Yahoo! Answers

UPDATE: Maintenance was finished overnight and Answers is fully working again. Thanks for your patience!

We have some planned maintenance scheduled on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, from 1:00 a.m. PST (Pacific Standard Time).

Don’t worry though, there are heaps of other things to do on Yahoo! to fill your time! Here are a few ideas:

• Check out the all-new Yahoo! Frontpage.
• Watch a video on how the Yahoo! Frontpage was built at the Yahoo! Anecdotal blog.
• Want to know what your future holds? Get your August horoscope.
• Book a summer getaway through Yahoo! Travel.

We appreciate your patience while we complete this vital maintenance.

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The Yahoo! Answers team is excited to announce a small but significant change to the site. As of today, any URLs posted by Level 1 Answers members will not be linked.

It may seem like a trivial change, but it is an important step to limit spam on Answers. The site has used a points and levels system since its inception, which aims to promote activity and trust. By linking URLs only from community members who are Level 2 and above, we reward and protect our core contributors.

The removal of linking applies to any URL that begins with http:// (URLs that begin with www have never been linked, regardless of a user’s level). We understand that removing linking from Level 1 members’ URLs is not a complete or perfect solution, and we also realize that long URLs are being truncated, but we are working on further updates to improve this.

We’ve taken this action in response to clear feedback from the Answers community. Rest assured that this is just one of a number of initiatives we are implementing to limit spam on Answers. We hope it’s a small step toward making Answers a better place. We welcome your feedback on this change.

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Well, maybe not letters, but we do get a lot of email. And folks, while we do read them all, we regret that we can’t respond to each and every one. After all, you are part of a very large community-34 million* people visit Yahoo! Answers each month! While we appreciate the time you take to send us a message, it may not be the optimal way to resolve your particular issue. In fact, most of the requests that come through our inbox often could have been reported using existing methods that are faster and more efficient than sending us an email. So what’s the best way for you to contact someone on the Answers team? It depends on the situation.

We’ve put together a Q&A to help direct you to the right place, whether you’re offering a suggestion, flagging a bug, or reporting abuse. Using the proper channels for communication is the best (and fastest) way to get in touch with us. So here we go:

Q. Where can I report a bug or glitch?

A. Report any bugs or glitches you see on Yahoo! Answers on the Suggestion Board. But before posting it, please run a search to see if anyone has already reported the same issue.

Q. Can I report abuse on the Suggestion Board?

A. No, the Suggestion Board is not a place to report abuse and those posts will be removed. To tell us about any abuse you see on Answers, click “Report It” under the question or next to an answer. You can include any additional details in the text box provided. Remember, the Suggestion Board is a place for Answers users to:

• Share ideas for the product
• Get technical support
• Report bugs and problems

Note: Team Member Comments
When an Answers team member has responded to a suggestion, a purple “Y!” icon next to the comment and a green banner reading “Yahoo! Answers employees have reviewed this suggestion — thanks!” will appear.

Q. How do I report abuse on Yahoo! Answers?

A. To report content that violates the Answers Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, go to the page where the abusive question or answer appears, and click the “Report Abuse” button associated with it. To report abuse that does not appear in the question or answer (such as harassment, obscene avatars, etc.), you can still click the “Report Abuse” button and describe the abuse in the Additional Details box provided.

Once you’ve reported the violation, you’re done! There’s no need to email the team.

Q.  I reported someone for abuse and now I think I’m being targeted. What should I do?

A. The only way someone can find out whether you’ve reported them for abuse is if you say publicly that you did (for example, calling people out as trolls in your questions and answers, emailing or IMing them, or posting to their profiles publicly on message boards and forums). Whether or not your accusations are correct, calling people out publicly is disruptive to the community and does not help clean up the site. Instead, please report abusive questions and answers using the “Report Abuse” button. Trolls post inflammatory messages to see how others will react, so don’t encourage them by responding or by giving them extra attention.

Q. How do I report point-gaming and other behind-the-scenes abuse?

A. If you suspect someone of abusive behavior and it’s not apparent in their questions and answers, use the text box provided on the “Report Abuse” form and include details and links.

Q. I received a violation notice. Can I appeal?

A. Yes, you may appeal once. If you received a violation notice because Customer Care or the community removed your question or answer, and you feel you did not violate the Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, you must appeal using the link included in the notification. You can read more about Community Moderation here.

For additional tips and information not covered here, please check out the Yahoo! Help pages for Answers Help Topics and the Community Guidelines.

We appreciate our active and energetic community and we want to thank you all for your continued support and understanding.

* comScore, February 2009 (U.S. figures)

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Hello, everyone -

As many of you will have noticed over the last 24 hours, the scheduled maintenance work caused Answers to be both unavailable and to exhibit some unexpected behaviour when it returned. This essential engineering work needed to be completed and we’re happy to confirm this is now over.

We are aware, however, that during the time the site was unavailable we caused frustration and disappointment to many of you, our most committed and loyal Answers contributors. So we want to say that we’re sorry for the inconvenience we caused.

We have seen many of your comments about the maintenance work and we are happy to clarify that this will not affect any Top Contributor badges, Leaderboards, or any other features. We would also like to assure you that we only undergo this kind of work when it is truly necessary and intend to minimize any occurrences of this kind in the future.

Many thanks for your patience and understanding on this.

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Update: you may see strange behavior on the Answers site while we continue to work on the updates. For more on this, check out this thread on the forum:

http://suggestions.yahoo.com/?prop=answers&fid=0 

Hey, everyone-

Answers is undergoing some planned maintenance on Tuesday, April 14, starting at 12:30am PDT. We anticipate the work will take a number of hours, and Answers will be unavailable during that time. If there is any change to the schedule, we will inform you here with updates.

If you’re looking for something to do during the downtime, why not try some of these:

• Behold the wonder of the parrot on Flickr
• Plan your next vacation with Yahoo! Travel Guides
• Get up to date with Yahoo! News
• See what’s on TV

Thanks for your patience.

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