Yahoo! Answers

On Yahoo! Answers, there are lots of ways to receive recognition for hard work, quality Answers, and interesting Questions—they take can take the shape of thumbs up, stars, or Best Answers– these are all controlled by you, the Answers community.

In addition to this, Yahoo! Answers also has something called the “Best of Answers” module. This rotating module featured on the Answers homepage showcases some of the quirky and interesting content that we come across on the Answers site. Typically this content is handpicked by a combination of Yahoo! Answers team members and editorial team members who surf the site looking for interesting questions that might pique your interest.

In addition to the “Best of Answers” module, every so often, a question from Answers is also featured on the Front Page of Yahoo—visible to literally millions of Yahoo! users in a single day.

We know that each day, each of you, come across potentially hundreds of interesting, quirky, and fantastic questions that YOU consider “the best of Answers”—so we want to see them!

What’s the catch, and what are the rules?

• Questions must have been asked and answered within the last 3 months – freshness matters!
• No questions containing profanity, obscenity, relating to sex, alcohol, etc.
• Questions must follow the Community Guidelines
• Answers should be thorough and complete and should NOT be plagiarized. Here’s an example of a good question and answer: Is eating the inside of an orange peel good for you?
  
• Question and answer should be relatively free from typos and grammatical errors

What do I get if my question is picked?

If we select your question and feature it on either the Yahoo! Front Page or in the “Best of Answers” module, we’ll award whoever suggested the question to us, 100 extra points on Answers.

Ok, so where do I submit my questions?

Think you have a winner on your hands? Submit your questions to us via email at: y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com

If we select your question, we’ll send you an email notifying you that your question has been selected and you should see the bonus points in your account shortly.

We can’t wait to see what types of questions you send our way, so start searching the site, scouring your watchlist, and sharing your favorites with the team!

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Photo by Fox Fairy

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s “Will you design my Valentine?” competition. We had 400 answers to our question, over a hundred comments on our blog post, and several entries to our Flickr pool. While you’re all winners in our book, we unfortunately had to pick just a few from the hundreds of submissions.

Each winner received an extra 100 points for their loving contributions to Answers.

Check out the the sweethearts and sweet tarts below.

Best Answer to the featured question: Without looking it up, why do we celebrate Valentine’s day? And, what are your plans for Valentine’s day?

Without looking it up, I thought it was St. Valentine’s feast day, but I’m not sure why the connection to love.

Valentine’s Day is very very special to me because three years ago on Yahoo! 360 on Valentine’s Day I met the Love of My Life. It was a pretty amazing day for that to happen, and he’s a pretty amazing man. We met in person for the first time a few months later and our relationship has continued to grow stronger since that time. In fact, we’re planning on getting married this year.

This year we had hoped to be able to celebrate our 3rd anniversary together, but unfortunately it was not possible. We’ll probably be celebrating Valentine’s Day a month later with a lovely dinner out, some dancing, and lots of love.

The actual day we’ll be online on YM and talking as much as possible. It’s the way we stay in touch every day that has allowed our love and commitment to stay so strong. We even have online dates, watching a movie or visiting an interesting site together. Most of all we have fun.
Source(s):
My lovely life. — Christy

Special congratulations to  ^haPpily\(^.^)/ DiSturbed^ for her winning photo, featured above!

Sweetest love notes and poetry from the blog:

“Roses are red violets are blue yet I am consumed by thoughts of you.” — doodieman

“Love is something that can be unspoken or sweet,
I can be hidden and secret,
Love is a mystery that has no clue,
It is an answer to every riddle,
And it holds the key to what I want most.

Love is something that makes my heart skip a beat,
I know loved you since we first met,
Love is what I want to give to you.”  — Minivera

Random bits of humor:

“Roses are red,Violets are blue,
how about you stop letting
the trolls run Answers for you?”–  Once Again,Hoof Hearted

Valentines with a little sass:

Since My Valentine Got A Computer

“Since my Valentine got a computer
My love life has taken a hit.
Nothing I say is important
Unless it’s a byte or a bit.

Before she got her new laptop,
Everything was just fine;
Now she says we can’t talk
Unless we both go online.

