Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

Boo! Don’t be scared! Answers will be down this Saturday, October 31st starting at 3pm AEDST (Sydney/Melbourne Daylight Savings Time) for scheduled maintenance.

During this time, you’ll be unable to access the Answers site, but will be able to:

• Catch up on old posts on the Answers blog.
• Stop by the Answers Suggestion Board.
• or, if you dare, can take part in a Halloween themed Answers competition (details below)

Additionally, please be aware that the Yamster will be setting back his clocks at 8pm AEDST on November 1st, 2009. During this time no new questions will show on the Answers pages but things will be back to normal after one hour.

Answers Halloween Costume Contest

If you’re feeling festive, download the Yamster avatar and dress him up for Halloween! Feel free to add hats, clothing, or whatever you’d like—just be sure to keep it friendly, clean, and compliant with the Answers Community Guidelines.

Sites like Picnik (which is built directly into Yahoo’s own Flickr) offer a full arsenal of Halloween accoutrements like masks, spiders, and spooky scenes that would make any Yamster squeel. Be sure to check them out here.

Or, you can use something like Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, SumoPaint, or any other paint program on the market to edit or enhance an image.

Not a fan of the Yamster? That’s ok too! You’re welcome to dress up your own personal Avatar in their finest Halloween looks for the competition.

Once you’re through dressing up your Yamster or Avatar, save the image (right click and “save as”) and upload it to your Flickr account. Then, add the image to the Answers Halloween pool—found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/yahoo7answershalloween/.

Submissions must be received by 11am AEDST on Monday, November 2nd. Winner(s) will be posted on the Yahoo!7 Answers Blog and will receive 100 bonus points on Yahoo!7 Answers.

The Rules

• Avatars and/or Yamsters must be submitted to Flickr by 5pm PT on November 1st.
• All images must be in compliance with Yahoo!7’s TOS, Yahoo!7 Answers Community Guidelines, Flickr’s Community Guidelines, and, must not contain mature or adult content.
• Submitted images may only be that of Avatar or of the Yamster—no actual photographs will be accepted or considered.
• No real value is given to this prize: winner(s) will receive 100 bonus points on Yahoo!7 Answers.

Good luck everyone!

As they say, all good things must come to an end. After 18 months of writing blogs and being your community manager, I’m moving onto other projects here at Yahoo!7. However never fear, I have a very able replacement who will be communicating with you in the future.

I’d like to introduce you to Kate – she’s very experienced here at Yahoo!7 and has been working on products such as Messenger and Mail among others. She’s really excited about working with such an active community and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her blogs and seeing what other things she has in store.

So welcome Kate by posting a comment on the blog or emailing y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au

And from me, as the von Trapps so lyrically put it – So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight!

Caitlin
Community Manager

It’s wedding fever at the moment. In the next year alone, my brother, 3 of my closest friends and I will be making one of life’s biggest commitments and saying ‘I Do’ to our partners.

It’s an exciting and daunting time; it seems that making the decision to get married is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to wedding choices. Should we get married close to home or have a destination wedding? Should we have a big extravaganza or a small intimate occasion? What should we wear? Who should be in the bridal party? And so it goes on.

Of course many of these decisions are related to budget. As much as you might want a large, lavish affair with 500 of your closest friends, in reality it’s tough on a budget of $5000 (although some have done it!). And although we all might want to wear Vera Wang on our wedding day, can we really afford to spend up to $12,000 on a dress we’ll only wear once?

Although we might not be able to have everything we want, there are certain things we won’t want to sacrifice. For many, it’s more important to have lots of guests so you might cut back on the dress budget. For others, fancy weddings cars is part of the dream and of course for many, the honeymoon is one aspect that can’t be scrimped on.

So how do we afford these little luxuries? We save of course. Bankwest asked the Answers community what are the best ways to save for a wedding and here are some great suggestions:

Cranberry says:

Research  ways of how to “hit two birds with one stone” with your expenses. It could be buying fabric for your wedding table clothes that you can later turn into curtains for your new home, or choosing a bridal gown design so that you can remodel the gown afterward into a dress you can wear again.

Marie157 has a great idea:

Both my fiance and I each have $100 per week taken out of our paycheck and deposited into an account at a different bank (that way we wouldn’t think about it every time we logged into our online banking through our main bank). We also deposit any money that we get for birthdays and holidays into the account.

almarj70 believes the savings are all in the suppliers:

Avoid any vendor that claims to be a wedding “expert” or something similar. We used a small suburban florist for my bouquet, I got change out of $100 and it was just as pretty as something you would get from an expensive florist.

