Yahoo! India Answers blog

It feels as if the sun has set on an era of pop music with Michael Jackson’s death. Even though it’s been days since his death, the questions and speculation continue to plague everyone’s mind. People still want to know what the real cause of MJ’s death was. Curious minds even want to know how he will be buried.

And so it is natural that people like Secret also a get a sense that we are forgetting what he was about - his music - and are concentrating on all the unimportant things.

So on Yahoo! India Answers we decided we must bring the focus back to what MJ was all about - his music.

I’m sure most of you have at least one special memory that has some MJ’s song playing in the background. Like Beat It playing at your first ever party without adult supervision, or dedicating Billie Jean to your then girlfriend because she was crazy about that song. Well, whatever your memory share the nostalgia with us.  What MJ’s song evokes a special memory for you? Leave us a comment.

- Bhumika Anand

Community Manager

As you all know, the web is a pretty big place and just like in the real world, you can encounter all sorts of people. Here at Yahoo! Answers, as we strive to improve your experience on Answers, we are also committed to your online safety. That‘s why we offer many ways to control the personal information you want to display and who can contact you.

Since the amount of information you display on social networks is completely up to you, we wanted to remind you how to control these settings on Answers.

Want privacy?

·         Don’t display your real name. Pick a nickname or a screen name. A nickname without any personally identifiable information is best.

·         Don’t post your real photo. Pick an image or go for an avatar or no image at all.

·         Don’t reveal personal information in your profile.

·         If you don’t want the community to see your questions and answers, make them private.

Want to control who contacts you?

·         Limit your network of friends. Your contacts can view your activity on Answers. Controlling your network allows you to add or remove friends, and also block users.

* Activate or deactivate contact options. We never display your email address, but through this feature you can control whether other people can contact you or not.

And now, a question for you: Do you feel too much personal information is shared in the online world? How do you feel about it? Leave us a comment.

There are many reasons to love Answers. Some thrive on providing helpful answers that benefit the community. Others enjoy being able to benefit from so much knowledge by a simple click. If you’re an expert in a specific area, why not use that knowledge and become a Top Contributor? A Top Contributor is a member of the community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category.

How can I become a Top contributor?

With a little dedication a top contributor badge can be yours too. Check out Answers and pick categories you have the most expertise in. Answer questions in the most informative way if you want to increase your chances at getting the best answer. You can be a top contributor in up to three categories. Remember that the top contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent participation in a particular category. In other words, the more you participate, the more likely you will earn a badge and but if you stop participating, you will lose your badge. To recover your badge, you have to increase your activity in a specific category again.

Also, most of the users on the Answers Leaderboard happen to be top contributors. The leaderboard allows you to see who’s in the lead and check out their stats. It’s updated every week. Who knows, with a little work, you might make it there too!

Keep in mind that while sharing what you know is encouraged, it is also important to make sure you don’t share anything that puts your answer in violation of the Community Guidelines.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Here at Yahoo! Answers, we strive to provide quality content for the community. Every day, trusted users work together to report and remove any content that violates the Community Guidelines. Since abusive content is the most talked-about topic, here is a refresher on what we expect from our users.

Do’s

• Courtesy
• Asking and Answering clearly
• Sharing what you know
• Citing Sources
• Categorizing correctly
• Staring/ Thumbs-up great questions
• Reporting abuse

Don’ts

Ranting

Posting questions aimed at giving out your opinions than seeking knowledge are a no-no. So is answering questions for the sole purpose of venting. When you post a question, it must be written in the form of a question. When you answer, it must attempt to answer the question being asked.

Insulting and Being Obscene

Sexually explicit images and profanity are not welcome on the site. We also do not tolerate any form of insult, discrimination, hate speech. Answers is a diverse community hence everyone should be respected.

Spamming

Answers is not a recruiting site, a dating site, or an advertising billboard. Posting irrelevant links for personal or financial gain is prohibited.

Cheating

Creating multiple accounts to reward yourself along with copying and pasting other people’s answers and asking for points is an infraction.

Being harmful and violent

Don’t promote violence or harmful practices. Threatening and harassing other users also violates the guidelines. Anything that is considered illegal in everyday life is also illegal on Answers.

Illegal Content

You can share information about where to download free entertainment and programs as long as it’s a free and legal download site.

We have received many questions about why this or that was deleted, and we think these explanations will help you understand the Community Guidelines better . In extreme cases, members risk losing their Yahoo! ID, and consequently, access to all other Yahoo! services. If everyone follows the rules, content quality will be at its best.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

It’s that day of the year - June 1st.

If you headed out of home like I did at 7.30 am today, chances are you would have seen that curious breed of little people - heavy bags on the back, water bottles in hand, munching on a sandwich or an apple, carrying more food in little colored baskets, riding or walking to the greatest institution mankind ever created - the school - accompanied by harried looking older folk.

So it’s that time of the year in India where kids of ages between 4 and 18 gear up to face another challenging year of curriculum and some extracurricular activity - hopefully, the sort grown-ups can be proud of.

No matter what your age is now, I’m sure you have a first-day story to tell. Or a first-day at school question to ask.

For example, why does school always begin on June 1? And why were we made to study trigonometry? And why is there no quick-help when it comes to doing homework?

I’ve since given up on finding the answer to the first two questions, but I do know that Yahoo! India Answers can help confused kids or hassled parents with the third.

And as we celebrate the first day of school on Yahoo! India Answers, we welcome you to post any question on school and homework that you might have.

What is your question? Post it on Yahoo! India Answers.

Do you want to share a first day at school story with us? Leave us a comment here.

- Bhumika Anand

(Community Manager)

You’re asking or answering a question and you want to mention a great site as a reference. How do you make sure your link doesn’t violate the Answers Community Guidelines?  We’ve been getting a lot of questions about including links in questions and answers. Here is a reminder on what is considered acceptable and what is an infraction of the Community Guidelines.

