Yahoo! India Answers blog

As we strive for high quality content on Answers, we also encourage freedom of expression and discussions on any topic. However, you can sometimes stumble upon questions or answers that seem to blur the line between strong opinions and a violation of the community guidelines,  plagiarism or copyright infringement.

Strong opinion vs. violation

Everyone has opinions, and these are what makes Answers vibrant and fun. Respectfully expressed opinions that contribute to useful knowledge for the community are accepted on Yahoo! Answers. However, anyone who promotes hate speech, uses slurs to refer to groups of people, insults other members, and acts in a belligerent manner towards others should be reported.

What is considered offensive?

It is not ok to report someone because you disagree with that person’s opinion. If you see something that is personally offensive to you but does not violate Community Guidelines, please do not report it. Their opinions may contradict your own, but please consider whether they are actually in violation. Do you think it contains slurs? Do they insult other participants? Do you think it is obscene or illegal? Remember that people are entitled to their own opinions, and it is up to everyone to express them in a respectful and constructive manner.

To be responsible, report only those opinions that violate the rules of our community. Please find the Community Guidelines here: http://in.answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines In fact, you will become less empowered to remove abuse from the site in the future if it is determined that the people you report are not in violation.

What is plagiarism?

Intellectual property infringement is a reportable offense on Yahoo! Answers, but the process is a little different from ordinary community guidelines violations. If you believe your intellectual property has been infringed upon and would like to file a complaint, please see our Copyright/IP policy here: http://in.docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html

Have more questions? Let us know.

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 reporting you do, 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 there 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!

Shefali Gaur
Community Manager – Yahoo! India Answers