Did you know that on average, 10% of questions are in tie-breaker status at any given time on Yahoo! Answers? And, at any given moment, there are literally millions of questions open on Answers?

For many members, it’s easy to get swept up in the “Ask” and “Answer” flow as you watch the steady stream of answers that come in when you ask a great question. But then the tough part comes: picking a Best Answer! How do you choose?

If you’re looking for a few tips on how to pick your next Best Answer, here are a few taken straight from our community:

• “To put it simply, I go with the one that is the most useful or the least useless. I do notice the number of thumbs-ups and downs the answer gets, and I use that and the level/BA percentage of an answerer to determine whether or not I should trust the answerer, but the main deciding factor is what I think of the answer itself. A concise but comprehensive explanation beats a long drawn-out half off topic lecture.” – Luigi
• However, “According to the specification of the question I read carefully and I compare it to the other questions, I make sure their answers make sense and have more clear explanations. Not always the thumbs up are right and this person can be wrong, So I read & understand before I give my best answer…8)” – “Evo_Raptor”
• “[…] If there are two equally good answers, I choose the one with better grammar, punctuation, and spelling.” – *Sombra*
• “I pick Best Answer by re-reading through all the answers again from my question. Then pick the one that was the most helpful, informative, and the answerer was polite while giving me the information I needed.” – Future Pet Vet
• “Whoever has clearly spent the most time answering the question and not just put silly 1 word answers or sarcastic comments. Also, if i believe the answer is 100% true.” – Craig and Charlie

Even with tips like these, picking a best answer can be tough—and for many Answers community members, it becomes so tough, questions go unresolved and end up in tie-breaker status.

But for those of you who enjoy helping the undecided pick a Best Answer, be sure to check out the Answers TieBusters group—a group dedicated to clearing the backlog of undecided questions found on Answers: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Yah00AnswersTieBusters/

All in all, remember: If you asked a question, choose a Best Answer! Otherwise your question may end up in Answers limbo, and you may never give someone the joy of earning a Best Answer!

• Once your question is open for business, you can always add details. Just hover your mouse over the “edit” section under your question to more fully explain the scope of your question and what type of help you are asking for..

• Instead of asking the same question again, why not give the community more time to answer? You have the option to extend the expiration of your question by four days — plenty of time to increase your chance at getting the answer you are looking for. Since your question is initially given four days to be resolved, extending it means eight days to get an answer. At the end of the eight days, you will either have to pick a Best Answer or put your question up for voting. You will not be able to extend it any further. (Updated)

• If your question expires without an answer, it will disappear. If you just don’t see a great answer and your question goes to a vote (and the No Best Answer option is chosen as best) , you will recover the 5 points and you can post it again. However, think before asking again. Did you provide enough details? Was the question written clearly? Try to give your potential answerers as much background information as they’ll need! (Updated)

And finally, pick the best answer. It’s a great way to reward the person who took time to give a brilliant response to your question. Who doesn’t love a pat on the back from time to time?

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.

What’s the difference between polling and chatting?

Polling questions such as “Who do you think will win the election?” or “What kind of decorations do you put on a Christmas tree?” are OK. Advice-seeking and knowledge-worthy questions are more than welcome on the site.

On the other hand, questions such as “What’s your name?”, “Am I pretty?”, “Vote for the best above/below avatar,” or any sort of avatar games, name games, guessing games, truth or dare, trolling games, etc., violate the Community Guidelines and should be reported as abuse. We also consider questions that call out other users by name to be chatting. If you want to chat with another user, please use instant messaging or send email to that user. Yahoo! Groups is another great social networking resource, and a quick search on Yahoo! will point you in the direction of plenty of avatar and other game sites.

If you want to ask a follow-up question in response to someone else’s question and that person is not available via email or IM, post a new question that’s open to everyone in the community to answer—there might be someone else who’s better equipped to answer it.

How do I report chatting and gaming questions/answers?

Go to the page where the abusive question or answer appears, and click “Report Abuse.” To report abuse that does not appear directly in the question or answer (such as harassment, obscene avatars, etc.), you can still click “Report Abuse” 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—we will remove the abusive content.

