Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

If you’ve downloaded the new Yahoo!7 Messenger 8.0 Beta, you may have noticed the new Yahoo!7 Answers plug-in at the bottom of your Messenger window. Since you’re an Answerer this little gizmo not only lets you view interesting questions selected by our editorial team, it also offers some cool features just for you!

To start, the Answers plug-in lets you browse through your questions or answers and set any of them as a status message. This is an easy way to share your questions and answers with all of your contacts.

One of the coolest features the Answers plug-in has to offer is the ability to distribute your questions and answers to specific people in your contacts list. This lets you share a “best answer” with a contact you know will be interested in reading it. Or if you know that one of your contacts has specific knowledge that could help answer that burning question of yours, send it to them directly.

We’re always looking for ways to make Answers work well with other Yahoo!7 Products, and this new Messenger plug-in is only the beginning. There’s a lot more to come, so stay tuned!

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

Regular Answers users would have noticed recent feature questions from Bono and Professor Stephen Hawking. Those two questions were part of US Answers’ Ask the Planet promotion which saw a range of celebrities using Answers to get some helpful advice.

Many of the other celebrities used in the US promotion were not very well-known to an Australian audience but you may like to take a look at Donald Trump’s two questions, one about the lessons learnt from successful entrepreneurs and another about the best advice for raising a child. Former Vice-President of the USA Al Gore asked a question about climate change while Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington asked how to stop the spread of malaria.

But Answers has become so popular – there’s now 50 million registered users around the world! – that celebrities aren’t just using the site during promotions, they’re here all the time. Anthony Michael Hall, an actor you may know from classic Eighties movies such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles visited Answers to ask a question about ESP, while current acting heart-throb Michael Copon who was Lucas in the Power Rangers and more recently appeared in Scrubs and One Tree Hill, asked whether art imitates life or life imitates art.

It’s not just actors. Fans of Blow Out, a reality TV show which screens on Foxtel in Australia, will know Hollywood hair stylist to the stars Jonathan Antin, who visited Answers to ask how water quality plays a role in how your hair turns out. Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has asked two great questions, one about how to stay motivated in workouts and another about whether men and women’s tennis championship earning should be the same.

Answers seems particularly popular with musicians, with many notable music acts posing questions including one of the headline acts at the recent Splendour in the Grass festival, Orthodox Jewish reggae star Matisyahu. He was trying to reveal a metaphysical mystery – How do you tap into the resources of your soul? American punk/emo band Taking Back Sunday asked a slightly simpler question: If you could be any superhero which would you be and why?

American pop star Ciara has asked two questions – who she should sing a duet with and who she should go on a blind date with – while singer/songwriter Teddy Geiger was interested in how many times does a person use the word “the” in day-to-day conversation. Actor/singer/heart-throb Romeo was interested in finding out how you know if the person you’re dating is ‘The One’, while country crooner Ray Scott wanted to know who people are talking about when they say “now that’s country”.

Canadian punk band Three Days Grace were keen to help troubled teens and are looking for a good charity while fellow Canadian chart-topper Nelly Furtado (pictured above) wanted to know what is the most beautiful sounding instrument in the world? The best answer for that one (which was chosen by users) may surprise you.

While all the above questions have been resolved, the answers still make for interesting reading. Please let us know through a comment on this blog if there’s any Australian celebrities that you’d really like to see on Answers – whether it’s asking questions or answering them.

Stuart

We made some updates to the product with many of the suggestions coming straight from you. Let us know what you think!

Get your feedback on your answers quicker
To get a quicker turnaround on the answers you provide, we made the following changes to encourage askers to act quicker on the answers he or she receives:

• Resolve questions after 4 hours – Instead of having to wait 24 hours to pick a best answer, you can now do it in 4 hours–many of you pointed out that it was easy to forget to resolve your question if you had to wait an entire day.
• Questions open for 4 days – Questions will be open for 4 days instead of 7.
• Question extension lasts 4 days – When you extend the open period for a question, you now get 4 extra days instead of 7.
• Voting period lasts 2 days – The voting period will last 2 days instead of 7.

10-point deduction for abuse
We would like to discourage questions, answers and comments that do not follow the community guidelines. We know not everyone is influenced by points, but for those that care about them, we now deduct 10 points instead of just 2 points for every post that is deleted as a violation of the community guidelines.

Bug fixes
The following is a few of the bugs we fixed:

• Best answer bug – Some of you reported that the number of best answers listed on your profile page was incorrect, and some of your best answers were not marked as such.
• Sorting bug – Some of you reported that when you tried to sort by descending order on the category pages, the results were incorrect.
• Tiebreaker bug – Some of you reported that a few questions in tiebreaker status had an answer with more votes than the others.
• Rating bug – Some of you reported being unable to rate best answers even though you haven’t reached your daily limit.

That’s it for now! If you’d like to discuss these changes, feel free to leave a comment or chime in on the forum.

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

As a kid I used to make up strange concoctions with anything that I could find in the fridge or cupboard. I never ate it or used it for anything, but it was fun to see the colour and texture change: chocolate sauce, fruit juice, desiccated coconut, ice cream, balsamic vinegar (from Modena, of course!) and a bit of corn flour for thickening was just the start!  It’s been a long time since I put one of these together, but I recently cleaned my silver with bi-carb and aluminium foil, a great home remedy that doesn’t damage it and really works like a dream.

For some interesting reading and great ideas for home remedies I have put together a list. I haven’t had a chance to try them all out yet, so if you have experience with any of them please share your thoughts with the rest of the community by leaving a comment below.

