Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Fairer voting rule
Many of you have suggested that to make it fair for everyone, you should not be able to vote for your own answers. We’ve made this update, and hopefully it will help put everyone on a level playing field.

Search-ahead improvements
By now most of you know that when you start typing in a question, you’re shown similar questions that were asked before. If you see that someone else has asked the same question, you can save the trouble and points of asking it yourself. In this update, we’ve improved the search algorithm to make the results more relevant (see screenshot).

New rules to improve content quality
As you know, we’re always working to improve the content quality of Answers, and dissuade abuses that take away the impact of the good Q&As YOU work hard to write. So in this update, we created two new rules to help keep clean and useful information in, and trollers out.

Two-point deduction for user deletions
Now, when you delete your own answer, two points will be taken away. This is to make it less attractive for people who write junk answers, delete them, and avoid a violation while maintaining their point gain.

Two-point deduction for all violations
I think most of you agree that it shouldn’t pay to abuse Answers. Now, if your question or answer is deleted for a violation of community guidelines, you will lose two points.

As always, we’d like to know what you think of these changes.

The Yahoo!7 Answers Team

Finding questions and answers is now more convenient than ever, because you can search Yahoo!7 Answers directly from your Firefox Search Bar!

Simply go to https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search-engines, and click “Yahoo! Answers” to add the icon to your Search Bar (see screen shot).

Of course, we’re always only a click away with the Yahoo! Toolbar.

Have fun!

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

What will you be doing on April 25?

ANZAC Day is Australia’s most solemn public holiday but it’s also an opportunity to celebrate our freedom and unique national character. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and while the ANZAC legend was born in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign of 1915, ANZAC Day commemorates the sacrifice of our brave soldiers in all subsequent wars. Yahoo!7 Answers users have so far asked 24 questions on ANZAC Day in the last month.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, it created a powerful legacy and the “ANZAC legend” has become a defining part of the national identity of both Australia and New Zealand. In recent years, Gallipoli itself has become the focal point for ANZAC Day commemorations with thousands of Aussies and Kiwis of all ages making the trek to Turkey to pay their respects at the original battleground.

Back home, sombre and emotional dawn services are held throughout Australia and New Zealand with more celebratory marches of returned service men and women taking place later in the morning. After that, it’s time for a BBQ with friends and family or a cold drink with your mates and a few games of 2-Up – don’t miss your chance as ANZAC Day is the only day of the year when you can gamble on this coin-tossing game.

Two of the most memorable ANZAC Day moments are the playing of The Last Post and the recitation of The Ode. It never fails to put a tear in the eye of an old ‘digger’, especially the last stanza:

They shall grow not old….as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them

Stuart

Welcome to the Yahoo!7 Answers blog. By now, some of you might have already become addicted –we certainly are!

We’re publishing this blog so we can share with you the latest product enhancements and features, highlight interesting questions and answers, and, of course, give kudos to great answerers. So check back often, because you wouldn’t want to be out of the loop on the exciting improvements coming soon.

We’ve received great feedback so far, and we want everyone to know that your opinion counts! Even though we can’t respond to every feedback email, we read each and every one. Also, we depend on YOU to set the tone and make the community flourish, so keep on asking interesting questions, giving thoughtful answers, and if you see something that doesn’t belong in Yahoo!7 Answers, report it–the community will appreciate it!

Alana & Stuart
Yahoo!7 Answers Team