Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

Every day we receive a lot of feedback through the blog and other communication channels. Some of the community’s discussed topics centers around the way to help you stay on top of your Yahoo!7 Answers activity wherever you are. We’ve put together some tips that will improve your connection with the community.

Let’s take a look…

Yahoo!7 Toolbar

Many of you may already be familiar with the Yahoo!7 Toolbar, which is a great way to make your surfing experience more efficient and streamlined by keeping all the information you need in a single click. If you haven’t yet experienced the benefits then download the Yahoo!7 Toolbar now and enhance your Internet experience by:

• Reducing the time needed to load various sites.
• Getting instant access to your Yahoo!7 account and other properties by just clicking a button.
• Getting instant access to Yahoo!7’s powerful search engine.

Yahoo!7 Messenger

Some of you already share your Yahoo!7 Messenger ID to chat directly instead of sending messages. But do you know you can also follow the Answers activity through a plug-in on Y!7 Messenger ?

Let’s see together how to do that…

1. Sign in Y!7 Messenger with your Yahoo!7 ID.
2. Below your friend’s listing, you can click on a link “Add plug-ins”.
3. A pop-up window should appear. Find the Yahoo!7 Answers application and just click on the button “Add”.
4. Normally, the plug-in will appear just below your friend’s listing. Click on it to expand a window and see some interesting questions from Y!7 Answers site.
5. You can click directly too on “Ask” button if you want to be redirected directly on Y!7 Answers.

Feel free to tell us what you think on the Forum. Alternatively, leave a comment below or check us out on Facebook!

It’s almost the end of the week, which means another Five on Friday!

What is Five on Friday?

Well it’s where we feature 5 questions from the week. They can be resolved and we feature the best answer as well,  they could be really great open questions that need some good  answers or they can be questions where you need the community’s help to decide on the best answer.

What sort of questions do we want?

Well, we are pretty open to the sorts of questions we feature here. We’d obviously love to see our Australian and New Zealand users get involved, but if you are from somewhere else in the world and found a really awesome question in your travels across Answers, don’t be shy! The only thing we ask is that they be clean, worthy of sharing and don’t contravene the Yahoo!7 Terms of Service or our Community Guidelines. Feel free to submit as many as you want!

How do they get chosen?

Well, on Friday morning, the Answers team will sort through all the submissions from that week and decide upon the best 5 to feature.

How do we submit questions?

Submit your questions by sending us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au with a subject of “Five on Friday”!

So get cracking and submit those questions to me, either on the email above or by leaving a comment below

Kate
Community Manager

This Easter long weekend, it is important to not just remember to set your clocks back one hour with the end of daylight savings but to also change the batteries in your smoke alarms.

Did you know that almost ¾ of Australians believe they would wake up if a fire started in their homes at night? This is despite evidence to the contrary that your sense of smell is reduced when asleep, in fact; smoke may actually cause deeper sleep.

The recently released, Duracell National Fire Safety Report, found that 49% of Australians believe that smoke would wake them if there was a fire in their home. In addition, only 12% of households test their fire alarms each month and over 60% are not replacing their smoke alarm batteries once a year.

Australian Television and Media personality, Nicky Buckley, has teamed up with Australian fire services and Duracell again this year, to promote the importance of smoke alarms and fire safety. As the spokesperson for this campaign, she is urging everyone to get into the habit of changing your smoke alarm’s batteries when you change your clocks over.

Nicky asks:

• If a fire started in your home during the night, would you wake to the smell of smoke and why?

Smoke alarms are now required by law in all dwellings, so what are you waiting for? Making sure your smoke alarms are in correct working order is a small price to pay for potentially saving your home and your life.

I’ll be changing mine this weekend, you should too!

Kate
Community Manager

Over the past few weeks we’ve made several exciting new changes to the overall Answers experience including changes to the look and feel of the site, as well as a new search experience for Yahoo!7 Answers.

While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favourite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?
A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”
A:   Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo!7 Answers.  From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Aunt Sally may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?
A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?
A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?
A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below or stop by the Suggestion Board!

February 22nd marks World Thinking Day for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts across the globe!

What is Thinking Day?

The founder of the world Boy Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, and his wife Olave who was instrumental in the formation of the the Girl Guides, shared the same birthday – February 22nd.

