Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Time flies when you’re having fun with Yahoo. It’s already been a year and a half since we’ve launched Community Moderation on Answers. Everyday trusted users work together to report and remove any content that violates the Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service. Here is a nice refresher if you’d like to be part of our effective system.

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. When you feel you have a good idea about what’s acceptable on Answers as you 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 on the “Appeal” link in the e-mail 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 your reputation will be boosted and those that reported you will lose reputation. 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.

What to do if you 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 was an update on how it works. We hope you found this helpful! However, if you still have questions, please leave us a comment and we’ll be happy to assist!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers Team

Today is Darwin Day, a celebration of 200 years since scientist Charles Darwin was born. All over the world, people are doing their bit to celebrate evolution and we are no exception. While many Answers users may be marking the day in their own way, few people are as qualified as biologist and former Featured User, Calimecita, who we just happened to spot sporting a tribute to him in her Answers nickname. This is what Darwin Day means to her, in her own words…

“First and foremost, I don’t like the idea of “idolizing” a person. Charles Darwin was a man, an individual that was clearly as multidimensional as each of us, and therefore any analyses of him as an individual can and will be very complex – and also widely contradictory.

Yet here I am, celebrating his birthday anniversary – even with my Yahoo! Answers nickname,  – Why?

Because what I’m celebrating is the fact that a single individual’s intellectual production can be a major contribution to the human species. To me, that is truly inspiring. So what did he do?

 In an outstanding example of conceptual synthesis, Charles Darwin was able to “catch” concepts and data that were “floating around” in different spheres of human knowledge, put them together and come up with a new corpus of ideas (it’s important to note that Alfred Russell Wallace achieved the same synthesis separately – and that perhaps without him, Darwin’s work would not have been published at the time). This corpus integrates the fact of evolution with the mechanisms that make it possible (Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection), and has been since that time the cornerstone of biological science.

The famous geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky once said “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. I’ll just add that even though it is possible to use a non-evolutionary approach to study some aspects of biology, everything just makes much more sense in the light of evolution.

In my daily work, I’m constantly trying to understand the evolutionary processes that underlie the diversity I see. My awareness of evolutionary mechanisms does not detract from my appreciation of life… On the contrary, it enhances the delight I feel when I find myself not only contemplating life on Earth, but also studying and understanding a part of it and trying to make my own tiny contributions to our collective knowledge of biological evolution.”

Calimecita

• Read more about Calimecita’s work here and here and here.

Questions on evolution:

• How does evolution apply to the use of insecticides and antibiotics?
• What is Darwin’s theory about evolutionary progression?
• Why was Darwin considered to be a “revolutionary?”
• Are ants an argument against Darwin’s theory of Evolution?
• Who submitted “Theory of Evolution” other than Darwin?

Hey everyone,

You may have noticed that the link to the blog is no longer at the top right of the Answers homepage. It’s now located on the lower left in the Related Links section.

Of course, you can always just click on a blog post from the rotating Best of Answers module or keep up-to-date by adding the Answers module to your My Yahoo! page. Another way to keep in touch is on Twitter, where you can follow us at: Twitter.com/YahooAnswersUK.

However you find your way here, we appreciate your visit. Thanks for reading!

– Yahoo! Answers team

“I first got into Yahoo Answers by accident.  A friend used it & she said it was really good – one day curiosity got the better of me, and I’m still here.”

– Spellbound: 30,127 points, Level 7, 65% Best Answer

Every month we try and profile some of the amazing answerers we see on the site like Tunisian Belle, Calimecita and Victor. Today is no exception. Meet Spellbound: our resident history expert. Russia is his real passion but he is able to answer on many subjects. But don’t just take our word for it, here are some of his Best Answers…

• Did Joseph Stalin command the army during the Second World War?
• Why did the Art capitol move from Paris post-War?
• What was the significance of the Soviet satellite nations?

Spellbound in his own words…

“I’ve always enjoyed history, probably that comes from being taken round castles in North Wales as a child, but I also think that the past is alive, because the consequences of actions taken hundreds of years ago can have a direct impact on our lives – Magna Carta being an obvious example.

I am, by education, a Russologist, specialising in the late Soviet period.  I find the USSR fascinating.  It was such a mysterious place, as Churchill said of it “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.

Other than the Soviet period, I love the medieval English period.  It was such a theatrical period, with larger than life characters, such as Simon De Montefort and Owen Glydwr.

The most misunderstood period of history is probably the Roman period.  In school Roman history is taught as though it were a homogenous, unchanging entity, whereas it was a fluid, dynamic ever changing creation, so much so, that the late Roman period bears little relation to the Rome of Julius Caeser and Augustus.

My favourite question is probably “Why did Germany surrender in 1918?”

The reason I like this question is that it is a clear question, the questioner sounds as though they are interested in the topic – it’s not just for homework help, and the although the question may be a simple one, to answer the question well requires a detailed, well thought out answer.

Favorite answer? I have so many, but I think Brother Ranulf always provides food for thought, I thought the questions were really interesting and his answers are really well researched and thought out.”

Some Best Answers by Brother Ranulf, chosen by Spellbound:

• What happened to unchivalrous knights?
• How were monk’s animals and possessions protected in a Viking raid?
• After the Norman Conquest in 1066, what buildings were destroyed and what was built?

Know someone who’s “wow-ed” you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you!

Email the Answers team a link to the user’s profile or answers to y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk