly of the same person “boosting” another account’s best answer precentege).
I love this system
I reported a post only once and it was about someone posting a racist comment as a question. It was removed in 5 minutes!
so if you appeal and you get an idiot moderator who does not know the rules, you lose an additional 10 points for appealing?
trust me there are a few moderators that you have working at yahoo who can not read the community guidelines, and i have had to appeal decisions made by your appeal process…
I would like to see a badge given to “trusted reporters” or something just like the “top contributor” badges…since so many people seem to LOVE to have the TC badges on their profiles… it seem there would be a much larger population of Y/A diligently policing the content on here in order for them to get that badge of honor…and in turn this would make Y/A better imo.
More often then not, a question might be removed out of pure bias. I think that somebody moderating should investigate and verify or reject the content at question BEFORE points are removed.
This is going to be problem for people who post humorous responses.
Not all of them really fit as spam or trolling.
Now could you fix the code that suggests questions for you to answer, so it doesn’t keep suggesting questions that got deleted days ago!
I too feel that CM isn’t working anymore. I, like one of the commenters below, used to be a “Top Reporter”, I know the community guidelines sideways and most of what I reported was gone within a matter of moments. Over the last 4 days, I’ve reported over 40 questions and answers which violate CG or are potentially illegal, and NOTHING out of those reports has been acted on.
For Heaven’s sake, get out of bed, put your suits on and go do some work instead of expecting us to do it.
Thank you,
Can’t see how this is going to stop anything. From what I have seen, most of the people that post questions that go against the guidelines do not care about points. They create account after account simply to troll with questions. What is losing points mean to them?
The reporting system is flawed. I know many users that do not report abuse(even if it is valid), if they don’t think anyone else is reporting, as they don’t want to see their standing as a reputable reporter decrease. Major violations get reported, but minor one’s remain unaffected.
The problem is that YOU [the community] can’t deal with this situation.. The violating questions and answers are still there…
Oh, for those of you who give 4 – 5 stars, you think that Y!A system is good, but it’s not… The system is the total waste of time. No appeals read, no problems solved… Those people have the disgusted mind to say that there is no “Y!A crisis”.
For those of you who give 1 – 3 stars, I believe you know there are loopholes in the Y!A system. It’s indeed the total GARBAGE due to unresponsive Community Moderation. We would rather make our own reporting army and show that our side is better than the Community Moderation. Sorry about this Y!A, but this is true.
Please rate 1 – 3 stars if you believe you agree with me.
..and Y!A team, don’t delete the comments just because you think you find ‘em spamming.
In the first two days when the rule was applied, my account was deducted at least 30 points each day even I did not violate the rules ! Points means nothing to me but I wonder if it leads to my account suspension! And I don’t have a chance to ask for an appeal since I did not receive even an email telling me why my answears were deleted ! Then after those two days they could not delete anything anymore, right? Those communists in Y!Vietnam alsways do that to other members ! Thank you very much for making them no more power to delete whatever they want! Not only that but yahoo admin (Vietnam) suspended a lot of members’ accounts but keep spammers’ accounts there! That’s terrible ! I hope they could not do that to anybody anymore!
Thank you for reading
Sincerely,
Jessica T
What a load of horse manure! I reported someone for an answer that called me a dyke, said he hoped my whole family died in a car crash, and on top of that, did not answer the question, and despite writing to YA twice, the answer was not removed. Apparently nobody else reported it, but why should something that vile need to reported more than once? (BTW, I had not asked the question, I had only given an answer that this guy didn’t like.)
I’m glad to know that Yahoo is taking their own community guidelines seriously. People that abuse the guidelines, especially when they are posting inaccurate sources of information and insulting other people.
This really does nothing at all. I highly doubt that anyone from Yahoo! is even reading these comments, these are full of top-notch suggestions and pleas for help and what’s happening?
They get ignored.
The moderation is behaving like useless police.
The next change that needs to be made: We need a button that we can click when reporting spam that signals “THIS PERSON IS A MULTIPLE SPAMMER. ALL THEIR REPLIES SHOULD BE DELETED”. If we see a spam reply, and notice that the account is new and that they’ve posted 15 comments in the past five minutes, chances are very good that all 15 of those comments are the same identical spam. Why should we reporters have to individually hunt down and report all 15 instances separately? Especially since, while we’re doing that, the spammer is posting another five or ten spam replies?
Hey, what about those questions that are deleted before they’ve even been posted, like the one I tried to post asking for advice on building a Deck with the cards I own, but was blocked automatically for some reason?
This creates even more issues with members’ accounts being suspended after many questions or answears were deleted by some sick guys, how could we file more than ten appeals to yahoo staffs everyday?! This is terrible !
