A great place to kill time XD

It has helped me out with basic questions more then once. When it comes to more complicated and or difficult questions most of them dont know what the hell they're talking about.

I have to seriously recommend that people avoid this site...especially if you have Yahoo! email accounts. I hung out here for a little while. As far as abuse goes, Answers makes RIA look duck pond on a Hallmark card.

First, at least 1/3 of all of the questions are, obviously, kids posting homework questions. 2/3 of the responses to those pleas for help are answers to the homework questions. The other 1/3 of the responses are "Have you ever heard of Google, you nitwit?"

The second 1/3 of the questions are "Is global warming real?", or something in regards to a personal health issue, like, "My head has swelled to twice its normal size and I can see things moving under my skin." The answers range from, "You need to see a doctor rather than hope to find an answer here. I'm serious!" or , "My uncle had that and he died."

The last 1/3 are lonely, pompous ass wipes who need an audience and provide links that may help...or not.

The reason that I mentioned Yahoo! email accounts is that there are some very mean people who log on to Answers in hopes of wreaking havoc. Here's how they do it: Randomly, they report abuse on an item that was written by some unsuspecting soul. This poor mark gets a bot-generated report that they have been reported for abuse. I'm not sure how many warnings it takes, but I have read enough horror stories about this abuse that I can't help but feel that it's all true: eventually, their Yahoo! account, INCLUDING their email acount, gets purged. There aren't any real CS people that I know of responding to the mark and there is no real path to resolving this abuse, or any Yahoo! people who actually read the answers that were targeted.

I felt vulnerable enough to want to delete my Answers account, but you can't do that unless you purge your entire account...including email. There are some precautions you can take, like hiding your profile, questions and answers from your profile page, but not from the Q&A pages. Once you're in...you're in for good. Which is bad...

What has happened to this site lately? It seems to be over-run by kids. I used to enjoy using it at one time, you used to get some pretty helpful advice, now it has seriously gone downhill. The majority of questions asked are mundane, tedious and mind-numbing, such as: "How much is a loaf of bread?", "Rate my looks?" or "Am i ugly?". A lot of the answers are not much better, most are brain-dead. Another thing, Troll's and clones are prolific on this site now. many insult, pretend to be you, and report all your questions/and or answers (which are perfectly reasonable). When this happens, you are likely to get your account suspended without warning (and it is gone for good), appeals won't make any difference. Perfectly reasonable answers are considered "violations", whereas insults and racist remarks are not. Where is the logic in that?
If you need advice, Yahoo answers is not the place. I'm sure there are far better sites out there for the same thing.

Useful if you need an answer for a simple question, but nothing more. Don't count on it for difficult questions.

Yahoo Answers sucks big time cock. The malicious reporters a re winning and have turned the site into somewhere where people are too scared to post for fear of being reported.

Horrible -- HORRIBLE administration. Once, a good concept, but now completely overrun by trolls, chatting, braindead, useless "answers" and often pointless questions. Polls & Surveys, Religion & Spirituality, Politics... all are virtually a wasteland of useless information. Those known as "report trolls" indiscriminately target people to have their accounts eliminated -- Yahoo! uses the term "suspension," but in fact, Yahoo! prevents any reactivation of the account. Many of those who are suspended file appeals in vain. The site is really more a sociological experiment, now, showing how "community moderation" is essentially "administrative abandonment," allowing chaos to rule. It's Yahoo's version of "Lord of the Flies." Not worth the time or the bandwidth.

All previous complains by users are true and I do agree with them, that said I will junt into another subject.

Yahoo Messenger has perhaps been the best ever Messenger in Internet. Unfortunately it has turned into a can of worms full of Trojans, it took my service down twice eight days at a time, I emailed Yahoo about it but as usual they don't listen to their users who are supposed to be some kind of a brain dead group of people who are to be bossed around, insulted and ill treated by the Yahoo staff. They denied the Messenger was full of Trojans, when they could no longer deny it they said they had fixed it but then the second down in my service came about. I complained again but I was never answered, this cost me on about 30 thousand dollars. Then their system breakdown happened and Yahoo was almost down for about 10 days. Many of the damaged features are still down and they wont bother to fix them after all they believe that being a free service users don't deserve any better.

I suggested we all signed a petition to request Yahoo President Susan Decker for us to become paid members of the Messenger, Mail and Answers, some others got a petition form and posted the link to it. I stated that being paid members with a yearly membership payment nothing would ever be rubbed in again and we would have voice and vote over the service package. I was then targeted by Yahoo Staff and whatever I posted in the board was either deleted or thrown behind into oblivion. My answers were all thumbed down, I began to obtain less Best Answers, from about 15 a day I ended up with a couple per day. The Yahoo staff by the name of "Lou" targeted me in the most shameful possible way, he has no respect for the users and especially if they are women and senior users as it seems he has some kind of a trauma against us. I know they read this site and I also know that what ever we post here is used against us then we are tortured, banned and blocked out of all possible sites with the use of our IP, by blocking my IPs they got 123 members out of their services as I own a Cybercafe. Never the less I don't care I have provided my clients with two excellent European Q&A Sites, all Google sites to replace the Messenger and Mail plus a few extras that Google offers. We have withdrawn from their sites, we don't participate any more and we frankly don't care. I certainly believe we have gained with this situation.

