Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

The Yahoo!7 Answers Team are excited to announce a small but significant change to the site. As of today, any links posted by Level 1 Answers users will not be hyperlinked.

It may seem like a trivial change but it is an important step to limit the impact of spam on Answers. The site has had a points and levels system since its inception, which aims to promote activity and trust. Only hyperlinking http URLs from users who are Level 2 and above is a new way to reward an protect our core contributors.

The lack of hyperlinking applies to any link that begins http:// - links that are posted that begin www. are already not hyperlinked for all users regardless of level. We appreciate that removing hyperlinking for level 1 users is not a final or a perfect solution. For example long URLs are currently being truncated but we are working on further updates to improve this.

We’ve taken this action in response to clear user feedback, from you the Answers community. And rest assured that this is just one of a number of initiatives we are implementing to limit the impact of spam on Answers. We hope it’s a small step towards making Answers a better place. We’d welcome your feedback on this change.

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

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Ever since Prison Break began four seasons ago, we’ve been glued to our screens watching the drama unfold. Who was the girl that was being held captive; why do the brothers have different surnames, do you think Sarah will return? All these Prison Break questions and over 13,000 more have been discussed on Answers since the series began.

Well now is your chance to get some Answers from a member of the cast himself! Next week, we’re going to be interviewing Robert Knepper who plays the villainous T-Bag.

We’re asking you, the Answers community, what you’d like to ask him. Have you always wondered how he manages to portray such a dastardly villainous character? Or perhaps you want to know about being on set and how certain scenes are filmed? We’ll choose the best questions from you, the community, and ask them on your behalf next week when we interview Robert.

So tell us - If you could ask Robert Knepper (T-Bag from Prison Break) anything, what would it be?

Caitlin
Community Manager

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Believe it or not, it’s already been a year since we introduced the new Yahoo!7 Answers blog to the community. As we strive to enhance your experience on Answers, we wanted to improve the ways we communicate and expand the ways we engage with you.

Remember that you can access the blog from the Related Links on the lower left-hand side of the Answers homepage, or you can bookmark it on your browser.

And don’t forget, you can follow us on our Yahoo!7 Answers Twitter account, and if you prefer using RSS to keep up to date, you only need to click subscribe and add us to your RSS reader.

We hope you’ve found the Blog to be helpful and entertaining. We’ve received a lot of comments over the last year which we always welcome. It’s a great way to learn more about what you like, what you don’t, what you think about Answers and what you think about many topics we cover. Keep them coming - we love hearing what you have to say!

We have a couple of questions for you to give us a better idea of what you want on the blog:

1) Do you remember your favourite blogpost? What was it?

2) If you could see anything on the Answers Blog -what would it be? More celebrities, more competitions, more about the product, more about other Yahoo!7 products, any new blog features you’d like to see? Use your imagination and let us know!

Caitlin
Community Manager

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My goodness, what a morning.

We’re all shocked to hear about the passing of Michael Jackson, the ultimate King of Pop. For many of us born in the 70’s and 80’s, a Michael Jackson album was the first music we ever bought and most of us have special memories of his multitude of songs.

His 1982 hit Thriller became a world wide smash. It yielded seven top-10 singles and sold at least 27 million records worldwide. The year later, the moonwalk was released while performing Billy Jean in New York and we all spent hours trying to perfect this unique style.

This morning we posted a great question on the Yahoo!7 homepage asking you What are your best memories of him and his music? There are so many great responses (keep them coming!) but I wanted to share a few with you.

HIS MOONWALK. I still remember all my friends trying to do it.. we’d fall down laughing when our teacher tried to do it, looked like he was constipated.. No one came quite as close to the King of Pop.
- Sydney =)

Billie Jean, 1983. His red suit, white socks and black loafers. I still think this song is his finest musical moment.
- R2R

My positive memory….he landed in Papua New Guinea in 1997 in search of fuel on while on his way to NZ from some place in Asia….I saw him from 20 mtrs away.. in less than 50 minutes more than 1000 fans gathered at the Jacksons Int Airport…
- Pontai

Running home around the corner from a friends place after dark at 8years old after just having watched his big sisters recording of the Thriller filmclip and freaking out,wondering if there were any grisly ghouls after me!
- Birds

So, So, many of them, where to begin. Which one? Everytime I stepped on stage (now retired professional dancer 27yrs) in OZ or OS! Having the privilege to perform to this icons works, but alas, seeing MJ @ Parramatta Stadium in 1987. Source(s): Yahoo of course! Thanks for your coverage on MJ.
- donna

For me, almost every one of his songs remind me of something in my childhood.  Blame it on the Boogie will always take me back to teenage discos and those hilarious dance moves, Bad reminds me of dancing around the living room with my brothers and I’ll always remember the feeling of hope and inspiration the first time I heard Heal the World.