I also aggree with Lienna about this problems happening in Y! Vietnam==>”Why don’t people who falsely report answers be charged 10 points for reporting an answer if the answer they reported is put back up? I see reporter trolls all of the time reporting perfectly ok answers just because they disagree with the answer, particularly in the politics and religion sections.
Comment posted on February 24th, 2012 at 1:59 pm by Lienna
I definitely agree with 10 point deductions for malicious reporters.
Just a few minutes ago, a question I asked about joining an iPhone app was reported. And deleted.
Seriously? That doesn’t even make sense.
I was just innocently asking how to register on an app.
I could contest my case, but it would probably just lose me tons more points.
Ideally Yahoo! should induce a system where in order to report something, you must specify the text you find offensive/violative of the rules.
It does not address the real problem of people ganging up to target other members.
I commonly report answers for Spam, would that increase or decrease rep?
Common examples are people Not answering the question at all, personal opinions on the question (with no answer), or answering in a way that I stated in the question as an answer that would not be helpful and that I did not want.
“94% of reports are correct” means you only uphold the violations on 6% of what is reported.
To be fair, I did have a question deleted when it wasn’t violating anything. I found out rather late, long after the appeal time was up. I appealed anyways, mostly because I just wanted my 10 points back… not sure if I got my points back, but I did get the question back. Within like a day or something.
Too late, I use answerbag. This is still good for kids though.
who the hell cares about the points, the reality is community moderation DOES NOT WORK … actual moderators are needed for this site to be anything but a joke … AND NO, YAHOO, I HAVE NOT ALREADY SAID THIS BUT I BET HUNDREDS OTHERS HAVE !!!
After reading this all I can say is Y! has just said, let’s give more power to the trollers/false reporters and punish people more so.
I have tested the system when I had appealed to a few questions by asking to clarify why I was reported not just for what I was reported for and a seperate time I asked if they would address the response to my full name which I typed in. I noticed that even in the appeal being denied with requested information, I was given the same genaric info- only one other time was I actually given a different answer, but it still resembled a standard cut and paste answer.
This also doesn’t solve many other issues that is created by false reports such as the question now being delayed to the point that it will not receive an answer or the answer will be removed so long that they lose the chance to be elected as the best answer- and I have seen answers removed that were the only correct answer to the question then the best answer that is selected by user (haven’t seen by votes) leans to the right answer but is a far cry from being correct.
I forgot to add something…
The last problem with the appeal system is the heavy limit to how many letters you are allowed to use to appeal with. The number might be fine if the person knew what to appeal against, but since they don’t, they have to defend the entire item that was reported. If the item reported is long- you have no way to defend it all.
Wonderful, now people will report other people for no reason other than to piss them off AND make them lose a few points.
Seriously, there have been a lot of cases like that, where the user reports because of jealousy or whatever, and the staff just deletes the answer / question then and there without looking said question / answer over at all.
* Copy and paste this if you believe that there is the total loophole in the rules. *
The problem is that YOU [the community] can’t deal with this situation.. The violating questions and answers are still there…
Oh, for those of you who give 4 – 5 stars, you think that Y!A system is good, but it’s not… The system is the total waste of time. No appeals read, no problems solved… Those people have the disgusted mind to say that there is no “Y!A crisis”.
For those of you who give 1 – 3 stars, I believe you know there are loopholes in the Y!A system. It’s indeed the total GARBAGE due to unresponsive Community Moderation. We would rather make our own reporting army and show that our side is better than the Community Moderation. Sorry about this Y!A, but this is true.
Please rate 1 – 3 stars if you believe you agree with me.
..and Y!A team, don’t delete the comments just because you think you find ‘em spamming.
Congrats in the attempt to make a more trust worthy system:
There are 3 categories that should include different deduction consideration:
Gross 15 point – racist/sexual discrimination/promoting illegal activities like: scoring sex trade workers/drugs/hacking/promoting hate/ and bothering people/point someone to do something harmful/destroy property etc.
Careless 7 point – typing garbage eg:
jhsdahkgjdlkgahd$&$*&&$*&
-swearing/
-should make a point to make at least one full sentence
- someone stating “I don’t know, I dunno, I don’t know are not accepted…people ask a question…if you truly don’t know then don’t post!
- saying something technical that is not normally right and cause computer damage
Honest mistake 3 points:
mis-quote for say wrong horsepower, specs that are a little off//or like stating something that is solid fact when is not but is a little off
There are freedom of speech sometimes, and the right to express oneself. That people in their own mind experienced a situation that worked for them and my not necessarily work for another.
While I’m glad to see the team working to combat the report abuse, I don’t believe this will be enough.
The users who are abusing the report are using multiple accounts to give themselves points. They wont care about losing 10, because they have so many accounts it doesn’t matter to them.