Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

 The team realises that this feature is long overdue, and we’ve been looking forward to this day for some time. Now it’s finally here, and you no longer need our help – you can block or unblock at will. Control over the visibility of your Q&A is now in your hands, and it’s easy to block trolls from your Answers experience and their content from showing up in your Answers experience. So, if anyone targets you on Answers, or posts content that you don’t want to see, add them to your Blocked User list.

How does it work?

You can block a user by either selecting Block User in their avatar rollover or by clicking on Block User on their profile page. Blocked users will not be able to view your Q&A or your Network on your public profile page. They will also be blocked from becoming your Fan. A list of Blocked users will appear on your private profile under the new Blocked Users tab, located next to your Contacts and Fans.

We will be reviewing the Blocked User lists, investigating people who have been blocked by multiple members of the community, and taking appropriate action on a regular basis. By blocking trolls, you are helping clean up Answers, and improve the Answers community.

What can I expect?

Our product team has asked us to point out that this is a Beta feature and is not 100% perfect yet, but they wanted to get this feature out to you as quickly as possible. You may experience some odd behavior while some minor tweaks to the system are made over the coming months. If you notice any erratic behaviour, or have suggestions about how to enhance this feature, please let us know in the suggestion forums.

This is just another step in our plan to fight trolls on Answers. A lot of work has been put into getting here, but we still have a lot of troll-fighting functionality in the works that we’ll roll out in the coming months.

[Update]

We’re Posting a Few Additional Updates

Answers has undergone a few more updates, we just thought you should know. Our Answers Network email notifications are being updated, so whenever a contact asks a question, you’ll now receive an email letting you know what they asked along with a link to their question – in case you have an answer to share, or know someone who may be able to help. Now, you no longer need to log in to see when one of your Contacts has asked a question.

We realize many of you have numerous contacts, so this new feature will default to “off” for all Answerers who have ten or more contacts as well as for those users who have opted out of fan notifications. You’ll be able to enable (or disable) this feature by clicking “Edit my info” in your Answers profile.

We are also updating our Advanced Search feature with new options to refine your searches. Now, you can ask search to find matches for all of your keywords (full matches), some of your keywords (partial matches), or for an exact phrase. You can also specify particular keywords you don’t want to match. In addition, you can now search within subcategories, and you can also save searches.

We hope you enjoy these updates and are looking forward to your feedback in the forums.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

 “Who should play in England’s first-choice midfield and why?”

– Paul Parker, former England player and Yahoo! Eurosport expert

May was a mad month for footie, with the end of a huge season – we saw Chelsea walk away with the FA Cup, Manchester United win the league, while AC Milan became the UEFA Champions League winners. But fear not – there’s never any shortage of football in this nation or on Answers. As all fans will be aware, today sees England clash with Estonia as they battle it out in their must-win qualifier match for Euro 2008.

To mark the occasion, we’ve got former England and Manchester United player Paul Parker on Answers. He’s asking you to jump in and have your say about which player would be best in England’s midfield. He is also sharing his views about today’s match in his latest article.

When talking about his own choice, Paul says: “I would go for a midfield quartet of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Owen Hargreaves, Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole… Gerrard has the capability to inspire others… Hargreaves makes the cut because he is the best holding midfielder… And with Cole and Wright-Phillips on the wings, England would have two natural wingers who both have enough skill and pace”.

Having only won half of their games so far, England are under pressure to find the best formation and overcome Estonia. A win will spare Steve McClaren from yet more criticism. His ability to manage the team has been making headlines of late and has got keen footie fans wondering, who can do the job better?

As well as McClaren, another big name that’s been causing a stir in the sporting world recently is David Beckham and his return to the English team. But many of you have been questioning his recall to the squad. And although he put in a strong performance in the friendly against Brazil, whether or not Beckham alone can boost England’s chances of qualifying remains to be seen. But many teams have strong teams and Answers users have been wondering which teams have the best chances of winning Euro 2008, or which ones will be left behind.

So while you wait for tonight’s game, why not answers Paul Parker’s question or share your football expertise on Answers. And whether you’re rooting for England, Ireland or Scotland, stay on the ball with all the latest news and scores on Yahoo! Eurosport.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

 While not everyone might be familiar with it, there’s a whole world of assistive technology out there to help people who’d otherwise be excluded from the experience of using a computer or surfing the Internet through disability.

For those who are mildly to severely sight-impaired, there are screen magnifiers, voice and speech recognition software, high contrast text displays, and even video games developed specifically for visually-impaired gamers.

For those who are completely blind, there are increasing numbers of screen readers that translate the text of a web site into a spoken format. There are also refreshable Braille displays and input devices that create a tactile representation of the text on a screen. There are even Braille embossers that allow the user to print out a Braille copy of any electronic document.

A number of communication devices and programs are being developed in the field of assistive technology for people who are deafblind — those who are both blind and deaf — but this is an area of technology still in its infancy.

Although assistive technology has come a long way since Helen Keller’s day, there are still great strides to be made and it’s interesting to see what the future holds. To find out, one of our US Answers colleagues has posed the question:

“What are some ways that technology and the Internet can be adapted for those who are blind, deaf, or both?”

If you have experience in this field, we’d love to know your thoughts. If you’d like to ask or learn more about, deafblindness, or assistive technology, why not check our People with Disabilities category.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team