RIP Michael Jackson and thanks for the wonderful memories.

Caitlin
Community Manager

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Last week another Tuesday night passed and still the Oz Lotto jackpot hasn’t gone off. It’s a bit disappointing for all of us who spent our hard earned cash on a ticket. On the bright site, at least we had another week to dream about what we’d do with a cold, hard $90 million.

Last week I went to the launch of the Embraer Phenom 300, an Executive Jet that has never before been sold in Australia. If things go my way, this time next week I will have the winning Oz Lotto ticket in my hot little hands and I’ll be able to think about more extravagant purchases, like private jets. Imagine that, being able to fly 9 of your closest friends to Melbourne for an impromptu shopping spree or up the coast for some winter sun. And for only US$7.9million (AU$9.9m), you’d have plenty of change from your $90m for a couple of luxury cars to drive you to the airport.

What else would I buy? Well obviously I’d be calling the real estate agent to talk about my dream home. It would have to be overlooking the water with plenty of balconies and there would be a big fireplace for those cold winter nights where all you want to do is cuddle up with a hot milo and a book. And of course plenty of spare bedrooms for friends to stay when we throw those fabulous dinner parties and serve vintage Grange and Henschke until the wee hours of the morning.

Of course the altruistic side of me remembers that if I won, there would also be a fair amount of money going to charity. However the indulgent part of me wants to endlessly dream. I can just seem myself seeing the hippos and giraffes on a safari in Africa, enjoying a romantic night in a Michelin star restaurant overlooking Paris and splashing out on a boat cruise around the Caribbean with all of my friends and family.

How about you? What would you splurge on if you won $90 million?

Caitlin
Community Manager

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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.

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!

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One of the things I love about Answers is the fact that you never know where you might be getting advice from. It could be your neighbour, it could be an Oxford university professor, it could be a retiree from Nebraska. It’s exciting that so many people in the world have weird and wonderful expertises.

However there is a type of Answers user that you know exactly who they are. They’re a part or our Knowledge Partner program. You may have noticed them  - they’re the users with the little pink badges next to their name. Knowledge Partners are organisations that have expertise in a certain area and want to share their knowledge. We wanted to feature one of our Knowledge Partners – Ph.Art Gallery.

Ph.Art Gallery have been pretty active in the Photography sub category in the last few months. They’ve already got a Best Answer rating of 59% and almost every day they’re in the category answering questions about all sorts of photographic conundrums.

So who are these guys? In their own words…

Ph.Art Gallery, (www.photoartgallery.com) is the ultimate photographic destination it’s where you can Create your own Gallery, to store, print and share your photos with family, friends or the entire world.  If you have ever wondered… “Great Shot, Now What?” . . .  Well why not show off those photos and unlock the artist within. Get those great photos off the hard drive to a place where they’ll be recognised, admired and where you can even earn some money by selling your photographic art around the world. It’s also a place where you can appreciate, create and buy amazing photographic wall art for your very own.

Do you have to be a professional photographer to show your work on the website?

Absolutely not we have created gallery spaces that accommodate all levels of photographer so don’t be shy. It does not matter if it’s your full time career or merely a hobby, if you think it’s a great image then submit it to a gallery and see how you go…

We hope there is a place here for anyone who is passionate and loves photography!

How much is it to buy photos?

At this point we only allow the sale of a photo as a wall print of some sort there is no digital delivery of images and the minimum cost is $50 plus the print costs. Over time we will consider digital delivery, similar to a stock library but this decision will be based around the quantity of images we get in the coming months.

So how are your photography skills? Need to learn techniques like how to shoot lightning or how to highlight one colour in your photo and have black and white everywhere else? Or perhaps you’re more interested in learning about editing techniques like how to lighten and darken photos or need to find a good place to edit pictures? Maybe you’re more interested in buying good photography and need to know where to look? Visit the photography section and ask a question then email Ph.art Gallery to let them know!

Caitlin
Community Manager

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Do you think it’s worth paying money for a few extra channels on Pay TV? I’m in the process of deciding…

I’ve just moved into a new home and haven’t had Foxtel installed. There are a few reasons – for one, it’s expensive, and secondly when we did have Foxtel, there never seemed to be anything on. Often I’d be stuck with reruns of Scrubs, Law and Order, or I’d be outvoted and Fox Sports would be turned on. We decided that reruns probably weren’t worth $60 per month – after all, if there was a series we really liked, we could just borrow the DVD, right?

