Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Question: What do Baby Spice, John Howard and Cate Blanchett all have in common?

Answer: They have all taken part in Answers over the last couple of years.

And, they have not been the only ones: there’s a long list of celebrities that have chosen to pose their question to the Answers community and eagerly review your responses.

However, many of you have expressed feelings of concern towards the authenticity of these public figures on Answers. Well, we think you deserve an answer to your questions on this regard: of course they are who they say they are (you’ll recognise them because you’ll see a green badge with the label “official” under their avatar).

It’s that simple. You know us, and we are always talking about our community guidelines, our terms of service, and privacy policy. Well, that applies to us in first instance, and we would never allow someone impersonating a public figure –or a non-public figure, of course.

Now, let us explain the workflow to you: the celebrity asks the question (many even get recorded on video), the community answers the question and the celebrity chooses the Best Answer.

That’s exactly what happened in the case of our latest celebrity: Seann William Scott (see the video here).

And that’s it: there’s no trick or behind-the-scenes movements, and of course they are who they say they are! And… they are amazed at the passion the Answers Community puts in their Answers. Be proud!!

Now it’s your turn to Answer: would you like to see someone asking a question to the community? We don’t promise anything, but we’d love to hear your suggestions and do our best to make your dreams come true!!

Comment below to let us know who you’ve love to see on Answers!

I have to admit, I’m not the biggest tennis fan. Whenever Wimbledon or the Australian Open is on, I usually have to stifle a yawn during the conversations about Federer vs. Nadal and which of the Venus sisters will win that year.

Strangely, this year I’ve been unwittingly pulled into the drama of the Australian Open. I was forced into watching the Federer – Berdych match on Sunday and despite all best intentions, became strangely captivated. I cheered as the Czech rising star got 2 sets up against the world number two and then joined in his despair as the Swiss maestro fought back to take the game in 5 sets.

There was no time for disappointment as in a matter of minutes, Jelena Dokic was on the court. Talk about a comeback – I couldn’t believe as she fought all adversity (and a twisted ankle) to win against Russian Alisa Kleybanova. As the Aussie crowd cheered, I started to see what all this tennis fuss was about.

The Australian Open has certainly caused a fair bit of discussion on Answers. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be asking a few basic questions about the rules and technicalities of the game:

• What does “ad” mean in tennis?
• What does the umpire in tennis say when the ball at serve touches the net but is in? Net or let?

If you’re a bit more experienced at tennis, you may want to discuss specific styles:

• What do you think of Marion Bartoli’s serving style?
• Which players’ tennis strokes do you find the most aesthetically pleasing?

For those more intrigued by the players than their game, you might want to know:

• What happened between Dokic and her family?
• Is there really an actual feud going on between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer?

Or you might be more interested in sharing your last minute predictions with other tennis fans who are watching the games live:

• Who win Safina vs Jelena Dokic?
• Who will win in the quarterfinal action?

If there’s something you want to know about tennis, simple visit the Tennis section of Answers, do a search and if you can’t find what you’re looking for, ask a question to the myriad Answers tennis fans who are online right now. And don’t forget, you can see all the live scores and video action at Yahoo!7′s Australian Open site.

Caitlin
Community Manager

Every so often we come across an open question that we think hits the spot. If you hadn’t already noticed, we have a little Answers Question of the Day spot on right hand side of the Yahoo!7 Frontpage. This is the perfect place to put these good questions and get a whole variety of answers from the Yahoo!7 network.

Today, Goldie asked the Answers community ‘What does Australia Day mean to you and how will you celebrate it?’ The question has been featured on the Yahoo!7 Frontpage with some great answers so far. Here are some of our favourites:

I am a recent migrant to Australia. To me, Australia Day means celebrating the fact that I have been embraced by the best country, and the best people in the world. Perhaps since I wasn’t lucky enough to be born here, but was lucky enough to become an Aussie by choice, it means very much to me. I will celebrate, give thanks, fly the beautiful Aussie flag, and look forward to the day in the near future when I am granted citizenship here. That will be the best day of my life. Thank you, Australia Fair!! - rose ^_^

How many people know what Australia day is all about? Australia day is about Australia becoming a nation being able to ruled by its people not a dictatorship, we are free to follow what ever religion we choose, most of us have jobs, houses, our children don’t starve, we have a welfare system, sure some times things stuff up, but where in the world could you find better. This is why I think Australia Day should be celebrated, most of all our freedom, After all why do so many people want to come to live here? I am on my own so I will celebrate by going to see the Film Australia. - Dizzyjune76

