Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

There was a fantastic response to Yahoo!7 Answers’ Trivial Pursuit promotion when trivia master Bruce Elder asked the Answers community to come up with a question to be included in the next edition of Australian Trivial Pursuit.

Having come up with more than 70,000 questions for Trivial Pursuit, Bruce certainly had the right qualifications to choose from the excellent questions received. He was highly impressed with the many suggestions offered on Yahoo!7 Answers but eventually chose the question submitted by LadyRebecca, “What did Australia say no to on November 6^th, 1999?”

The question was chosen because it was an event that all Australians of voting age participated in. So, it is very likely that Trivial Pursuit players will be able to remember that the answer is becoming a Republic!

Congratulations to LadyRebecca, whose question will certainly be part of the next edition of Trivial Pursuit, and many thanks to all those who participated!

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

Today we take the next step in our plan to aggressively and proactively combat trolls on Yahoo!7 Answers, and while the secrets of our new system must be kept safely guarded by the Yamster and his new set of nunchuks, we can discuss some of the ideas behind our new approach to combating troll abuse.

Abuse is essentially misuse – for all intents and purposes. Trolls and spammers specifically take the features on Answers that we all have access to and misuse them for their own purposes. So essentially, one of the key facets to our new defense system is preventing the misuse of some of Answers’ key features.

We realize that this is vague, but rest assured that the team has put a lot of work into this next phase in troll prevention. We take this type of abuse very seriously, and we have much more planned for the New Year. While we ready the next stage of our plan to combat trolls and spammers, you can continue to help us out by vigorously reporting abuse. Your reports help, so keep them coming. Also send us your feedback in the forums.

Thank you, and have a Merry Christmas!

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

This had never even crossed my mind before! In children’s story books Humpty Dumpty is always depicted as an egg, yet it is never mentioned that he is one in the nursery rhyme itself. So where did that come from? Of course Answers is a great place to find the background story of Humpty as an egg. I also came across the origin of the Humpty Dumpty rhyme which is really interesting to learn about.

There are lots of questions and responses posted at the moment about the original stories of particular nursery rhymes such as Three Blind Mice, Sing a Song of Sixpence, Ring Around the Rosey and Jack and Jill. Most of these stories and sayings actually relate to bloody and violent events in European history, even seemingly harmless ones such as Mary Mary Quite Contrary.

It is amazing that these little songs and rhymes have endured through the centuries as a way of entertaining children when their real meanings of murder and mayhem would be more likely to cause nightmares!

Clea

Less than a week till Christmas Day! This is such a busy time, with everyone rushing around trying to buy each family member the perfect gift, acquiring ridiculous amounts of food, putting up decorations and heading off to end of year parties. I personally love the silly season because it means I can dust off my Christmas albums and sing along to my favourite carols.

Love it or hate it, Christmas comes every year. Most of us enjoy getting into the spirit and following yuletide traditions, but do we even know why we follow so many rituals at this time of year that aren’t linked to the original meaning of the holiday? For instance every family puts up a Christmas tree – but where did the practice originate? And when did we start pulling Christmas crackers at the table? I was also interested to hear about how Santa’s suit came to be the way we know it nowadays.

There are lots of Christmas themed questions being asked by the Answers community at the moment – and there is a lot of interest in what those who don’t celebrate Christmas do at this time of year. If you have any Christmas questions why not post them and wait for someone to help you out!

Clea

One of my consuming passions is travelling –I love seeing and experiencing new things so I am always planning my next overseas or interstate adventure. With airfare rates so competitive nowadays international travel isn’t the luxury it used to be but rarely do I ever stop to think that this might not always be the case. The reality is that with oil prices soaring skyward we soon may not be able to do so. There is also the problem of thousands of travellers taking their toll on ancient sites and fragile environments.

Answers is joined this week by Tony Wheeler, founder of the legendary Lonely Planet travel guides, and he has posed the interesting question How do we make travelling world wide a sustainable thing in the long term? Tony and his team spend six months of the year jetting off to all corners of the globe to gather information for the Lonely Planet books, so obviously this is an issue of great concern to him – not only because he likes to travel but because he wants everyone to be able to experience what the world has to offer for many years to come.

Clea

The US TV show Sex and the City introduced us to Cosmopolitan cocktails, brought Manolo Blahnik shoes into mainstream vocabulary and had the whole world talking about the adventures of Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte.

The creators of the show certainly had to know the ins and outs of sex and dating, and one of the writers, Liz Tuccillo, transferred that knowledge into the best selling book “He’s Just Not That Into You”. She was featured on a range of US television shows talking about how to spot the signs that a man wants out of a relationship.

Liz is visiting Australia this week and has joined Answers to ask for your help as she researches her latest book on “How to Be Single”. She’s already posted three questions about Australia’s bachelors and whether they’re worthy of an Aussie girl’s attention. I’m sure lots of us ladies will have some tips for her!

Clea

I’m a keen supporter of the Australian cricket team so of course I’m really happy that “our boys” have been playing so well in this year’s Ashes series, winning both tests so far.

The series has now moved to Perth and the 3rd test of The Ashes will start at the WACA on Thursday. England is trying to stay optimistic despite their losses in both Brisbane and Adelaide, with opener Andrew Strauss declaring that his team hasn’t lost sight of that trophy just yet. I suppose time will tell – you can keep up to date with the scores on Yahoo7’s Battle for the Ashes webpage.

Don’t forget that during each test Australian cricketing legend Justin Langer will be taking time out to ask your thoughts on all things cricket – you can give your opinion right now on whether the third umpire should be used to help make LBW decisions.

Clea

When I was growing up my family and I would load up the car and drive from Perth to Margaret River for the Christmas Holidays. No trip down the coast would be complete without a visit to Simmos – a tiny ice cream factory that was practically in the middle of nowhere. They had tubs and tubs of amazing flavours – everything from apple pie through to zabaglione and I’d take forever to choose which one I was going to have. Despite the out of the way location my family and all of our friends agreed it was the best ice cream the country has to offer.

Simmos has since expanded and now has several outlets on the West Australian south coast, but it’s still definitely tasty enough to qualify for a new segment that will feature on Channel 7’s The Great Outdoors in 2007 called Australia’s Best.

We’ll be joined over the next couple of weeks by The Great Outdoors host Ernie Dingo, who will be keen to hear some of your recommendations on Australia’s Best –

• Pies
• Cake shops
• Beer gardens
• Caravan parks
• Bowling clubs

Mmmm pies…

Clea

I am very pleased to introduce a new  Answers team member, Clea. You will start to see her more around Answers, the Answers Forum and writing blog entries. Clea is already really passionate about Answers, so it is great to have her on board.

Alana

The Yahoo!7 Answers Team and Bruce Elder are looking for a sensational question to include in the next edition of Australian Trivial Pursuit!

Having been involved in every edition since the game’s arrival in the country in 1984, Bruce is the ultimate trivia master who holds the answer to each of the 70,000 questions developed for the Australian versions of Trivial Pursuit.

Along with the chance to have your very own question included in the next edition of Trivial Pursuit, we also have 10 games to give away to the 10 best trivia questions to celebrate the release of the new Pursuit Genus VI Edition. So put your thinking caps on and think of the trickiest, most entertaining, Australian-oriented questions you can and answer Bruce’s question.

For inspiration you may like to look through the content on Answers or use Yahoo!7 Search.

If you can’t see the video below, try clicking here.

Alana