Yahoo! Answers

Yahoo! Answers is an "answer site" where people ask and answer questions. The doubts of its members can vary from "I have ate two whole tangerines in about two hours what will happen to me?"[1] to "Is there any possible way of making 2+2=5?".[2]

Someone is wrong on
The Internet
Log in:
v - t - e
“”how is babby formed? how girl get pragnent?
—An average Yahoo! Answers user

Da rulez

One signs up in Yahoo! to be a member, and starts with 100 points. Asking a question costs 5 points. Answering a question gives a member 2. If the asker designates one answer to be the best, the latter gets 10 extra points plus an additional 1 point for every thumbs up that answer got.

Prior to the new format change in 2014, questions were open for only a week, though they could be extended for a few days upon request. Now, questions are always open, even after the best answer is selected. If a question is reported by some other anonymous member, it’s likely removed and the asker loses 10 points. There is a process to appeal a removal, but appeals are rarely granted, and if the deleted question is not appealed or if the appeal is rejected, the user loses an additional 10 points.

According to CG (Community Guidelines)[3] and TOS (Terms of Service),[4] one is barred from creating new accounts, but many still do.

The good, the bad, and the fugly

While there are a lot of trolls and right-wing hacks there, there are also some good folk there. Among them are "justgoodfolk", who proves that one can be a rule-abiding Trotskyite and still flourish there[5]; "Blessed Cheesemaker (cancelled)", a former evangelical Christian who asks lots of loaded questions based on lesser known Biblical passages[6]; and "Morteza", a cool Iranian (ex-pat?) who has his own forum that includes a section for Y!A.[7] Even Barack Obama had an account in Y!A.[8] Wikinfo’s creator Fred Balder also has a Y!A account and often answers questions in the Wikipedia category. [9][10]

As time goes on though the site has become increasingly filled with wingnut propaganda and users who usually get the most upvotes, though how many of these upvotes are caused by one user with multiple accounts is unknown. Then there are those who are crowned "Best Answer" with only one vote. In terms of how right wing the users tend to be they're usually somewhere in between Fox News and Free Republic, with constant ranting being directed towards liberals,[11] Barack ☭HUSSEIN☭ Obama, and on occasion minority groups. The UK version isn't a lot better.[12] For a while around 2012 or so, the Tea Party movement began to lose momentum and the site became slightly more balanced. However all bets are off in the post-truth era. Nevertheless, one can usually find informative answers and users to balance the wingnuts and trolls; for example, a question on life in Somalia before its Civil War has quite a nice answer as the best answer.[13]

In the Religion & Spirituality category numerous atheists, holding a significant if not majority presence (surprisingly, but understandably due to the ability to be anonymous and avoid real-life bigotry et cetera), although sometimes it seems for brief but notable periods there are high Christian concentrations. It is clearly the most active category (due to the controversial nature) on the site within the larger, overall active Society & Culture main category, while others about dogs and hunting can take hours and commonly a few days to get real/any answers. It is about religion—not a religious section but many Christians fail to understand this and attempt to criticize non-Christians for posting on what they consider "their" forum. Hop right in for the hellhole (not recommended).[14] Very fast-paced and active, many bigots however.

And of course, an amazingly high fraction of the site's users seem to be either completely insane or so incredibly stupid that it could qualify as a miracle that they can even figure out how to use a computer.

Example of the typical level of intelligence on Yahoo! Answers
<iframe src='//www.youtube.com/embed/EShUeudtaFg?' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe>
gollark: No. I think there's .be.
gollark: I assume apio.net is already taken?
gollark: Or actually make it be an ARG.
gollark: We could make people think it's an ARG or something.
gollark: A cryptic image of a horse?

See also

References
  1. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmnZhkHwqXbluPayH71L3SMO53NG;_ylv=3?qid=20091208145714AAg9IzS
  2. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Assb8DAQtYqNbCqYpTSOE4Ry7hR.;_ylv=3?qid=20090617032927AAHgaLk
  3. Changes with little warning
  4. Many pages
  5. http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt=AiAivmri.SRu1y4xBsJmDWkgGAx.;_ylv=3?show=bcc62a4f188c1522006cc8ba2c7b102aaa
  6. http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt=AjhrQz1rK.pgfIcCzviLPyPlPhV.;_ylv=3?show=NfyVUjzkaa
  7. http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile?show=tDvyf3Q5aa
  8. http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile?show=uuU0TcW9aa
  9. http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/User:Fred_Bauder
  10. http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt=AiAivmri.SRu1y4xBsJmDWmOFwx.;_ylv=3?show=TID45AZuaa
  11. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AryLraJzuDqX2TmN__FO1MYjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20120901000654AACmY8o
  12. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081027092159AA6NvsY
  13. https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110404193016AAwe0Wc
  14. https://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index?sid=396545163&link=list
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