Most of the time, I’m perfectly satisfied with the offerings on free to air. I love Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters and Packed to the Rafters (which is back on TV in mere weeks!) and Masterchef on Channel 10 has proved a great alternative to Top Chef on Arena. I’ve also been watching more interesting documentaries on SBS and ABC which I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I’d had more channels to plough through. However there have been some hitches.

Live sports is one of them. I’m a bit of a soccer fan and last week the Socceroos played Qatar at an ungodly 2am. With no Fox Sports and not wanting to grace a pub at such an hour, I thought I was going to miss out on witnessing history (we qualified for the 2010 World Cup for those who missed it). Fortunately, a generous friend taped the match and replayed it at her house at a far more palatable 10:30am the next day. Crisis averted!

Secondly, the borrowing DVD plan has come unstuck. When you go to Blockbuster, you usually can only keep a DVD for a week, so for an entire TV series, that’s a bit of a rush. Sometimes I have other things to do apart from watch TV like play sport, see friends and … oh yeah, go to work.

Finally, I do actually quite like some of the Foxtel offerings! Australia’s Next Top Model was such fun; Project Runway was incredibly inspiring and I loved to marvel at the architectural masterpieces in Grand Designs. To be honest, I even miss Scrubs (I know it’s on Channel 7 however unfortunately it’s on at the same time as Top Gear and yet again, I get outvoted).

So now the question of whether to get Foxtel has come up again. Should we believe the ads and get it because then we won’t go out as much? What shows on pay TV do you think makes it worthwhile? Or should we just wait and hope that something decent comes up on Freeview… What are your thoughts?

Caitlin
Community Manager

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Here at Yahoo!7 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:

• Show courtesy to your fellow community members
• Ask and Answer clearly
• Share what you know
• Cite your sources
• Categorise your questions correctly
• Star/Thumbs-up great questions and answers
• Report abuse

Don’t:

• Rant - Posting questions with the sole aim of giving your opinions is a no-no. So is answering questions for the 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.
• Insult others or be obscene - Sexually explicit content and images are not welcome on the site. We also do not tolerate any form of insult, discrimination or hate speech. Answers is a diverse community, hence everyone should be respected.
• Spam - Answers is not a recruiting site, a dating site or an advertising billboard. Posting irrelevant links for personal or financial gain is prohibited.
• Cheat - Creating multiple accounts to reward yourself, copying and pasting other people’s answers and asking for points are all infractions.
• Be harmful and violent - promoting violence or harmful practices and threatening or harassing other users violates the guidelines. Anything that is considered illegal in everyday life is also illegal on Answers.
• Share 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 better understand the Community Guidelines. In extreme cases, members risk losing their Yahoo! ID, and consequently, access to all other Yahoo!7 services. If everyone follows the rules, content quality will be at its best.

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

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Every year when the weather gets cold, I start yearning for a holiday. Whether it’s a hot or cold destination, travelling in winter is perfect. Not only do you get a reprieve from having to get out of bed on those awful dark mornings, destinations are usually cheaper and are much less crowded.

A few years ago I lived in England and with the grey, foggy skies, drizzly rain and short 7 hour days, I spent a fair amount of time on Easyjet and Ryanair websites trying to find budget flights to anywhere with some sunshine.

My favourite winter destination was Italy. I visited there over Christmas one year and was lucky enough to have most of my family join me in a villa in Tuscany (I know, it oozes romance, doesn’t it). As soon as I got off the plane in Pisa, I realised what I’d been missing in my life in London – the sky! It was huge and blue and gorgeous, just like it is in Australia.

Now that I’m back home in Oz and winter looks like it has dig its heels in, I’m back on the net searching for destinations. Last year I went on a lovely little long weekend to Mudgee, NSW. The days were filled with wine tasting, reading books and dozing by the fire. It was a perfect winter retreat.

This winter I’m in the mood for some sun. One area that is of particular interest is Northern Territory, particularly after seeing the movie Australia. It’s not just the balmy 30 degree temperatures that are luring me there, or the fact that the rest of year it pours with rain. I’ve always wanted to see Kakadu but Litchfield Park and Katherine both seem really interesting:

Litchfield is a mini Kakadu, with swimming hole, waterfalls and termite mounds. Katherine has the Gorge (Nitmitiluk National Park) and Mataranka. More

The city of Darwin also sounds pretty cool:

Don’t forget to book yourself onto one of the Harbour cruises, the sunset cruise is particularly lovely. And if you like this sort of thing, spend a day out fishing for the legendary barramundi, several operators have this. More

Wow, I think I better go and book! Where else do you recommend for a winter holiday?

Caitlin
Community Manager

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