“But honey,” I said, “I’m attached to you;
Love is what I feel.”
“That keyword isn’t relevant,”
She said, with eyes of steel.

She clicked the keyboard furiously;
The screen was all she could see,
And then to my horror and shame,
She started describing me:

“Your motherboard needs upgrading;
Your OS needs help, too.
And you definitely need a big heatsink
To cool your CPU.”

“Don’t flame me, my sweet,” I pleaded.
“Not on Valentine’s Day.”
“Fix the bugs, and I’ll see,” she said,
While looking at me with dismay.

“What ever you want, my darling;
Whatever you need; you call it.
I’ll upload or download anything,
And then I’ll go install it.”

(Her hostile CD keeps replaying,
And though I don’t want to fight her,
Is this what I want for a Valentine?
I’ve been burned; can I rewrite her?)

“Are you all hard drive now,” I asked
“Is there no software in you?
Don’t you remember the good times?
Let our memories see us through.”

“LOL,” she said to me, chuckling.
“You’re nothing but adware.
“I’ve got four gigs of memory;
I’ve got no problem there.”

“Please, honey, we can save it,” I said.
“Our love means more than that.”
“That’s not in my cache; we’re going to crash,”
She said, as she turned me down flat.

(This woman has really changed;
Do I really want to chase her?
More and more I’m thinking
It might be nice to erase her.)

“Aw, honey, don’t talk like that,” I said.
“Can’t we just plug and play?
I hereby accept default,
And I’m yours, my love, come what may.

My goal is to make you happy;
I want to be your portal,
But your sudden, distant coldness
Would test the strongest mortal.

If we need a brand new interface,
So we can FTP,
I’m your go along, get along guy,
And I want you to stay with me.”

“If you want to get into my favorites,” she said,
And you want to get past my encryption,
If you want to get through my firewall,
Here is my only prescription.”

“First, put up your own Web site,
And e-mail me when it’s done.
I’ll check your page rank with Google,
And tell you if you’re the one.”

My life has become a real trial,
Since my Valentine got a computer.
If I want her to care about me again,
I guess I’ll have to reboot her.

By Joanna Fuchs” — Vanessa

“for those valentine dreaders:
roses are red, violets are blue, love stinks, and so do you” — emogal_999

“What is the point of Valentine’s Day?
It truly makes me shudder.
Couples conversing, too sappy and sweet,
Giving wet kisses to one another.

What is the point of Valentine’s Day?
I think it’s all just a scam.
Wal-Mart sells pink fluff and chocolate hearts
To men who would usually get Spam.

What is the point of Valentine’s Day?
Why do we remember it so?
Nobody died on February 14th.
At least, not that I know!” — Curious

Thanks again to everyone who participated, and we hope you have a fantastic Valentine’s Day! Be sure to check out our latest question and let us know– on Valentine’s Day, can your date count as your gift?

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Photo by istorija

It’s the time of the year when the stores become flooded with shoppers and families begin to gather to start celebrating the holidays. While many of us are lucky to have friends and family near to celebrate with, it’s important to remember that there are many who are less fortunate.

This holiday season, ask yourself how you can not only spread goodness to the ones you love, but throughout your community:

• Can you donate a toy to Toys For Tots or similar local toy drive?
• Do you have a few extra cans of food in your cupboard that you won’t eat? Why not drop them off at a local food bank ?
• Do you have a few extra hours to spare? Try volunteering at a local community center, soup kitchen, children’s center, or hospital.
• Donate blood– 1 pint of blood can save up to 3 lives. Learn more
• Lend a hand to a local animal shelter (or donate blankets, towels, or pet food)

Sites like “Volunteer Match” are great resources in pairing up volunteers with their interests—and, making them fun.

And, if you want to share your goodness with the world, you can share your “purple acts of kindness” with the world by posting them on http://kindness.yahoo.com –  here, you’ll also find links to the Global Giving project and the DonorsChoose project.

So with all of these resources at your fingertips, what gift do you plan on giving your community this holiday season?

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This year, Yahoo! Answers has seen its fair share of questions and answers—you’ve covered everything under the sun—from questions about current events such as “balloon boy” to Michael Jackson’s death to everyday questions about culture to tackling tough questions about the economy and unemployment.