Bubble130999 cut back on her daily expenses:

I opened up a high interest offset account that was attached to my normal wages account, I called it my fancy account. I gave up buying take-away coffees every day at work and taking my lunch’s from home. Those two items alone added up to $55.00 per week, coffee’s $15.00 and lunches $40.00. I had that transferred in my fancy account. I did the same thing with my partner, another $55.00 a week. Without effort we were saving $110.00 per week, $5720.00 a year.

That’s just only the beginning of the wedding advice on Answers. Using Answers, I’ve managed to find readings for the ceremony, figured out some great colour schemes and even a song to do our first dance to. If only the community could work out my place settings, do the invitations and find me some inexpensive bridesmaid shoes that match green dresses then I’d be happy!

Caitlin
Community Manager

It’s getting to the end of October. Christmas decorations are going up in the shops, the weather is getting tantalisingly warm and we’re starting to think about the end of the year and all that comes with it.

Apart from searching for Christmas presents, planning the ultimate New Year’s Eve and organising summer holidays, the end of the year is usually a great time for reflection. A time to slow down and think about what we achieved over the year and what we hope to do in the coming 12 months.

With this in mind, we’re putting together a book with the Yahoo!7 Answers achievements of 2009. We’ll be giving you a rundown of our favourite sponsors, celebrities and special features of the year as well as some of the best questions.

And in true community style, we’d like you to contribute. We’d like to know what your favourite questions of 2009 were. Was there an answer that just blew you away in both its accuracy and writing style? Was there a question that you thought was quite fascinating? Or was there an answer you gave that you’re quietly proud of?

Tell us about it here -
What are the best Questions and Answers you’ve seen in 2009?

Stay tuned for more!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Recently, many of you wrote to us about unresolved questions and questions that are in tie-breaker status on the site. The best way to make sure no question remains undecided, is to resolve it either by picking a best answer, or putting it up for voting. Here is an overview of how the voting process works.

Vote as best answer

When a question is asked, it initially remains open for 4 days, but can be extended at any time to remain open for a total of 8 days.

• If two or more answers are collected, you can either pick the best answer or let the community vote to choose the best answer. If you take no action to resolve the question, the answers are automatically put to a vote by the community.
• If your question receives only one answer, you can extend the open period for four additional days to allow more time for answers to be posted or you can pick ‘No Best Answer’. When your question expires with only one answer, the question automatically goes to a vote, with No Best Answer as the second option. If an answer is chosen as the best, your question becomes resolved. However, if the No Best Answer option is chosen as best, the question is automatically deleted and you get five points credited back to your Answers account.
• If a question doesn’t receive any answers, the question expires and is deleted.
• A question becomes a Resolved Question when a Best Answer is chosen. After a question becomes Resolved it stays in Yahoo!7 Answers and is available for searching and browsing. The Best Answer remains open to receive comments and ratings from the community.

How do I put my question up for voting?

If you take no action and the question expires, it automatically goes to a vote.  Or:

1. Wait at least four hours after posting the question.
2. Go to the question within the open period, before it expires.
3. Click Edit in the action bar below the question.
4. Select Ask for a Vote in the edit menu.

How do I find questions up for voting?

1. Go to the category of your choice
2. Select the ‘In Voting’ tab
3. You can sort the undecided questions as you want

What’s a tiebreaker?

If the vote ends as a tie, your question remains in voting as a tiebreaker. Once a vote has been cast, the question is checked shortly afterwards to determine if there is a best answer. There are heaps of questions out there waiting to be voted on because they’re in tiebreaker status. Vote so you can get these questions resolved.

As you can see, voting makes a huge difference. If you choose an area you are expert in, you can easily vote for the best answer. If you choose a category you don’t know much about, you end up learning a lot by reading the answers. You can pick the best answer, based on detail, helpful tone and general quality, without having to be an expert.

Have more questions? Let us know.

We’ve got a question this week from Bankwest asking: ‘Do you only go to the movies on Tuesday?’ They’re obviously referring to Cheap Tuesday – the one day of the week where you can get into the flicks for sometimes only $5 – $10. When you’re on a strict budget, it’s these sorts of tricks that help you save money without sacrificing the fun side of life.

It made me think about other ways to enjoy life while still putting some money away. There are heaps of tips on Answers. I love XoxoxoxoX’s idea for pinching pennies at work:

…Buddy up with couple people at work and rotate to bring lunch. It is like family cooking at home, more people eat together actually save money… More

Washdcwhc has some great tips for reducing bills at home:

Do you have a lot of small appliances around that house that are always on? I cut my electronic bill almost in half by unplugging all the clock radios and night lights. I also bought some of those florescent bulbs that look a lot like a regular bulb. These things use 80% less electricity than regular bulbs. You would be surprised, but these small things add up. More

Elle says rethinking grocery shopping can save money:

We make sure to go grocery shopping only once a week so that we don’t spend as much on food. I notice that a few trips to the market become costly versus one trip to the (supermarket) saves us about 100/week. More

Chegg says it’s as simple as knowing what you’re spending:

The biggest thing that changed my spending habits and saved me money in college is that I started tracking what I was spending. It sounds so simple, even I was surprised at what a difference it made! I used an Excel spreadsheet, but you could just as easily write it down in a notebook or use an online service like Mint.com. Know where your money is going, and you’ll start to see where you can save money! More

I’m definitely going to try MSAD’s idea!

