September 7, 2009 at 3:59 pm
5 Golden Rules to Answering
A month ago, we presented a blog outlining the five golden rules to follow when asking questions on Answers. After receiving good feedback the community and based on your suggestions, we have decided to outline the five golden rules about answering questions. After all, what would a great question be without a great answer? Here are the rules to ensure quality answers to help improve the site’s content.
- Remember that you are answering to help the asker: Don’t answer just for the sake of getting points or to advertise your own questions to the community. If you don’t know the answer, skip to a question you may be more knowledgeable about. And remember, we now have suggested questions for active users. These are questions that will automatically appear on your homepage. If you want to learn more about this feature, click here.
- Be polite and respectful: No one likes to be ridiculed and insulted. If you don’t agree with the question, offer your point of view in a constructive and respectful way. Answers is a diverse community where everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If you feel that a question or answer violates the community guidelines, report it. Learn more about the reporting system here.
- Use correct spelling: Avoid SMS language and grammatical errors. An answer filled with spelling mistakes and typos is confusing and doesn’t improve the Answers quality. The more understandable your answer is, the higher the chance it will be chosen as Best Answer or make an impression on someone else.
- Be relevant: Don’t digress or change the subject when answering a question. Give a concise answer that sticks to the point.
- Link to existing sources that have the answer to the question: If you know an excellent website or book that might help, mention it – as long as it’s not spam of course. Also cite your sources, they are always helpful if anyone wants more information.
If you want to know more, don’t hesitate to visit our community guidelines and our help pages. Feel free also to share with the community some good questions or answers that you found on the site in your comments to this post.
Yahoo!7 Answers Team
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when can i give 10 pts for best answe and when will i be able to comment n answers and give thumbs up
There’s only one golden rule for getting points though.
Tell the herd what it wants to hear and and support the common delusion.
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When i ask a question i always ask for the people who are answering to be polite and i report anyone being rude and nasty.