When people use Answers to chat with each other, it lowers the quality of the site and defeats the knowledge-sharing purpose of the site. By sticking to the guidelines and reporting abuse, we can all make Yahoo! Answers an informative and enjoyable place to be.

As you probably know, our Community Guidelines exist to explain our daily moderation on the site, and also to help you form better questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers. Let’s look at some golden rules that will help improve your experience by increasing your chances of getting even better results:

1. Start your question with “who,” “why,” “how,” etc.: Formulate your question in a clear, straightforward way. This will help your question stand out to visitors who can share their knowledge and answer some questions. Make it easier for them to find yours!
Example: How can I solve a Rubik’s cube?

2. Use correct spelling (avoid SMS or texting language) in your questions: Correct spelling and grammar help people understand your questions. You’ll get better answers when others can clearly make out what you’re asking.
Example: “Who da actress dat plays Monica’s BFF…” should be “Who is the actress that plays Monica’s best friend…”

3. Open the debate (politely!): Remember, we’re a diverse community of people with differing opinions. Feel free to introduce your point of view with constructive thoughts or examples, or compare your vision with another’s personal experiences. And by citing sources, using quotation marks, and including hyperlinks, you make the community stronger and better informed.

4. Categorize your question in the proper place: Placing your question in the right category helps make it more visible to the people who can give you the best information and most accurate answers.

5. Respect other members and the opinions they post—do not target specific users: With a community this large, expect to find opinions that are different from yours. Everyone wants to be treated with dignity. Showing respect to others makes the community better for all of us. Don’t ask or answer questions about another member—let’s not engage in gossip. We’re here to share knowledge!

And remember, it’s always a good idea to search first to check if the question that’s on your mind has already been asked.

For more information, check our Community Guidelines or Help pages. Feel free to share other helpful hints with the community by leaving a comment below.

How can I become a Top Contributor?

With a little dedication, you too can earn a Top Contributor badge. Check out Answers and pick categories in which you have the most expertise (you can be a Top Contributor in up to three categories). Answering questions in the most informative way will increase your chances of getting the Best Answer–and the more you actively participate, the better your chances of earning a Top Contributor badge. Remember that the Top Contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent participation in a particular category. If you stop participating, you will lose your badge. To recover your badge, you have to increase your activity in a specific category again.

Most community members on the Answers Leaderboard happen to be Top Contributors. The Leaderboard allows you to see who’s in the lead and what their stats are. It’s updated every week. Who knows? With a little work, you might make it there, too!

Keep in mind that while sharing what you know is encouraged, it is also important to make sure you don’t share anything that puts your answer in violation of the Community Guidelines.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

How does Community Moderation work?

Before:

Any user could report abusive content on Answers. A Yahoo! employee then reviewed the report and decided whether to keep or to delete the content. This system is still in place.

Now:

Thanks to Community Moderation, our efforts to control abusive content on Answers have greatly increased. Once a report is submitted to Yahoo!, Community Moderation measures the reputation of both the reporter and the person being reported. The system then determines whether it can remove the reported item directly from the site based on community input or whether further review is needed.

How does the reputation system work?

You must be very familiar with the Community Guidelines in order to become one of our trusted Answers users. As you develop a better idea about what’s acceptable on Answers and begin to report content, you will build a good reputation and gain influence. The more accurate your reporting, the higher your reputation will become.

However, if you abuse Community Moderation, your reputation will suffer. With a low reputation, your power to report and remove potential abuse will be reduced, which could result in a suspension.

The community is very important to the Answers team. Without it, the site is nothing, so we have set up protection mechanisms to filter out specific targeting of one user by another. Similarly, the system promotes accurate reporters, giving them more influence.

How does the appeal system work?

Although very effective, Community Moderation is not perfect. Incorrect reports will occasionally happen and some users will find their content erroneously deleted. If your question or answer is reported, we’ll send you an email stating that it has been removed. If you feel that the system was mistaken, first read the Community Guidelines to double-check. If you still think there’s a strong case, click the “Appeal” link in the email to submit an appeal. This will be reviewed by a Yahoo! employee. If we agree, your question or answer will reappear on Answers, and whoever reported you will have less influence when they report abuse in the future.