It was first celebrated in 1926 at the 4th Girl Guide and Girl Scout International Conference held at Girl Scouts of the USA’s Camp Edith Macy; after attendees decided there should be a special day for girls around the world, regardless of which organisation they were in, where they could think of each other and give thanks to their sisters in guiding/scouting.

At the 7th World Conference in Poland in 1932, the World Association’s Thinking Day Fund was established. This is a voluntary contribution by members of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides across the world to help offer guiding and scouting opportunities to young girls and women.

World Thinking Day 2010

The theme for World Thinking Day 2010 is – ‘together we can end extreme poverty and hunger’.

Girls across the world are raising awareness and funds to improve the lives of poorest people of the world.

Five countries, one from each of the world regions, have been chosen this year. These are being highlighted for the difference Girl Guiding/ Scouting makes and the way the organisations challenge poverty in these countries:

1. Haiti
2. Zimbabwe
3. Sudan
4. Georgia
5. Maldives

• In what ways can you raise raise awareness about extreme poverty and hunger?

Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting – Guides are known as Girl Scouts in some countries, such as the United States – will work with young girls and women to develop the skills and the confidence to overcome poverty.

Guides and Scouts in Australia

Whilst Thinking Day is celebrated by the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the Scouts also commemorate February 22nd with Founders Day.

Many of us would either have been in Brownies or Cubs, Guides or Scouts, Venturers or Ranger Guides, Rovers or Rangers. Or at least known someone at school or in our lives who was involved in them. I myself was a brownie from the age of 7, transitioning to guides until I was 15, when I switched over to the Scouts and became a Venturer. All my siblings were involved in both Guiding and Scouting, my Mum even used to send us to school in our uniforms on “mufty days” (casual days)! It was very much a part of our lives well into adulthood.

Both organisations are still going strong with the Girl Guides celebrating 100 years of operations this year. Long gone are the traditional stereotypes associated with being a Guide or Scout, where all you did was tie knots or sew aprons. Girls in both organisations are active and outgoing, with a vast array of activities – both indoor and outdoor.

If you have a child or young adult ranging from 4 to 25 and are looking for a safe and great social opportunity for them, I’d highly recommend contacting either Scouts Australia or Girl Guides Australia. The main difference between the two is that Scouts is for both males and females, whilst Guides are just for females. Both websites have information for the state organisations and can assist you with contacting your local unit.

• Girl Guides Australia – http://www.guidesaus.org.au/
• Girl Guides New Zealand – http://www.girlguidingnz.org.nz/
• Scouts Australia – http://www.scouts.com.au/
• Scouts New Zealand – http://www.scouts.org.nz/

2010 is the Year of the Girl Guide in Australia! Even if you are over 25, there are other ways to get involved, check out the Girl Guides Australia site. Why not get out there?

Kate
Community Manager

When visiting Answers, there are three main ways to engage with the members of the community: you can ask a question, answer a question, or vote.

By now, you’ve figured out that asking a question costs you points, and answering a question awards you points. But did you know that you can also earn a point by voting on an answer?

How do I earn (or lose) points on Yahoo!7 Answers?

• Get a best answer: earn 10 points
• Get a “thumbs up” on your best answer: earn 1 point (max 50)
• Answer a question: earn 2 points
• Choose a best answer for your question: earn 3 points
• Vote for an answer: earn 1 point
• Vote for no best answer: 0 points
• Ask a question: spend 5 points
• No Best Answer was selected by voters on your question: 5 points returned
• Log into Yahoo!7 Answers: 1 point per day
• Violate the community guidelines: lose 10 points
• Delete an answer: lose 2 points

More details on points and levels can be found here.

How can I get to the next level on Answers?

When participating on the site, two tips will help you move from level to level in no time—they are:

• Provide Best Answers—be sure your answers are quality, don’t violate the Community Guidelines and answer the question!
• Search for your question before you ask it: while your question may seem unique, you may be shocked just how many people before you have come to Answers to ask “Why is the sky blue?” – Save your 5 points and use the Advanced Search feature to check the site for similar questions before asking your own.
• Use the “Sort” feature to find questions with the fewest answers- by filtering by the fewest answers you’re naturally “upping your odds” of earning a “Best Answer” as you’ll have fewer other answers to compete against, and, may be providing someone with the perfect answer!

With these tips under your belt, you’ll be at level 7 in no time! Happy answering!

Photo by woodleywonderworks.

