Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

Social networking has literally changed the face of society as we know it.

Privacy has gone, sharing is everything – what you wore today, what you had for lunch, who you like or who you don’t – nothing is sacred any longer.

Seven’s leading morning program, Sunrise, hosted a segment this morning around the issue of students and teachers being friends on Facebook.

So we have two unique view points:

• The school principal who’s students friend teachers (it should be noted that it is not the teachers seeking out the students, but the students requesting the teachers as friends); see it as a way for both students and teachers to continue building upon the relationship setup in the classroom and for assistance with schoolwork.
• The child safety expert feels that it is overstepping a professional boundary, that students have other avenues for working with teachers. She used the analogy that teachers would never have called a student privately on the phone, so why should they hang out with them on Facebook.

We are seeing the same thing happening in workplaces with an increasing trend in employees and bosses being friends on Facebook. This can have negative consequences with people having been fired for comments made about colleagues or having been caught out “chucking sickies”.

There are many pros and cons to this situation, but the basic ones seeming to be privacy and common sense. With regards to teachers, the obvious one would be child safety. If you do friend a colleague or equivalent person on Facebook, think about whether you want them knowing every intimate detail of your life. If you don’t, utilise the various privacy settings that most social networks have to control the levels of who sees what.

This is literally a subject we could spend all day on, so we’d like to know your thoughts!

Should teachers have students as Facebook friends or as friends on any social networks? Why or why not?
- Yahoo!7 Australia Answers Team

Answer via the question above or leave a comment below!

Kate
Community Manager

World of Warcraft… Derided by some yet enjoyed by millions worldwide.

When Activision Blizzard launched their groundbreaking MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) World of Warcraft, a sequel to the already successful PC gaming Warcraft franchise back in late 2004, they were an overnight sensation. At last there was a game that appealed to gamers and non-gamers alike, bringing them all together in the world of Azeroth.

Also famous for such franchises as Starcraft and Diablo, Acitivision Blizzard is no stranger to being in the spotlight, this week being no exception.

Blizzard announced on Tuesday that it would begin introducing the “Real ID” feature to its official bulletin boards and the move to require real first and last names has drawn hundreds of comments, most of them negative.

Blizzard said in a blog post that the change was intended to “help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.”

“The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players,” it said.

“However, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild,” Blizzard said.

“Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before.”

Source: Yahoo!7 News

This has sparked uproar amongst players across the globe, concerned about privacy and protecting their real life identities. Threads on the subject on various game forums maintained by Activision Blizzard are in the thousands, posted by players either for or against the upcoming changes. Opinions are divided, but the majority of the issues raised by players appear to be centred on the safety of children and the sharing of personal and identifiable information, whilst others call for people to quit their respective games. Activision Blizzard have responded to the concerns, pointing out that all accounts come with parental controls and ultimately, if one does not wish personal information shared, do not post on the forums.

This brings us to the following question:

• Would issues about Activision Blizzard’s changes to their forums make you cancel your Warcraft account & why?

What do you think; will all these issues make you quit Warcraft? Why? Share your views with the community now on the question above or by leaving a comment below!

Kate
Community Manager

At this very moment, the best football (soccer) players from all over the world are making their way to sunny South Africa to compete for the prize of all prizes. All eyes will turn to the Rainbow Nation to see if the numerous critics and doubters were right after all: They don’t believe the country is ready to host the greatest show on earth. Well, the time for words and debate is over, let the action begin and we’ll find out for ourselves!

Behind all the exciting games and magnificent stadia we will be seeing on our screens and the long hours we will be spending encouraging our team on to at least one more win, there is a fascinating country extending well beyond what will be shown.

Don’t worry, this is not a history class, nor a geography test about South Africa.  It is just a quick introduction to some facts you may find interesting (like the fact that Kruger National Park is almost the same size as Holland). Hopefully what follows will help add context and flavour to a whole month of football and activities that will happen in Answers.

The Rainbow Nation

South Africans often describe themselves as the Rainbow Nation due to their wide ranging diversity in people and cultural groups. South Africa has a population of 45 million people speaking 11 official languages, with Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans being the most common home languages (English is the fifth most common home language, but is understood by most people as, primarily for economic and political reasons, it is the lingua franca).

The best known and biggest cultural group in South Africa is the Zulus. They proudly defend and practice their own traditions, and became a very important force against the British army in the late 19^th Century.