What is considered spam?

Spam is unsolicited email. The spam answer usually has little or no relevance to the question and contains either a link to a spam page or an email address. If you notice someone answering questions compulsively with a link to an unrelated site (usually a site offering money or selling products), report it! You’ve found a spammer.

What about links to a question I posted?

Some people end their answer with “Please answer my question: http://answers.yahoo.com/…” But the question they link to often has nothing to do with what you were asking .This kind of linking also violates the Community Guidelines as it is the same as spam-unsolicited links.

What kind of link is acceptable?

Know a website or book that might help the asker? You can! That’s why we included the “Sources” box on the answer page. Just paste the URL into the “Sources” box. You’ll be making your answer much more complete.

By posting the useful links in the ‘sources’ box and by reporting spam, you’re helping make Answers a better site.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Back in March, we launched the “Suggested Questions” module on the homepage. Suggested Questions are intended to provide our most active users with a list of questions we think match their area of expertise.

Since launch we have been taking on board your feedback about this feature and have now made some improvements to this that include:

·         Resolved questions will be removed more effectively to leave you with only a selection of open Suggested Questions to answer

·         Questions will be matched to you much more quickly so you can always see the freshest and most relevant Suggested Questions

·         Improved the relevancy to ensure we deliver your questions only to the most appropriate answerers

Still not seeing Suggested questions?  Remember you need you to be active on a topic for a certain time before we can build up enough information on your areas of expertise before we can start offering you suggested questions.

We hope these changes will improve you experience with Suggested Questions. Remember that you can modify your profile settings if you want to see a different number of Suggested Questions. And that only you will see the questions related to your activity, not the wider community.

Please continue to share your constructive feedback with us and we will keep working on making this feature more relevant and faster in delivering you the questions you want to see.

You all know the drill. You can’t get a certain question off your mind so you log on to  your Yahoo! Answers account and ask. Then comes the wait and the anticipation that somewhere out there in the community, someone will give you the right answer. Sometimes, you get so many great answers, you can’t even pick the best one. Other times, you are disappointed by the responses or even did not get any at all. Here’s how you can deal with asking questions.

How should I close my question?
Keep it  clear and simple. The clearer your question is, the more likely it is you’ll get lots of good answers. Invite the community to answer and give you an explanation.

What if I get no answers?
Review your question to make sure it is clear and not too long. Make sure you placed your question in the appropriate category.
Providing additional information to further clarify your question in the Details section is also very useful.
Also, remember that questions stay open for 4  days and you can always extend it one time by 4 more days to a total of 8 days.
If no one answers your question after 8 days and your question expires, you can try rephrasing your question and asking it again or search Yahoo! Answers to see if anyone else has received an answer to a similar question.

So many great answers, which one to choose?
Why not let the Answers community pick the best answer to your question? You can put a question up for a vote. In case of a tie, the question remains in voting as a tiebreaker. Once a vote has been cast, you have a best answer.

What if there’s no best answer?
When your question goes into voting, you have the option of voting for ‘No Best Answer’. If an answer is chosen as the best, your question becomes resolved with that answer. However, if the No Best Answer option is picked as best, the question is deleted and you get five points credited back to your Answers account.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

We all love being able to ask questions and get answers about any topic and share knowledge and experiences with a simple click. Whether you’re answering questions or just browsing, there a many ways to contribute to improving the content on Answers.

How can I rate great questions?
Like some of the questions out there? Why not star them? Giving a star to good questions helps Answers promote the best content on the site.
When a question gets a star, it gets nominated to appear in the “Popular” list on the Answers home page.
The list showcases what users find the most interesting.
To ‘un-star’ a question, simply click the star icon.

How can I rate bad questions or answers?
Sometimes, you see answers you either really like or feel they are not helpful at all. Once you reach Level 2, you have the power to rate answers by clicking thumbs up or thumbs down in the action bar below . When you thumbs-down an answer we will hide it. Click Show to display it again. Use the Report Abuse link to report abusive questions and answers. Remember: give an answer thumbs down if you feel it is not helpful for the asker. Report an answer if it violates the Community Guidelines.

How can I comment on an answer?
When a Best Answer is chosen, you have the option of adding comments and rating the best answer after the question is resolved. Every time someone gives a thumbs up to your best answer, you automatically get an extra point. The maximum bonus points a Best Answer can accumulate is 50.

Have more questions? Leave us a comment and let us know!

“The world is curious about India — what is powering this nine percent growth rate, how is India combining tradition with modernity. What makes India tick?” syas, Vikas Swarup author of the novel “Q&A” which was successfully adapted by Danny Boyle into a phenomenal film called “Slumdog Millionaire”.

“Slumdog Millionaire”, a rags-to-riches drama about a Mumbai slum kid winning a TV game show, won Golder Globe, Academy and eight Oscars including best film. This film was quite a craze and talk of the town in many countries including Brazil.Our Brazilian friends liked the film very much and since the film is based on an Indian story, they became really curious about India, its people, culture, cuisine etc.

As Answers is the best platform for knowledge sharing, Gabriela Nardy, Community Manager of Yahoo! Brazil Answers, posted some questions about India on Yahoo! India Answers. Please answer the follwing questions and boast good things about your country and let the world know about India.

a)  Is the caste system still important in modern Indian society?

b) What are the major religions in India and how do they relate with each other?

c) What are the main equality issues affecting men and women in the workplace?

d) What are the traditional Indian foods and how are they prepared?

e) How do Indian women value and take care of their beauty?

Have a happy weekend!

Happy Answering!!

Shefali Gaur
Community Manager - Yahoo! India Answers