It’s time for our inaugural Five on Friday!

To start us off, this week’s questions were sourced by the rest of the team here at Yahoo!7. What we’d really like to see though, is all of you submitting questions either here on the blog or by sending us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au with a subject of “Five on Friday”!

1. Why do some areas of the world have safer drinking water than other areas? asked by Natalia.
2. My chocolate chip cookie batter is too soft! What do I do? asked by Tydodtyp R.
3. What would you do if your husband is not ambitious and play video games all the time? asked by Gangman.
4. Is 150 sit ups per day enough to burn off blubber? asked by Beau Maker.
5. How do I get my sheets feeling crisp when I wash them? asked by Miss_vanshe.

This weeks are all open questions, so if you have a good answer that might help one of the people above, be sure to answer their questions!

Have a great weekend!

Kate
Community Manager

Photo by House Of Sims’

Welcome to our new and hopefully regular blog segment!

What is Five on Friday?

Well it’s where we feature 5 questions from the week. They can be resolved and we feature the best answer as well,  they could be really great open questions that need some good  answers or they can be questions where you need the community’s help to decide on the best answer.

What sort of questions do we want?

Well, we are pretty open to the sorts of questions we feature here. We’d obviously love to see our Australian users get involved, but if you are from somewhere else in the world and found a really awesome question in your travels across Answers, don’t be shy! The only thing we ask is that they be clean, worthy of sharing and don’t contravene the Yahoo!7 Terms of Service or our Community Guidelines. Feel free to submit as many as you want!

How do they get chosen?

Well, on Friday morning, the Answers team will sort through all the submissions from that week and decide upon the best 5 to feature.

How do we submit questions?

Submit your questions by sending us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au with a subject of “Five on Friday”!

Believe it or not, it’s already been a year since we introduced the new Yahoo!7 Answers blog to the community. As we strive to enhance your experience on Answers, we wanted to improve the ways we communicate and expand the ways we engage with you.

Remember that you can access the blog from the Related Links on the lower left-hand side of the Answers homepage, or you can bookmark it on your browser.

And don’t forget, you can follow us on our Yahoo!7 Answers Twitter account, and if you prefer using RSS to keep up to date, you only need to click subscribe and add us to your RSS reader.

We hope you’ve found the Blog to be helpful and entertaining. We’ve received a lot of comments over the last year which we always welcome. It’s a great way to learn more about what you like, what you don’t, what you think about Answers and what you think about many topics we cover. Keep them coming – we love hearing what you have to say!

We have a couple of questions for you to give us a better idea of what you want on the blog:

1) Do you remember your favourite blogpost? What was it?

2) If you could see anything on the Answers Blog -what would it be? More celebrities, more competitions, more about the product, more about other Yahoo!7 products, any new blog features you’d like to see? Use your imagination and let us know!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Last week another Tuesday night passed and still the Oz Lotto jackpot hasn’t gone off. It’s a bit disappointing for all of us who spent our hard earned cash on a ticket. On the bright site, at least we had another week to dream about what we’d do with a cold, hard $90 million.

Last week I went to the launch of the Embraer Phenom 300, an Executive Jet that has never before been sold in Australia. If things go my way, this time next week I will have the winning Oz Lotto ticket in my hot little hands and I’ll be able to think about more extravagant purchases, like private jets. Imagine that, being able to fly 9 of your closest friends to Melbourne for an impromptu shopping spree or up the coast for some winter sun. And for only US$7.9million (AU$9.9m), you’d have plenty of change from your $90m for a couple of luxury cars to drive you to the airport.

What else would I buy? Well obviously I’d be calling the real estate agent to talk about my dream home. It would have to be overlooking the water with plenty of balconies and there would be a big fireplace for those cold winter nights where all you want to do is cuddle up with a hot milo and a book. And of course plenty of spare bedrooms for friends to stay when we throw those fabulous dinner parties and serve vintage Grange and Henschke until the wee hours of the morning.

Of course the altruistic side of me remembers that if I won, there would also be a fair amount of money going to charity. However the indulgent part of me wants to endlessly dream. I can just seem myself seeing the hippos and giraffes on a safari in Africa, enjoying a romantic night in a Michelin star restaurant overlooking Paris and splashing out on a boat cruise around the Caribbean with all of my friends and family.

How about you? What would you splurge on if you won $90 million?

Caitlin
Community Manager