Comments on: What’s the big deal about chat on Yahoo! Answers?

By: Smoke

Smoke — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:04:46 +0000

I think Yahoo should pay more attention to its customers. We are the one who make the site entertaining. Fun + Serious Answers= a good atmosphere. It will be boring if it was like an enclycopedia. As Jo mentioned,as long as its not nasty and offensive,then let it go.
If someone post a Q saying ‘Who wants to chat with me’ then I agree,its not right.
But if someone ask ‘Do you like my poem’
To me thats a Question simple as it is. You guys aint gonna teach all your customers of how to ask a question!!!
I spend every single night on Yahoo,helping others,and theres thousands like me who enjoyed it,so I think its in your company’s own interest to treat its customers fairly and well.
Just make a poll and see how it goes!

By: Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:26:02 +0000

I think the Yahoo team response is great – ‘If you feel your content was deleted in error, we strongly advise you to appeal it! The link is in the violation email.’

I have tried that before and it is just drones sending out standard response e-mails, and basically saying no. Ok I must confess I had one question re-instated but by the time they did I couldn’t extend the expiration or pick a best answer because the time limit had been exceeded.

Before Yahoo start preaching at us and telling us we should appeal maybe they should clean up their act and get the appeals process working

By: jo

jo — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:57:28 +0000

Will Yahoo actually listen to what the majority of its customers are saying???As long as something is not offensive or nasty let it go…….The site has evolved into fun as well as serious questions…the two can work toghether.The self reporting system DOES NOT WORK.Use some of your advert revenue to have a Yahoo employee bound by a code to randomly remove offense stuff and leave the rest of us to have fun..Will you listen???

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:18:33 +0000

Serious questions and answers are asked. I’ve had good answers when asking questions, but what is annoying is people who don’t know the answer and are just after two points. I’ve also helped other people.

YA is not a chat site and was never intended as a chat site. Yes, get rid of the chat, even if the majority of users want it as a chat site. Say that people go to a library to chat (and it does happen). You’d still try to keep the building as a library rather than change it to a room where people could go to chat.

By: Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:02:24 +0000

Hey Zbdboing,

While we can’t publicly comment on individual cases, we appreciate your feedback.

Obviously there are some users chatting but equally there are some amazing contributors providing some remarkable answers.

Just take Tunisian Belle, who’s profiled here and will return again to the Answers blog next week: http://www.yanswersbloguk.com/b4/?p=219

One of the purposes of the Yahoo! Answers blog is to provide feedback to the Community. Another is to celebrate the strongest contributors – you only have to look daily at the Best of Answers on the Answers homepage to see the wealth of high quality content the community are providing.

thanks!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

By: Zbdboing

Zbdboing — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:55:10 +0000

Ok I’m back with two examples, I could find loads if I had the time. The first, someone asked a Q in bad english, but it was obvious what he meant.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnupN0vlSHJH59SftcVwbQwhBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20080523010003AAEgD0x&show=7#profile-info-4o2H8Hhoaa

The second is a joke. It only escapes ‘chat’ because he asked at the end if it’s funny or not.

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtghIrRdsBxqcLdNZTDiVN2xBwx.;_ylv=3?qid=20080523044126AAqFaEn

Now shouldn’t everyone of those answers in example a be violated? And both the Q and answers in example b ?

Just these two examples show you exactly what yahoo answers is, and not what you wanted it to be.
I’d say the vast majority of users on here are here for the fun, and that is what this site is popular for.
mylot.com is what you guys had in mind, but ya doesn’t work that way.

By: Zbdboing

Zbdboing — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:42:10 +0000

I think yahoo needs to take a step back and look at itself realistically. As todays questions will show you there’s 90% b/s on here! Yahoo answers is so far removed from it’s originally purpose why don’t you just admit it’s succesful as it is.
And how is it? It’s a competition who can give the wittiest answer. I have asked (under another guise) so many serious questions and got either nothing in return or just corny remarks. Most of the answers on here should be removed, more than the questions.
This really isn’t a serious answers site. If you’re going to make violations for chatting,try looking at the answers given here. Hold on, I’ll be back with examples from todays answers.

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:27:28 +0000

i asked a question about how i could improve my website as it was a 1st attempt and was new to that sort of thing, yet it was removed. TWICE!! then when i appealed i got told that if it happened again my account would be blocked

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:38:55 +0000

I’m fed up with the standard “clear up your spelling and grammar and then I’ll help you” answer. Not only does it discriminate against dyslexic users, it also involves people using the answer feature to state their views which have no relation to the question.

By: star69

star69 — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:26:54 +0000

I got a violation for racism for saying a guy at my work is Polish.