The said staff member Lou deleted all my post in the suggestions board, I thus cleaned out all my info and left without saying a single word, I have honor and pride and I will not allow this poor creature to humiliate me. It is best to post a very strong opinion in a blog elsewhere as it would not be ethical to post it in their site.

This is why I will soon post a very well informed blog on what is going on in Yahoo, the layoffs, the horrible service offered to their users, the back logs in most sites, what their fired executives are posting in very many blogs as they are not leaving quietly, how they lodge and protect trolls, how they allow point gaming, how the auto login bot is used by Lous friends to gain thousands of points a day and make it to level 7 in a week when it is supposed to take no less than 6 months. There is much more information which has fallen into my hands, I am working with two well known media people who will use the hard copies I have, screen shots, and they will provide me with certain other very important information. The blog will be called -Yahoos slow death-.

The concept is great, but the customer service and community moderation is ABYSMAL. Don't get me wrong, I love the site, but Yahoo makes it all but impossible to keep an account. Their "report abuse" system is so easily manipulated that a 3 year old could figure out how to misuse it. Their "customer service" is virtually nonexistent. Users receive "violations" and a number of points are deducted every time they allegedly "break the rules/guidelines", but no actual human being ever bothers to read complaints or to personally review content violation appeals. This is made painfully apparent after the exact same useless form letter is sent in response to every single appeal. And by the way, their rules and guidelines are SO vague and SO OFTEN interpreted SO broadly that nearly anything one posts can be considered a "violation".

Again, I love the site. The users make it great. The format is decent. It's just the Yahoo staff... they make the whole experience miserable.

Yahoo Answers follows the pattern for all Yahoo products with horrible customer service. They post rules so vague that any content can be considered a violation. If you respond to a violation notice, you can be sure to get a form reply. They were handling violation appeals in a forum, which has now been completely redone - without the "Violation Appeals" subsection.

This site has a lot of potential, but like all things Yahoo, the people in the drivers seats are clueless and often heartless.

Too many violations? Your entire Yahoo account - not just your privelege to use Answers - can be suspended, and indeed many accounts have been. This means your email account, along with any family emails, online bill receipts, photos sent to you, everything... and also your 360 page, with any blogs you have written.

I would suggest, whether you are a user of Answers or not, that you print out or copy and paste and save anything you don't want Yahoo to be able to take from you if they take your Yahoo account.

I just got suspended for a bogus reason, and then customer service doesnt even respond to you when you appeal. I literally yesterday made it to level three after almost a year and then they delete my account. It is BS.
Yahoo Answers SUCKS.

I've gotten some good answers relatively quickly to some obscure questions. It's undeniably helpful to have access to people who have expertise or experience outside your own.

However, Yahoo Answers' moderation system is fatally flawed. Certainly I don't expect "freedom of speech" since it's not MY site, but having thoughtful questions or answers deleted just because someone (e.g. religious or conservative people) finds them uncomfortable to think let alone talk about is too close to censorship.

I understand and respect the concept of not wanting to offend or swear or other stuff since people might not want their kids to stumble across them, but striking questions that are posed in an inoffensive manner? It's lame for people to work to censure these simply because they find them uncomfortable.

Further, many people can and do create throwaway "virgin" accounts to get reporting clout. For example, user A doesn't like user B's question. User A creates user accounts C, D, E, F, G, H, and might log on to each and report user B's question. That makes it much more likely for user B's question to get axed.

Y!A was a good idea that went bad very quickly. Customer service is non-existent. They have Community Guidelines (CG) and Terms of Service (TOS) that don't seem to be applied fairly. People who post pornographic links, avatars, statements, etc seem to live on forever but people who "chat" are given violation notices or even suspended from the site.

Most times a violation notice (VN) doesn't even say what it is you did wrong. It just tells you to review the CG and TOS and don't do it again (whatever "it" might be.) Under the current Community Moderation system, other users can report violations/violators based on what the reporter THINKS is a violation. The reported person must jump through hoops to prove their innocence and have the VN thrown out.

Some long-time users of Y!A have taken it upon themselves to be the unofficial spokespersons for Y!A on the Answers Suggestion Board. They criticize and chastise anyone who disagrees with them or tries to point out inconsistencies in the way Y!A treats people. They can be rude, snide and condescending in their remarks. They look at Y!A through rose colored glasses because in their minds, Y!A can do no wrong. (Even though it's obvious Y!A isn't perfect. Why else would they have an appeals process if everything they do is perfect?)

For anyone considering joining Y!A, get a separate Yahoo email account. DO NOT USE YOUR PRIMARY ACCOUNT!!!! If you get VNs (and you will) or if you get suspended (which in Yahoo-speak means permanent termination) you will lose everything associated with the Yahoo email account. EVERYTHING!

