Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Two years ago I started working on a brand new Australian website at Yahoo!7 called Answers. I quickly became obsessed (even joining the Answerholics Anonymous Group!) and was drawn in by the novelty of searching for information by asking a specific question.

It was a buzz to ask a question about something I couldn’t find in regular web search and get an answer from a complete stranger, perhaps even in another country who was an expert in that area. However, being a bit of a trivia buff and accumulating vast amounts of seemingly useless information over the years I soon found people who could benefit from my knowledge and experiences. From early on it was my aim to keep my Best Answer ratio over 75% which I have done to this day.

I have seen the Answers Community grow from a handful, to nearing 2 million Australians. It is this Community that is the heart of this amazing site, making Answers the largest and most successful question and answer site on the web.

In celebration of Yahoo!7 Answers’ 2nd birthday we would like to hear from you, the Answers Community, about your experiences on the site – how long you have been in the Community, where you a from, what you like, what you want to see changed and most of all how Answers has helped you in your life – we value your opinions and always are open to hearing your ideas.

Please send us an email or leave your comments below.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Alana
Product Manager, Yahoo!7 Answers

 I know why Zebras have stripes thanks to Answers!

This is my final post for Answers as I will be moving to a different position within Yahoo!7 very shortly. During my time here, in between staying in touch with the community, making sure trolls are kept at bay and helping spread the world about Answers all over the country I figure I have dug out around twenty fun and interesting questions per day to entertain, inform and amuse the community in places like the Blog, the Best of Answers Module and the Pulse Module on the Yahoo!7 Homepage. It has never ceased to amaze me that each and every day there is a question that I did not know there answer to, or that I had never even thought to ask.

My knowledge has expanded exponentially since joining Yahoo!7 Answers, and I am now able to explain to my friends and colleagues things like why zebras are striped and why golf balls have dimples. I love looking around to learn new things and some of my all time favourite questions are those involving space and the universe, those that give answers to conundrums about the human body and of course the myriad animal questions – the who, what, where, whens and hows of the animal kingdom. Many a popular myth has been dispelled during my time on Answers and I have learnt a great deal about other cultures and their practices. There have been some questions I had never even thought about asking until I got involved with Answers, now I am constantly posting questions to find new answers and explanations.

I love seeing all the friendly looking avatars about the place on Answers and another highlight for me has been getting as many people involved as possible in participating. My favourite question from another Yahoo!7 Team has been the ‘best movie quotes’ one from Y!7 Movies and I also really enjoy seeing all the responses to the harder hitting queries posted by the News Team. It has been great to see so many celebrities getting involved on Answers too, and so much fun to read the responses to their questions. I would definitely have to say my favourite celeb question ever was from Author Jackie Collins – simply because it really reflected her risqué personality! It has been fantastic to see so many Channel 7 and Sunrise personalities on the site too – particularly this one from Sunrise’s Hollywood Correspondent Nelson Aspen. Keep your eye out for more celebs in the near future!

One of the best elements of Yahoo!7 Answers is seeing all the millions of enthusiastic, clever, well informed and witty people who take the time to contribute their answers. I am just blown away by what some people know! I do hope everyone keeps enjoying the site as it grows and develops – I know I will still be a regular user and contributor even though I won’t be involved in the official sense anymore.

You are being left in some very capable hands – so keep having fun!

Clea

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Can this butterfly really cause a cyclone?

“Well isn’t that just Murphy’s Law?”You hear people say this just after something has gone wrong… the idea is that if something can go wrong, it will. Like if you drop a slice of toast – it will always end up with the butter side on the carpet. Especially if you have just had new carpet laid.

But who was Murphy? Why is this funny little saying named after him?

There aren’t many who have theories and the like named after them like the proverbial Murphy. Another example is Pythagoras – but his ideas have a lot more mathematical weight to them than the fanciful sayings of Murphy’s Law. Also based in mathematics is the Chaos Theory, or Butterfly Effect, as it is also known – the idea that a small change like a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can lead to a chain of events that causes a cyclone in Africa.

One theory that has never really been effectively proven, although many have tried, is that each person on the planet is linked to everyone else by no more than six other people. This means that Johnny Depp and I are practically friends. Woohoo! I’ll have to do a little experimenting of my own on that one!

And finally one of my favourite theories is that of Catch 22 – from the book of the same title. The idea from the book, which is set during the Second World War, is that you can only get discharged from the Army if you’re insane, but if you try telling people you’re insane they’ll know you’re completely sane because you’re just trying to think of a way to get out of the Army! So Catch 22 means you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t – which is the story of my life sometimes!

Let us know if you can think of any other fun theories!

Clea

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