It’s a day that all Australians black or white or any colour celebrate the lovely country we live in, as the saying goes WE ARE ONE, AND WE ARE AUSTRALIANS. It is to remind us we do live in a lucky country, i am English born but have lived here most of my life. I became naturalised in 1997 after being home to Britain on holiday, and realising it was nice to visit but it was great to get back to Australia my home. I live in West Aus, we have great weather , not to cold , not too hot.lovely beaches, the people are great. i dont celebrate any way special on the day, to lazy to get up early to go to Aussie breakfast, and most of my family live 2 hours away and doing ther own thing, my son and grandkids are in Brisbane. – Suncatcher

“Australia Day” is an important reminder to me that what we fail to acknowledge on this day is that it is, in my mind, “INVASION DAY”. I would prefer that it be a day, like “Remembrance Day” when we take the time to remember the previous thousands of years of traditional aboriginal life was irreparably interrupted. I say “Sorry” for the past injustices, atrocities and crimes commited in ignorance AND in full knowledge. - weeza

Australia Day is very important to me – I will celebrate my great great grand mother who was a koori girl who actually married my great great grandfather giving me both Aboriginal and European heritage – I will celebrate the magnificent history of Australia, all 60000 plus years of it – I will celebrate with a few beers in the pub with a few mates and remember the men and women who served and died in war to give me the life style I live – I will be working on a painting of part of a series I am doing from Dorothea Mc Keller’s poem “My Country” – the stanza ” …it’s beauty…” I will be a proud Australian, as I have every right to be. - Billwilkinsoncps

I’ll be hanging the washing on the Hills’ hoist. – Jenny M

Seriously – time with good friends and family – a great BBQ and a couple of drinks on a hot day – what could be more Aussie than that? - Kylie

Too right, Kylie. Have a great Australia Day!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Here at Yahoo!7 Answers we use badges to designate the different types of community members participating in the Yahoo!7 Answers community. Here is an explanation of the different types and their meaning:

– An Official badge indicates that the identity of a community member asking or answering questions on Yahoo!7 Answers has been verified by a member of the Yahoo!7 Answers Team. This helps us distinguish our celebrity, professional, and sponsor participants within the Yahoo!7 Answers community.

– The Staff badge displays when members of the Yahoo!7 Answers Team or other Yahoo!7 staff members officially ask questions on Yahoo!7 Answers.

– The Top Contributor badge is used to recognise a member of the Answers community who has shown that they are knowledgeable in a particular category. The top contributor badge is dynamic, which means that you earn it or lose it depending on your recent participation in a particular category. To learn more about Top Contributors, please review Top Contributor help.

–  A Knowledge Partner is an official expert sharing their knowledge on Answers. To learn more about this program, please review Yahoo!7 Answers Knowledge Partners.

Now, let us show you a couple of examples:

Official – Seann William Scott

Official – IKEA

Staff – Answers Team Australia

Staff -Yahoo!7 Finance Team

Knowledge Partner – Yahoo!7 Shopping

…and we want to wish you good luck to become the next Top Contributor in your favourite category!

One of the great things about the Answers community is that you never know who could be answering your question. It could be a kindly elderly woman in the suburbs of Perth, a hip teenager on the streets of New York or a middle aged Singaporean businessman. At any time of the day or night you gain a variety of opinions from different people with entirely unique backgrounds and views on life.

Many users on Answers don’t come for recipe tips or to discuss the economy. They’re looking for advice on something a lot more complex – matters of the heart. We’ve all been there; we’ve wondered about whether our crush returns our affections and how we should respond in different romantic situations. It doesn’t matter how old or experienced you are, love is a complicated emotion and sometimes you just need some independent advice to help you see straight.

That’s where this week’s featured user, ♥♥LOVE GURU♥♥ comes in. He’s a 29-year-old writer/journalist with a top contributor rating in the Singles and Dating sub category. In under a year, he’s managed to get 760 best answers from a total of 1353 answers, giving him a 56% best answer rate.

While ♥♥LOVE GURU♥♥’s background is in computer programming, he has attained a bachelor degree in Electronic Media Communications and minors in Sociology, Geology and Women’s Studies. This is perhaps where his interest in giving advice came from. ♥♥LOVE GURU♥♥ writes a weekly advice column and is working on a book about relationships, health, sex and dating. He finds Answers to be a great place to try out his advice before he uses it elsewhere.

So what inspires his answers to the lovelorn?

I draw from my own experiences, my education, and common sense. That last one is pretty important. Sometimes the best thing you can do, is just use a little common sense. Often, rather than just provide advice, I’ll rephrase the person’s question in a new way, and they’re able to help themselves. Often, we know what we should do, but the situation is just really confusing. It just takes someone to either agree with you, or help you look at it in new way.

♥♥LOVE GURU♥♥ finds he often is giving advice to young people who are just beginning to date as they often have many questions and want straight answers. He says:

Of course, I’m careful to not be obscene, but I do draw from both my sociology, behavioural, women’s studies and reproductive biology background to try to answer their questions. I’m careful not to talk down to them, but I try to use language that they’ll understand. It doesn’t do any good to talk down to people, because they tune you out.

