OMG lOlz, like its totaly teh suxx0r. Ahem. Sorry. How bad is Yahoo! Answers? I found myself on the site a few days ago after a Google search led me there and then ended up answering a few questions. It took me back to my Sitepoint Forums days, where I cut my teeth as a web designer. I spent nearly two years at SPF, where over time I learnt the art of question answering in a community atmosphere. The forums at Sitepoint were a remarkable place, as an oft heavy-handed approach to moderation generally ensured that the quality of answers stayed high. Not to mention that it was frequented by recognised experts in a variety of fields. Over the time, I moved up through the ranks to one of the senior moderators and although I spent far too much time there, and at the detriment of most parts of the rest of my life, it was a good time.
Enter Yahoo! Answers and a (not such a-)shock reminder that, frankly, the web is a dank, musty place, where information is freely available, but there are zero guarantees that the information is accurate or correct in any way, shape or form. (Wikipedia being a shining example.) Y!A is far worse than the Wiki, however.
The theory with Y!A is anyone can ask a question and anyone can answer the question. There is a category for moreorless any question you may want to ask and naturally I gravitated towards the Computers and Internet section.
My gripe is twofold and is directed 1) At the question askers, and 2), at the question answerers.
1) Question askers
Whilst 99% of questions could be answered quickly if they either RTFM or did a search first. But that’s common on any forum or question site and there will always be people who are incapable of doing some research for themselves. For example, questions like, “How does PHP function explode work?” are pointless, since, PHP has an excellent manual with a great search function that would answer the question much faster than it would take to ask it to Y!A. Additionally, there is a lot of repetition, the most obvious one being “how do I make a website for free?” So whilst that’s a reasonably valid question to ask, a quick search of Y!A would see that question has been answered several billion times.
Occasionally, there are better questions, which actually asks something worse answering. But more often that not, you get complete gibberish. Either a question that actually isn’t a question, more of a statement, or a question which provides so little information that it’s impossible to answer. You also frequently get the feeling that it doesn’t matter what you say, the person who actually asked the question isn’t going to take any notice of you answer anyway. Some examples of the type of tripe you see on a regular basis:
Eeeshk. It saddens me that there are so.many.people out there that have so little brain power that they don’t realise that what they are asking makes little or no sense, and is not likely to get any sensible answers.
2) Question answerers
There are definitely some knowledgeable people that answer questions on the site. And there are definitely some people that take themselves a bit too seriously. I actually agree with most of Doug’s points and concerns, and his new question-selection methodology. I just can’t help feeling that if they have a point score of over 67,000, then they probably spend a bit too much time on the site. Which brings me to my next point - the point scoring system. It’s a common problem with a lot of forums, where people like to brag about their post count, theory being, the higher your post count, the more knowledgeable you are. Which is clearly bollocks. The problem is that many people post complete gibberish just to inflate their post count / point score (and ego.) At Yahoo Answers, you get 2 points just for posting an answer and a further 10 points if your answer is marked as the “Best Answer.” You also get a “level” tag, based on your point score. There are some mechanisms in place to try and reduce the effect of artificially high point scores - for example, you can rate other answers, although so far I’ve found that in most cases, question answerers poorly rate other answers, solely to make their own answer look more trustworthy. (And you get a bonus point just for rating. Anything to reach the top of that leaderboard, I guess.)
But the most worrying thing about the site - there are some answerers who are just plain wrong. Have a look at these examples:
The trouble is, the type of people asking questions on Y!A are probably stupid enough to follow the idiotic advice they often get.
The irony of it all, of course, is that I’m quite enamoured by the site and still continue to waste time answering questions (and then blog about it.) However, I now enjoy myself a bit more, in that, if I find a completely idiotic question or answer, then I do my best to write just as much gibberish in reply. It’s pretty sad and pathetic, but nevertheless an amusing albeit pointless way to spend a few minutes*.
If you want to keep track of my answers, I’m here.
* Which further exacerbates the ridiculousness of the point system, when your gibberish answers get picked as “best answer.”
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