We highly encourage you to appeal if you’ve read the Community Guidelines and are sure your content has been removed in error. If your appeal is successful, not only will your content be reinstated, but also your reputation will be boosted and those that reported you will lose influence. Of course, we would advise you not to appeal for the sake of appealing, either. If your content truly deserved to be deleted, it is very unlikely we will put it back on the site just because you’ve appealed.

How do I report spam content?

Easy! Report an abuse and indicate that it’s spam. You might remember that we used to ask you to report spam on the forum. The Community Moderation system is faster and will help you improve your reputation if you report correctly, so reporting spam using the “Report abuse” button is beneficial for everyone.

That’s our update on how Community Moderation works. We hope you found this helpful!

What do I need to know?

The Community Guidelines and the Terms of Service (TOS) are good places to start. They contain the rules and guidelines we must all adhere to as members of the Answers community.You can find links to them at the bottom of all Yahoo! Answers pages. If you are about to post something,but are not sure if it violates the Community Guidelines, you can double-check from that handy link.

Where do I go if I want to make an appeal?

If your content has been deleted and -after reading the Community Guidelines and the TOS – you think it was a mistake, click the “appeal” link that appears in the notification email and explain why the content should not have been taken down. We’ll be happy to review it!

What if I don’t know how to do something?

We have created the Help pages for that reason. You can find information about how to use Answers and its various features. Just browse the categories to find what you’re looking for.

If you cannot find an answer to your question in Help, go to the Forum  or to the Yahoo! Answers category. This category was especially created for you to ask the community about things you don’t know how to do. The community is always happy to help, and the most experienced members are eager to share their knowledge.

How can I be the first to know about what’s happening on Answers?

The blog is your place. You’ll find the latest news, tips, and other interesting topics from the Answers community. Subscribe via the RSS feed and never miss another post.

How do I provide feedback?

There are a few avenues: Post a comment to the blog, go to the Forum, or make a suggestion on the form linked from the “Tell us what you think” link at the bottom of each page. We will be happy to review your ideas for improving Answers!

Yahoo! Answers connects people to the information they’re seeking with those who know it. Everyone has life experience and knowledge about something, and Yahoo! Answers provides a way for people to share their experience and insight.

Like any other community, we have a core set of principles that must be followed by all members. Some of those core principles are: sharing what you know, being courteous, and asking clear questions. Examples of unacceptable behavior include: ranting, hate speech, cheating, behaving maliciously, and chatting. If you want to participate in Answers, we ask that you abide by the Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service.

While chatting seems innocuous in comparison to more-obvious offenses, we discourage it because it doesn’t add to the intent of the site: to share quality knowledge. Answers was never meant to function as a chat room or forum. There are other outlets (like Yahoo! Groups) that are ideal for this type of social networking, and we hope you’ll channel your inner chat into these more-appropriate venues.

Still unsure about what’s considered chat? Here are a few examples to help clear up the confusion:

Chatty: “Do you like my poem?”

Better: “How can I improve my poem?”

Chatty: “Do you like my avatar?”

Better: “How do I make my avatar look more fun or attractive?”

The Guidelines weren’t created as a cloaked attempt to exercise ultimate universal power over Answers members—really. They’re meant to provide commonsense ground rules so we all know what to expect inside the Yahoo! Answers community. That’s not such a bad thing, is it?

Instead of having to report abuse, wouldn’t you much rather see it prevented in the first place?

UPDATE: Just to clarify, it’s fine to be conversational within your actual question or answer.

Previously, we tried to gently persuade aspiring pollsters to use alternatives for burning questions about who has the prettiest avatar. Now let us be a little more direct: Do not play avatar games on Yahoo! Answers—it is a violation of the Community Guidelines. Why is it a violation? Because it’s considered chat.

According to the guidelines, examples of chat include:

• How are you today?
• What are you doing?
• Do you like my avatar?

See? It’s right there in the guidelines, so there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind—avatar games (including “Vote for the best above/below” avatar questions) do not belong in Yahoo! Answers and should be reported as abuse. More appropriate chat and game outlets are Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Games, and Yahoo! Messenger.

We really want Answers to be an informative, engaging, and enjoyable place to be. By sticking to the guidelines, we hope to foster an environment everyone can live with and learn from.

OK, lecture time is over.