I warn others not to join this site. It is like a cult - at first, seems very attractive and fun, but soon becomes addictive and controlling. It is full of point-gamers and cheaters, many of the "Top Contributors" are in this category or even bots. This makes participation a complete waste of time when you can be beaten by a bot who says "Yes", "No", "Prime rib" for every answer. The worst aspect of the site is the Customer Care, which is an absolute disgrace. The Community Guidelines are so vague that almost anything can be a violation, and if you appeal, you get an automated response or no response at all.  (To see if a human being was reading my appeals, I began appealing everything with the phrase "purple monkey dishwasher"; this was never picked up on commented on). They have outsourced most of the *hollow laugh* "service" to the subcontinent, so their English is not good enough to understand your complaint anyway. Yahoo Answers is also very heavy on your computer's resources and I have gone through four computers in two years. The site is actually getting worse with time, not better, with more and more glitches and site being down for maintainence. PLEASE, I beg of you, do not join this evil site!

Yahoo! Answers has been one of the few bright spots for Y! over the last few years.  This is a home grown property that has become massively popular, in the process causing Google to pull the plug on Google Answers.  There haven't been many cases of Yahoo! beating Google at anything, so this is notable.

It appears that Y! is running into some spam trouble though - I know that they're cutting costs across the board, and it's not surprising that stuff like community moderation should slip.

Yahoo Answer's is starting to really reek! They have let little kids start running the whole thing! Especially the Polls & Survey's Section. It needs to be removed. There are people on there who only want to cause trouble and get people all riled up. They use P&S as a way to con people and lure people. The people who are there to give actual help to people, which is why I am a member of YA, we end up getting stalked by trolls simply because we try to keep the community clean. I have emailed the YA abuse to about a troll with multiple accounts. I answered "Survey" in P&S with an honest answer, the next thing I know, I get blocked by that person and receive my one and only violation notice! The answers team needs to either get a bigger staff to start weeding through the good and the bad, because they still have not addresses my issue. People have been complaining about the Polls and Survey's section for over a year and it still remains. If they dont get rid of it ASAP, I'm going to a REAL Q & A site, where I will be appreciated!

Yahoo Answers began as a good idea with not much thought behind it. It claims to be a huge database of knowledge when it is in fact little more than a glorified chatroom.
They have a set of community guidelines, one of them being 'chatting is expressly forbidden' and also the usual 'no insulting other members' and yet these two guidelines are worthless. Yahoo repeatedly leave racist, insulting, bullying posts on their boards despite receiving reports from other users, and yet remove innocuous answers within ten minutes. I've seen it happen.
I have used the site for over two years, from the day it went public and the last nine months or so have seen a dramatic down turn in it's content and responsible usage. it is not a site that children should use without parental monitoring, Yahoo have a 13 years and older regulation but also a homework help category ..... lots of younger children frequent the site unfortunately and are surrounded by porongraphic avatars, verbal abuse, swearing, online bullying and harrassment and no moderation.
Users are targetted by trolls, harrassed by clones and at times other members, and anyone in receipt of the 'reward' known as the Top Contributor' badge might as well wave goodbye to their account because there is jealousy amongst users who have not earned the recognition and so target those who have.
Staff do not communicate with members who have real problems with trolls targetting their accounts, and any tinkering they do to 'improve' the site is usually only superficial and does not address the real issues that are destroying the entire site.
Apparently I HAVE to rate this site so the one star is because it was compulsory, I feel no stars is more appropriate

Thank god a place to rant about Y!A!

I'm unfortunately addicted to answers BUT I'm sick to death of the shameful way they treat their users. There is no customer care, You can get repeatedly violated and Yahoo staff do NOTHING about it.
It's gradually being taken over by the trolls and Yahoo staff sit back having coffee breaks and encourage them to do so!

Don't waste your time with this service. If you are looking for help, it's better to ask somewhere else. The place is run by trolls, the user moderation feature sucks. If you get enough reports, your entire Answers and even E-mail account is gone, deleted. You can of course appeal, but that won't help. They will send you an e-mail that has nothing to do with the appeals process and tell you that they will look into it, which they never do. Yahoo says they strive to be the best, yet with this Answers service, they really show they are the worst. I hope that someone will open a lawsuit and take them out of business.

Totally sucks. They use "community moderation", which means after a certain number of reports, a question or answer are deleted. The big problem is there are a huge number of "report trolls" who report anything they disagree with. The appeals process is a complete joke - appeals are responded to with a form letter.  The form letter is computer generated and usually has nothing to do with what was appealed. The customer service is horrible. They don't read anything. They just let the trolls run the site. No wonder Yahoo is all but bankrupt.

I think they need to do their job. They go to work to do what? Sit at a computer desk all day and do absolutely nothing? I upset because they recently violated me for chatting and in the email it has a section that you can click on to tell them why you shouldn't be violated. I have emailed them three times and they have yet to email me back. It's bologna and I hope this site will inform them of what they need to do to improve. Thanks.

I once asked a question on Yahoo! Answers if anybody ever farted in their hand, and smelled it. One guy said i better stop that because it is the leading cause of arthritis!