Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Goodies and baddies exist everywhere, even in cyberspace… Occasionally Answers has fallen victim to copy-cat users, those who pretend to be a celebrity or a member of the Yahoo! Answers team. They create confusion within the community as to who is genuine and who isn’t. Fear not, to make it easier we’ve created special labels that appear underneath a user’s avatar; the STAFF and OFFICIAL badges.

So, what’s the deal with these badges and when are they used?

The official badge is shown when we have a special feature and display a question from a celebrity. Currently, we have Mark Butcher asking about how to get a batsman out in cricket and his badge is proudly displayed beneath his picture. It is there to provide reassurance that this is the real Mark Butcher and not an imitator.
Similarly, the Staff badge is displayed whenever the Answers team answer or post a question on the site. You may remember, a few months ago, we asked a question about cooking the perfect boiled egg and the staff badge can be seen clearly on that question page.

Distinguishing between the real and the fake is one step ahead, but spotting the possible imitators is where we need your help. If you see a user pretending to be a well known star or a member of Yahoo! Staff but do not see a badge, please email us at y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk. Alternatively, hit the ‘Report Abuse’ link on the question page and submit the abuse under ‘Impersonation or Cloning’.

Always remember, if you don’t see it – don’t believe it!

– Yahoo! Answers UK & Ireland team

“If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?”

The US television show host Oprah Winfrey is asking Answerers to share how they would help out a perfect stranger if given the opportunity. This question comes from a recent show of hers where members of the audience were given $1,000, a video camera, and one week to complete this task. The act had to be selfless, which for many people is the first of many hurdles in this process.

While Oprah’s scenario is intriguing, I feel that we are presented with ways to help benefit people we don’t know without personal gain every day – it’s just up to us to seize the opportunity. From helping people across the road, giving up a seat on public transport to those in need of it, or even push-starting a strangers car when they have engine troubles there are many simple ways to help people out without sacrificing our own time or money.

With Christmas coming, charity and goodwill are the themes of the season, but many people have distrust towards helping complete strangers. Indeed, if helping someone else out on the street it is imperative to ensure your own safety first. But where possible remember the theme of the season and take a moment out from your busy life to help someone out – it doesn’t always require money to help someone.

Have you ever helped anyone else in need, without any benefit or reward? Share your experiences with us. We will put together some of your better answers and review your responses over the next few weeks.

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Many of your experiences of managing emails tally with our new research that reveals a scary new trend – Britons are becoming ‘PC potatoes’, glued to their inboxes in a bid to wade through hundreds of emails every day.  The stats speak from themselves with up to 90% of email users spending the equivalent of 59 days a year managing their inbox.

We hope you’re not one of them! Find out (if you dare) by taking the quiz “What kind of emailer are you?”

We’ve recruited a top sports psychologist to re-train these PC potatoes and improve their email performance. That’s why we’ve come up with the Yahoo! Mail Championships – the email equivalent to the Olympics!

Practise in the training rooms, tone and hone your skills, and when you’re ready to compete enter the Mail Championships for a chance to win a luxury break in Barcelona!

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Mail team

We often see questions coming up on Answers around, what are the points for and what is the point of points?

You can see full details of the whole points system here, but we thought we’d go through it in more detail:

• There are two main points to points. Firstly, we want to encourage quality participation by awarding points. Secondly, we want to give everyone the ability to know thoughtful and dedicated contributors at a glance. You can generally assume that a Level 7 user is a valuable contributor to Answers.

• Additionally, by gaining points you can open up more features on Answers. For example, at Level 2 you gain the right to rate answers, and at each level increase up to Level 5 you gain the right to ask, answer and vote more times on a daily basis.

So how can you go about gaining more points?

• You gain points in Answers by answering questions, voting on the best answers to other people’s questions, and rating the quality of best answers that already have been chosen by others. Additionally you gain a point every time you visit Answers.

• Asking questions “costs” points: each question “costs” five points to ask, but you gain three of those points back when you choose the best answer. We imposed the “cost” when we noticed that some people were spewing out meaningless “questions” just for the sake of earning points, without any intention of picking the best answer. To allow everyone to ask a question from the outset, we give you a free 100 points just for signing up.

Here is the detailed pointage rundown:

So what do points make? Level increases of course!

On Answers, as you reach increasingly higher point totals, you’re rewarded with the status of being on “Level 2,” “Level 3,” and so forth. As you reach these levels you gain more privileges on Answers and special “thank you’s”!

Here are how many points you need to reach each level, and the daily maximum number of questions/answers/comments:

We hope this clarifies the need for points on Answers a little bit more, and if you have any suggestions how we can take this further, just add a comment to let us know.

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Ever dreamt of being a featured user? Of the prestige, the joy, the jealousy and the attention? You think you deserve it with your high percentage of best answers? Or even if you don’t have best answers, do you think your questions and answers deserve to get some attention because they are just extraordinary?

Imagine, people will tip their avatar’s virtual cap to your temporary majesty on Yahoo! Answers, and envy the attention you gain throughout the community of highly intelligent users. They will lust towards your jewel encrusted crown whilst you will be sitting on your throne, undefeatable for one entire week.

This honour is only given to a few, and if you want to be a part of the elite, you should get your fingers dancing, write some good answers (maintaining obviously the high standard you had before), get to level 5 or higher and once you believe you deserve it, email us: y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk

And maybe you could be one of the lucky few!
–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team