♥♥LOVE GURU♥♥ has also found that some questioners are curious to know more about human behaviour. They don’t just want to know how to improve their relationship situation, but also why different people react in different ways.

A common question I get is, how do you ask someone out? It really bugs me to see all these short responses people leave, like, “You just ask them.”  Well, that doesn’t really help them.  So, I like to go into a little more detail.  Again, I keep things conversational, but I provide scripts, examples and biological explanations for why someone may have difficulty speaking to someone.  Oh, I know, it sounds way too complex to provide biological explanations, but the emails and IMs I’ve gotten tell me different.  People like hearing why they are, the way they are. They like hearing they are not alone.  They like hearing there is a biological, psychological, sociological and even anthropological reason for why they’re behaving the way they are. When we start to understand our behaviour, we can actually do something about it. When we receive scripts to follow, hear examples of how others have overcome this problem and get real detail, then and only then can we do something about it.

Next time you’re having a relationship crisis, you’ll know where to turn!

Caitlin
Community Manager

PS Know someone who’s “wow-ed” you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as the next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment below with a link to the user’s profile or best answer, or email the Answers team at: y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au

No matter how confident and competent you are, everyone looks up to someone.  Even the greatest footballers, politicians or celebrities have someone they aspire to being like. President Elect Obama, a man not short on confidence who’s due to be sworn into the most powerful job in the world next week, said recently every time he reads Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address he gets “intimidated.”

In light of this and his new film Role Models, Hollywood actor Seann William Scott has a question for us all:

“Who is your favourite role model and why?”

You can see Seann putting his question to the Answers community in the video above. In fact he’s even answered it himself. Scott explains…

“My greatest role model was my dad. I could give you a funny answer… although he was funny. I was lucky I had a great dad, he was kinda like Bill Murray and Chevy Chase: a superfunny guy. I was told some really great factory jokes.”

So who is your favourite role model? A teacher or a superhero? Someone who inspired you or someone who you aspire to be? Answer Seann’s question and let us know.

January is the month to make new plans and resolutions (as we did in this post) and we want to offer you some tips on how to make the most of your year at Yahoo!7 – there’s some really cool stuff that you can find here. Here you have some examples:

• Finance: don’t miss the latest economic news. 2009 is going to be a tough year, or so analysts say, so better stay tuned and see what happens!
• Mail & Messenger: How often has your new year’s resolution been to be a better friend and keep in touch more often? Well, you have no excuse: with mail and messenger you are just a few clicks away from anyone in the world, so drop them a line from time to time. That will make a smile appear on their faces for sure!  
• Profiles: launched a little time ago in 2008… but big sensation for 2009! – have you got one already? Profiles is the place where you can tell more about yourself, upload your pic, share your interests…
• Flickr: If you are a camera fan, we suppose you already have your account on Flickr (be it just to share your talent or your latest holidays)… but let me share with you the thing I like the most about Flickr: you can geo tag pics. That means you can specify the location in which the photo was taken and it will be added to that point on the map. With all these hot days, the perfect holiday treat is icecream so in the image above, I’ve searched for photos tagged with icecream in Sydney. Yum! And… of course there are millions of photos and videos you can explore. Even the magazines echo about the amount of pictures of Barack Obama!
• Tennis: With the Australian Open starting on Monday, we all want to be kept up-to-date with the latest tennis results. Yahoo!7′s tennis page will feature live scores, videos and photos of the action and all the latest news.
• Dating: Looking for love in the New Year? Yahoo!7 Dating offers you a choice of two services. Visit eharmony to find a match based on true compatibility that is designed to make dating more enjoyable. Or create your free online dating profile on Yahoo!7 Dating and search and browse through thousands of pictures and profiles of single Australian men and women to find your perfect date.
• Video: OK… not everything is going to be serious or “useful”. I mean sometimes, when you’re on the Internet you just want to “kill time”, right? Then, why don’t you check out games or videos?

Of course, we don’t want to leave Answers out: there’s a lot coming in 2009… Stay tuned!

Although it doesn’t have the reputation of the Oscars, the Golden Globe Awards are still a night for Hollywood to sparkle. All the stars dress up in their finery and mingle with other genetically blessed A-listers to recognise the best of the best in (mostly) American entertainment.

Of course I would imagine it’s not all glitz and glamour. For the people attending, it’s probably more about making small talk with second-rate celebrity reporters on the red carpet then getting boozed up on expensive champagne and trying to not look disappointed when they don’t win their award (except for Kate Winslet of course, who won an award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for two different films).

Slumdog Millionaire seemed to be the favourite of the night picking up awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture, Best Original Score – Motion Picture. According to Proto, the reason for its popularity is that it provides another viewpoint on loss and poverty.