We’ve gone through some of the best (and quirkiest) content on Answers to create this year’s highlight book. (Review last year’s here) This year’s e-book contains 12 questions from Answers users, just like you, that showcase some of the unique questions and answers you’ll find on Yahoo! Answers- as well as a few outstanding community members you might come across while perusing the site.

So view the book 2009 Highlights (9018) and explore some of the content found on Answers (this will prompt you to download a small PDF file).

Feeling inspired after checking out this year’s e-book and want to share your favorite question with the team? Send it our way! Shoot us an email with a link to your favorite question (and a quick note on why you selected it) to: y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com

Download the e-book here: 2009 Highlights (9018)

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“I won’t send a picture of myself since Answers is meant to be confidential but here is a picture of my great-grandfather taken in about 1908 because people say I look more like him every passing year.  He was then about the same age I am now.”

Every so often we come across Answers users who are so wonderful we have to share them with you all as a Featured User. So meet Victor: author and expert contributor with a nearly 70% Best Answer percentage who’s been with us since spring ‘06. Why did he join? He saw someone write that recession and inflation were the same thing. And when someone else answered that the French Revolution came before American Independence, well, he had to step in. Answers has been the better for it ever since.

Some great Answers by Victor:

• How did Napoleon’s downfall lead to his death?
• How long is it going to take for the economy to completely fail?
• What does the expression ‘economies of scale’ pertain to?
• Was the enlightenment period a positive or negative influence on Europe?
• In Physics why does equation E = MC2 use the square function?

Get more Best Answers from Victor…

Meet Victor…

Yahoo! Answers Team: What do you enjoy about answering?

Victor: “Two parts to it.  First, I like to think that my answers are interesting and may be helpful for someone who needs to know.  Secondly, it’s a kind of competition with myself: how much do I know about this subject that I can write down? I’m willingly ignorant about some things and wouldn’t ever answer on those, but some subjects are very close to my head and heart, and I stick to those.”

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?  Where are you based?

“I spend about half the year in South London and the rest at Igatpuri, Maharashtra, India because my wife is Indian and there is a big family there.  Although I’ve worked in education and the Civil Service, I’m self employed now, so I can find work in both places and India is nicer than UK between November and April.  At this moment, therefore, I’m at Igatpuri which is 19 deg N of the Equator and about 73 deg E of London.”

You seem to answer in some quite diverse categories, such as history, economics and mathematics – can you explain a little about your interest in these areas?

“I went to university in the early 1960s and studied mathematics and economics, and then did a Masters 15 years later in management sciences [maths in business and engineering].  I’ve written books on these subjects.  However, my real intellectual love is history and I’ve studied that formally and informally since childhood – but you can’t make a living from it!  I did a minor in my BA in history, especially the development of government and democracy in Europe and N America.  As you see, I’ve a big interest in a range of subjects and special knowledge is some of them.”

Does work, education or your own personal experiences inform your choice answering?

“Mostly, I answer from personal knowledge or from academic research interests.  If a question is about business, management or government then I can answer from experience, and the same goes for maths and economic theory.  History involves judgement as well as knowledge and I try to bring both into my answers.  For a time, some weeks ago, I was a Top Contributor in History but then that status was removed.  I don’t know why or if the removal indicates something I’ve done wrong.”

Can you tell me more about where you live (some of the year) in India?

“Igatpuri, to be honest, has been a rail station and truck stop until this past 5 years. Now it’s a boom town because of the dual carriageway highway from Mumbai to Nashik, and the opening of the big Mahindra diesel engine plant. The town is a pilgrimage centre because of the Vipissanar meditation centre and ashram, and the old temple of Ghatendevi (goddess of the mountain).  Attached are two images with names to indicate which is which.  The elephant statues at Ghatendevi are carved out of wood and covered in stucco, which is whitened each year.”

“The town is located at about 1300 metres (4400 ft) above sea level and the mountains behind the town rise to about 1900 metres (6000 ft).  Igatpuri is in the Nashik District of Maharashtra, which is the centre of the Indian wine-making industry and produces some very fine vintages, similar in style to California and some Australian types.  See, for example www.tigerhillvineyards.com.”

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