Have 80’s movie night. You can buy cheap older movies….so flash back to your favorite 80’s movie and invite your friends over. Everyone can chip in for the cost of pizza. (Caddy Shack, Footlose, Say Anything, Real Genius, The 3 Amigos, Pretty in Pink are all 80s movies). Encourage your friends to wear their best 80’s attire. More

What about you? What ways do you save money but still have a good time? Leave your tips below!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Recently, we’ve blogged about the type of low quality content that is not allowed on Answers -  avatar games, chatting and gaming questions. Since then, a lot of questions have been asked about polling and surveys, and how these are different from chat.  Generally, polls and surveys seek advice and looks to gather a collective opinion around a subject – that’s exactly what we want to see.

Having such a large number of people in the Answers community lends itself to gauging public opinion through a poll or a survey.  Polls and surveys are allowed on Answers and this week we have some recommendations to help you get the most out of your survey:

• Make use of the polls and surveys category: This may sound like we are stating the obvious but consider that placing your poll in the right category will attract responses from people looking to help.  It also makes it clear that your question is intended to garner opinion.
• Keep your questions as short as possible: Long questions can lead to misinterpretation and confusion.
• Be clear about the information you want: Write questions that everyone will understand in the same way.
• Avoid vague and biased questions: Stick to one topic. The question should point directly to the information that is needed. Write questions that do not lead people to answer a particular way.
• Avoid ‘yes’- ‘no’  and rating questions: It encourages games and chatting and will result in a violation.

Here are a couple of example of good quality polls and surveys:

Which fictional character would you be and why?

Survey: which commercial would you like to see kicked off air forever?

Do you have any further tips to share?

What is going on with this weather? In the last week, I basked in the sun on the hottest day since summer, got completely drenched while hosting an outdoor bbq and have had to pull out the coat and scarf to deal with these crazy winter like temperatures.

Not only that but it seems there are daily alerts for earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons. In the same week alone there has been flooding in the Philippines, a Typhoon in Japan, an earthquake in Indonesia and a tsunami in Samoa plus warnings for Australia, New Zealand and much of the South Pacific. It’s enough to make you want to crawl underneath the covers until the world becomes a more sensible place.

So what is going on? Is it global warming? Is it coincidence? Can we do anything? According to Thalia K, it’s because  of where we are in the cosmos:

We are approaching the plane of the Milky Way on December 21, 2012. Many scientists believe that the magnetic pull of the milky way the closer we get to this date is causing so many earth changes to occur. If those scientists are correct we are in for a very big shake. More

Other scientists have a different theory. According to Dr Huilin Xing, from the University of Queensland’s Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC), Australia’s tectonic plates might be to blame for the Samoan and Sumatran earthquakes.

What about the weather though? All that rain and wind that we’ve been getting? While some people speculate that it might be the beginning of the end, according to Violation Challenged, these sorts of things happen all the time.

Friday Evening I was sitting in an airport next to another traveler who informed me he was a native of Manila. He shook his head as he watched the ‘disaster’ being reported in the Philippines. He pointed at the CNN reporter and stated, “That happens all the time in Manila, it isn’t a disaster, it’s just a regular occurrence…”More

Interesting perspective. As for Australia – were the dust storms related to climate change? Some say yes some say no. What about the current weather – hot one week, cold the next. Apparently it’s ‘not unusual’. Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Peter Zmijewski says October often brings very cold as well as very hot weather.

“October can be very temperamental,” he told AAP. “It’s due to adjustment in the atmosphere. It’s Spring.” More

Hmm ok. Looks like there will be a few more days of waiting it out under the covers for some better weather to return. Oh well, at least it’s warm there!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Great news! Since we launched Yahoo!7 Answers, over 1 billion questions and answers have been posted from across the world. It’s a huge number but the way we see it,  it’s a true testimony of how great of a community-driven knowledge website Answers is.

Did you know that:

• The Answers community counts over 179 million users. That’s more than half the population in the United States!
• Answers is available in 26 markets and is translated in 12 languages. From English to Japanese, we’ve got you covered!
• Every day, an average  of 15 million users visit the site. That’s how many people visit Disneyland every year!

We thank all of you for helping us reach these landmark numbers.

As we continue to make Answers the biggest and best source to find and share information, we value  your feedback and comments, so please keep in touch with us through the blog .

How can we improve your experience on Answers?

Yahoo!7 Answers Team