Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Since the launch of the Answers Network we have received a considerable amount of feedback from the community. We’ve read through a lot of positive feedback and are happy to hear that many of you find the new Answers Network useful and are enjoying the new feature. We value your thoughts and ideas and we hope that we will continue to hear from you.

We have also read through some helpful and constructive criticism of the new feature. Given your feedback, we’re aware of some confusion surrounding the Top Contributors badges, and the concerns surrounding privacy. So we decided to put together a list of frequently asked questions to help clear things up and hopefully put minds at ease.

Top Contributors

Q: What is a Top Contributor?

A Top Contributor is someone in the Answers community who, through their participation on Answers, has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. Each Answers user can be a Top Contributor in up to three categories.

Q: How are Top Contributors determined?

The Top Contributor badge is dynamic, and you earn it by being an active participant who contributes quality answers in a particular category on Answers. Anyone can earn a Top Contributor badge – it does not depend on points or level.

Top Contributors are not permanent, which is to say you must continue to be an active answerer in order to retain a Top Contributor badge. Similarly, even if you are not a Top Contributor at the moment, you can earn the badge by contributing high quality answers in any category or multiple categories of your choosing.

The more actively you contribute quality answers and best answers to a particular category, the more likely you will earn a badge for your contributions in that category. Just like featured users or category leaders, the badge is another way to honour and feature community members who are actively participating and knowledgeable in particular categories on Answers.

This is our first version of the Top Contributor badge, and we acknowledge that it is not perfected, yet. We will be continually improving the logic and heuristics used to choose Top Contributors in an effort to ensure that people who receive them are the most deserving. We’ve heard your feedback and we understand that there are concerns about abuse of this badge, and we will change the rules for Top Contributor as needed to combat gaming or abuse.

Q: I’m a Level 1-4, why am I considered a Top Contributor?

As mentioned before, an Answerer’s level or total points accrued in Answers don’t actually factor into consideration for Top Contributor status. If you are a Level 1-4 and have been selected as a Top Contributor it is because you are actively providing quality content to a particular category.

Q: I’m a Level 4+, why am I not a Top Contributor?

Again, a user’s level is not the deciding factor for Top Contributor consideration. As mentioned before, Top Contributors fluctuate depending on your weekly participation habits in each category, so you may find yourself sporting an orange badge in the near future.

Q: What if I don’t want the Top Contributor badge?

We see this as a badge of honour and want to acknowledge the time and effort that Top Contributors have put into answering questions in a particular category. We hope that Top Contributors will be proud of their badge. However, we’ve heard concerns from you that the badge may unfavourably bias rating and best answer selection against Top Contributors. We’re investigating this further and if such bias develops we will provide you an option to hide the badge.

Q: Some Top Contributors have contributed some less-than-quality Q&A to Answers, why are they still considered Top Contributors?

There is a slight delay in the process of calculating and updating the Top Contributors on Answers, so there is a chance that you may see this occur from time to time. However, if Top Contributor’s Q&A becomes less than favourable, they will not remain a Top Contributor for long, as the next update will likely bump them out of the running.

Privacy on the Answers Network (Beta)

Privacy and stalking behavior are two things that the Yahoo! Answers Team takes very seriously. As mentioned in the post introducing the Answers Network (Beta):

“We’ve managed to pack in the majority of functions envisioned for the Answers Network, but we didn’t get to everything in time for the release window. So there will be some updates to this feature in the near future. We are working on increasing the capability of choosing who you are sharing Q&A with in your personal network – including being able to block and ignore users, and greater control over the visibility of contacts and fans.”

However, what about privacy concerns with the current Beta version of the Answers Network? Here are a few answers to help clarify these concerns.

Q: If someone adds me as a Contact, what happens?

When someone adds you as a Contact they will appear as a Fan in your profile. You will not see Q&A updates from them. People who are your fans have access to your Q&A on the site through their profile page. Everyone else still has access to your Q&A through your profile page.

Q: So what happens if I choose to add one of my Fans to my Contacts?

If you add a Fan as a Contact they will get moved into your contacts tab on your profile. Anytime you ask a question they will see your question appear in their “Network Q&A.” Likewise, their content will appear in your “Network Q&A” when they ask questions.

We recommend that you only add people you are familiar with as Contacts. If you happen to add someone to your Contacts, and decide later on that you do not wish to receive their updates in your “Network Q&A,” simply remove them as a contact.

Q: What if I do not want people adding me into their Contacts?

The Answers Network is totally optional. If you do not want people to be able to add you to their “Contacts,” follow these steps to opt out:

- Go to your profile and click on “Edit my Info.”

- Uncheck the box that says “Allow other people to be my Fan” under the “Sharing” preferences.

- Save this new preference

Thanks for continuing to make Yahoo! Answers such a great place for people to share knowledge. We hope you are enjoying the Answers Network (Beta).

Yahoo!7 Answers Team