If anything, Slumdog Millionaire provides a little perpsective on the GLOBAL financial crisis, and makes it clear how much more competitive things are than most people imagine. As bad as things are for middle-class Americans, Asians and Europeans who’ve lost their jobs, homes, life savings and find themselves in shelters or living on the streets of major cities – hundreds of millions of human beings on this earth have it worse. More

Despite it winning so many awards, Slumdog Millionaire didn’t top your list of must-see films in 2008. Last week Answers user AmandaDee asked ‘What was your favourite film of 2008’. We liked this question and chose to feature it on the Yahoo!7 homepage on Thursday. 184 of you gave your opinions and there were some very interesting results.

The overwhelming favourite was The Dark Knight who some believe was snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the organisation that judges the awards). Fortunately Heath Ledger’s performance didn’t go unrecognised and was posthumously awarded the Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

As for you guys, Twilight seemed to be a particular favourite getting many votes in the Answers poll for the best film of 2008. Also not Golden Globe material, however as ericamaachelle says, it’ll probably get nominated in the MTV movie awards and teen choice awards.

Many of you loved the cheesy singing and dancing revelry of Abba film Mamma Mia which was recognised with nominations for Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for Meryl Streep. Unfortunately it missed out on both awards to Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Sally Hawkins, star of Happy-Go-Lucky.

You were a bit more on the money with your favourite animated film. Many of you fell in love with the cute antics of Wall-E, the Disney animated robot. It was recognised as the Best Animated Feature Film, beating Bolt and Kung Fu Panda to the prize.

Wow it all looks so good! After seeing your favourites and the Golden Globe Awarded films, here are my top five films I want to see:

• The Dark Knight
• Revolutionary Road
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall-E
• Vicky Christina Barcelona

What are yours?

Caitlin
Community Manager

Are you an avid blogger? Well, then you might already know that you can incorporate Answers straight into your blog. What? You didn’t know? Well don’t worry, this blog post will tell you everything you need to know about building an Answers module on your site.

Yahoo!7 Answers Badges is one of the features that Answers and Yahoo!7 have created for you. To use it, you just need to log into your Answers profile and find a box at the bottom of the page which looks like this:

If you click the ‘badge’ link, you’ll be redirected to a page that’ll give you different options of modules and their codes to be included in your blog. You can choose whatever you like, depending on the space available within your blog, your template and what colours you want. Modules are available on JavaScript, Flash and HTML. Each of them is different and has special features:

Custom JavaScript Module
You go to the Builder to make this module. This module is great for variety. You can experiment with different colours, widths, font types, sizes and content. Say that the focus of your blog is music, with this template you can choose to display questions on that specific topic or with particular keywords to ensure that your Answers module will be in tune with your blog. Or you can also add questions to your Private Watchlist so only specific questions will display in your blog. Once you’ve tailored it to your liking, you just need to grab the javascript code provided at the end and add it to your blog. It’s easy!

Flash Module
This module updates itself in real time and shows the questions you’ve asked in Answers, making it easy for people to reply to them in a fast and comfortable manner. It provides you with another way of promoting your questions and extending them to the people who share your interests, increasing the chance of a really brilliant answer.

HTML Module
This is the simplest module we have; it’s small and you could say that it’s a direct link from your blog to Answers. You can add it wherever you want, and you can tell anyone who navigates your site to join Yahoo!7 Answers and answer your questions.

If you’re already a blogger, then it’s time for you to try out how these modules and how easy it is to create them. Remember, all you have to do is log into your profile and all the instructions you need will be waiting for you.

Let us know how it goes!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Just in case you haven’t already come up with a list of resolutions for 2009, we thought we’d offer some ideas:

• I will not post questions like “Are you there?” at 3 o’clock in the morning (or any other time).
• I’ll refrain from reporting as abuse a recommendation to see the movie “Cabin Boy.”
• I promise to search for an answer first, before asking, “Why is the sky blue?” again.
• I will not send a special personal message sharing my insightful thoughts with someone just because I don’t like their answer or question.
• I will not become a broken record and post the same content over and over again. I will not become a broken record and post the same content over and over again. I will not become a broken record…
• I will accept that the only good troll is a good-luck troll with so-ugly-they’re-cute-faces and long colourful hair.
• I will not create 10 accounts so I can rack up points or target other members.
• I will not respond to a question I don’t know the answer to, just to score 2 points.
• I will not crash my fellow community members’ computers by posting malware links.
• I won’t claim Wikipedia’s all-encompassing knowledge as my own and will, in fact, cite the source properly.
• I will continue to ask and answer helpful questions that make Yahoo!7 Answers such a great place to be.

We’ve also made some of our own resolutions here at Answers. This year we’re committed to continuing our fight against trolls and malware links, and to communicating with you through our product update blogs.

What resolutions can you offer to make Answers a better place?

Caitlin
Community Manager