Yahoo! India Answers blog

We all like to play games, but there is a time and place for that. Since Yahoo! Answers is about a community of people sharing, it is certainly not about gaming and popularity contests. We’ve already discussed about the fine line between offering a poll query and violating the community guidelines. But after seeing another rise of avatar games along with the ongoing annoyance in the forum over this type of recurring abuse, we have decided to go over the issue again.

What’s the difference between polling and chatting?

Polling questions, such as “Who do you think will win the election?” or “What kind of decorations do you post on a Christmas tree?” are ok. Advice-seeking and knowledge-worthy questions are more than welcome on the site.

On the other hand, low-quality questions such as “ What’s your name?” ,“Am I pretty?” ,“ Vote for the best above/below avatar” or any sort of Avatar games, name games, guessing games, truth or dare, trolling games, etc. violate the community guidelines and should be reported as abuse. We also consider questions that call out other users by name to be chatting. If you want to chat with another user, use instant messenger or send email to that user.

If you want to ask a follow-up question in response to someone else’s question and that person is not available via email or IM, post a new question that’s open to everyone in the community to answer – there might be someone else who’s better equipped to answer it.

How do I report chatting and gaming question/answer?

Go to the page where the abusive question or answer appears, and click the “Report Abuse” link associated with it. To report abuse that does not appear in the question or answer (such as harassment, obscene avatars, etc.), you can still click the “Report Abuse” button and describe the abuse in the Additional Details box provided. Once you’ve reported the violation, you’re done! There’s no need to email the team, we will remove it.

When people use Answers to chat with each other, it lowers the quality of the site and inhibits knowledge-sharing. By sticking to the guidelines and reporting abuse, we can all make Answers an informative and enjoyable place to be.

Imagine you’re at a formal gathering and you’re introduced to a guest by a colleague. Or you’re at a toastmasters’ session and you’re introduced to the week’s speaker. Or you’re at a casual break-the-ice kind of a get-together and you’re introduced to a friend’s friend. And all the three new people you meet have a dull, grey face – like the one lost in between, above. How would you feel then?

This is exactly how an Answerer would feel when he wants to answer a question with a sad-looking, grey face next to it. Who can blame the Answerer for thinking “Who is this person?” and “Why should I answer him?” So in case your display picture is the grey face in question and you’re wondering why your questions don’t get good responses, well, there you go!

Now why would you want to retain the grey face when you can have a funky avatar, anyway? Believe it or not, giving your profile a ‘face’ gets you instant recognition. It reveals a bit of your personality, giving your profile a distinct flavour and conveys a good first impression. So, now all you have to do is:

1. Go to your profile page.

2. Click on Edit my Info.

3. Next to the ‘Picture’ header, choose your photo, or your Avatar.

And in case you don’t have an avatar, here’s where you can create one right now! And there are so many clothes and accessories and expressions to choose from! You can play around till you get the perfect background, perfect outfit and perfect expression!

So, get clicking! And raise a toast to your newest avatar!