• Keeping a dog off your lawn
• Keeping flies off your dog
• Getting rid of fleas
• Getting rid of ants around your house without harming pets
• Solving excess grass and weed problems
• Removing mould from bathroom floors and walls
• Cleaning copper bottom pots
• Preventing wrinkles on your face
• Making your hair strong and and shiny
• Improving the look and feel of your hair and skin
• Making freckles fade
• The truth about stopping baldness
• Lots of beauty tips
• A girlfriend’s plea to stop her partner’s stinky feet

There are some great answers on other topics, but it is always good practise to use your common sense and/or seek a medical expert if appropriate.

Alana

Some users have been wondering why their questions sometimes receive so few answers. Even if you have submitted a question that is well-written, detailed and specific, it still may go unanswered for days. Why?

Well, keep in mind that Answers now has over 15 million questions and answers, and thousands of new questions are pouring in every day. This means that most users will only scan the list of open questions before clicking one to answer. Therefore, it is much better to write a clear question title that says (for example):

“Where can I find a good place to play paintball in Sydney??”

rather than

“Help!!! Click here!!!???” Details: “I want to play paintball in Sydney, where?”

If you don’t write what you’re really after in the main body of the question, users who may know the answer are more than likely to miss it.

Another tip for getting quality answers is to make sure your question is categorised correctly. That’s because people with knowledge about a particular topic tend to watch their favourite categories for new questions they can answer. For example, one of our previous feature users yarnlady_needsyarn (who is at level 7 and is an answering machine), answers almost exclusively in the Hobbies & Crafts category. If you want expert advice, you need to go to where the experts are!

Posting a pavlova recipe question under Business & Finance will probably not get you anywhere. Putting your question in the right place helps interested users find it, and answer it. Also, try not to post questions in the “Other” categories, as these categories sometimes get very little attention because they’re seen as too random or irrelevant. You’ll have a far better chance of getting your question answered if you put it into the specific category where it belongs. Taking a minute to look around in the categories will save you having to come back and post the question over and over. It also saves us having to delete these repeated postings.

Of course, as we’ve mentioned before in previous blog posts, you will get the best answers by writing clear, concise, grammatically correct questions. It sounds obvious but be careful to write your question in question form. Don’t just write a statement with a question mark at the end – for example, “The third Pirates of the Caribbean movie?” – as other users may not know what you’re asking for. It also becomes a candidate for deletion as “Not a question or answer”.

And one final point which we’ve already covered in this blog before but it bears repeating – NO CHATTING. If you want to chat go to Yahoo!7 Chat or Yahoo!7 Groups as questions such as “Do you like my avatar?” and “I’m bored, who wants to IM me?” will be deleted and you’ll lose points for every deletion. This is definitely not a good way to get quality answers!

Stuart

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when thinking about something as big as ending global poverty. It’s hard to even understand the scope of this problem, let alone think of ways to solve it, and it’s difficult to imagine how one person could make a difference.

Bono’s question about finding ways to make poverty history raises several issues, some of which are reminiscent of Isaiah Washington’s question about fighting the spread of a disease like malaria. These goals may feel massive, but as many of you pointed out in response to Isaiah’s question, discussing them is the first step to making change become a reality.

Ending poverty on a global level is not going to be easy, but that doesn’t mean the effort shouldn’t be made at all. Bono, and groups like Make Poverty History and

Aside from being one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, Stephen Hawking has also made some popular guest appearances on television – as a member of the Vice Presidential Action Rangers on Futurama, and as Lisa’s saviour on The Simpsons. Now he’s joined the Answers community to ask, “How can the human race survive the next hundred years?”

Already popular amongst Answerers, some ponder why he has yet to win a Nobel Prize, while others question his religious beliefs. We’re certain Professor Hawking will be pleased to see that his own ideas about black holes and the survival of the human race are being discussed on Answers.

Who knows, maybe Stephen Hawking will pen a new book based on his experiences in the Answers-verse entitled, “A Brief History of Yahoo! Answers.” In it, he could compare the range of Answers’ gravitational pull to that of a black hole.

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

With events like the FIFA World Cup, there is often controversy about decisions made by the referees. The job of a referee gives them enormous control over the outcome of a match and whether you agree with them or not, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Even with all the controversial referee decisions, the Socceroos will return home with their heads held high and I know that they will get an awesome Aussie welcome (and no doubt a tickertape parade in a few cities!).

Fairness in life is also often controversial as it can be considered subjective. It usually involves a decision made that is out of your control. While doing a search on Yahoo!7 Answers I came across a large number of questions by users all wanting to take control of something or someone or even be less controlling themselves. So, how did life get so out of control?

Answers offers you many ways to help you balance all that is on your plate, which is a good step towards gaining control of many aspects in your life. In life, there are many decisions you need to ensure you are in control. Often, the remedy is to smile, breathe and silently count to ten.

When nervous talking to figures of authority, you may only need to count to six! There is help for people who can’t help shaking uncontrollably in certain situations, however you may need to seek further help if these feelings continue and happen more often.

Some people seek help themselves, while others seek help for those close to them who struggle with control.  From a sister who craves control, to an elderly lady who is stuck in her ways, sometimes the best advice is to take the advice that you would give them – smile, breathe and silently count to ten. can help save not just money, but the relationship itself. 

When it comes to kids it seems many are in a battle with the parents for supreme control. Whether you are a school teacher or a parent of a child with worrying behaviour it seems there are many different ways to flip the control of the children back to your own control -  This question reminds me of a recurring storyline on Depserate Housewives. It doesn’t matter what age your child is (3, 4, 6, 10, or a teenager addicted to online games), as there is an abundance of users with real life experience. 

Many users have recognised a problem and want more self control. What advice would you give to 20 year old trying to control their anger or a woman trying to find out if her partner really is too controlling?

So, when you think a situation or life is beyond your control, take a deep breath, count to ten, then gather the cookie crumbs and decide what to do with them. You will probably find yourself smiling at your decision. 

Alana