Unusually, the country has three capital cities: Cape Town (Legislative), Pretoria (Administrative), and Bloemfontein (Judicial).

The South African flag as we know it today was adopted on Liberty Day, April 27^th 1994 (during the first democratic elections after the abolishment of apartheid.

Sport

Sport in South Africa is almost a national religion! Children actively engage in all types of sport from a very young age and inevitably dream of emulating their heroes in football, rugby, cricket and just about every other sport you can think of.

Since the first democratic elections were celebrated in 1994, South Africa has hosted a variety of international sporting tournaments: The Rugby World cup in 1995 (which they won), Football’s African Cup of Nations in 1996 (which they won), and the Cricket World Cup in 2003. The country has also hosted auto racing’s A1 Grand Prix since 2006.

South Africa has always been a formidable competitor in Rugby Union. The national team, the Springboks, have won the Rugby World Cup on two occasions: 1995 and 2007.

Bafana Bafana (as the South African football team are known, meaning “The Boys”) have the hopes of a nation riding on their shoulders. The South African Football Association (SAFA) was banned from all international football events from 1974 till 1992, so winning the African Cup of Nations in 1996 was a significant triumph. Since then Bafana Bafana have proven somewhat inconsistent, slaying giants one moment and losing dismally to underdogs the next. So anything could happen in June/July 2010!

Famous South Africans

You may know of several other famous South Africans, but here we offer a small list of some of the names that have conquered the world, and you may be surprised by some of them:

• J.R.R. Tolkien, writer and author of “Lord of the Rings”.
• J.M. Coetzee, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Nelson Mandela, revolutionary leader, first black president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Charlize Theron, the first South African actress to win an Oscar.
• Christian Barnard, the doctor who realised the first ever heart transplant.
• Jody Sheckter, Formula 1 champion in 1979.
• Gary Player, World Golf Hall of Famer and winner of 9 major tournaments
• Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984
• Hugh Masekela, Grammy Award nominated musician best known as a trumpeter

As we mentioned, this is just a small introduction to South Africa, and the beginning of a whole month of activities that we have prepared for the Answers Community around the FIFA World Cup.  Stay tuned, and you will find yourself in the middle of a number of contests, activities and rewards that we’ve set up for you along the way.

“May the best team win!”

I’ve been quite overwhelmed by the response from a recent sponsored question we featured about charity. Specifically, ‘What is the one thing you see in the world that leaves you so saddened you want to do something about it?’ We got well over 400 responses ranging from being saddened by poverty in third world countries to animal cruelty to genocide.
One of them was MADDIE, who had an interesting point:

I think it’s ridiculous that there are obscenely rich people in the world trying to venture into space when half the population didn’t eat anything today.

While Edxr641 was more concerned about people at home:

What saddens me the most is when I look around my own country, and my own suburb, and see people addicted to drugs, living on the streets, stealing to survive, etc and we, as a country send more money off shore than we do to help the poor in our own country.

With so many of us who have expressed our sadness about various things that go on in the world, it makes me realise how much compassion is out there.

Although it would be lovely to wait until we win lotto to make that huge donation, the fact is most of our numbers won’t come up (although I’ll still be buying the tickets just in case )

Some of us have already decided to make a difference, such as Quiet.Buck, who said:

People die every day so my SUV gets gas, so my butt gets moved from point A to point B for my own selfish reasons. In turn… I have closed down my automotive company, I have given up my Porsche, condo and 90% of my material items so far (still selling). And I am looking to now move into the woods and live as one with nature…

|S| had a great idea about incorporating giving charity while having a fun evening with her friends.

Last week, I decided to donate money to the next charity I saw. It just so happened to be Daffodil Day, the major fundraiser of the Cancer Council. I bought a few bouquets of gorgeous blooms, then gave them to a friend who was feeling a bit down. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!

With all the sadness in the world, I think we all need to make sure we do things that will make a little difference to someone’s life. It might be donating to a favourite charity, or carrying an elderly neighbour’s heavy shopping bags home from the bus stop. Whatever it is, it’ll make this hectic, frazzled world of ours a better place. What charitable thing are you going to do this week?

Caitlin
Community Manager

After a wet and woolly couple of weeks in Sydney I was starting to think we must be one of the rainiest parts of the world! Of course the fact that our dams still aren’t 60% full is an indicator that we’re not, so I did a bit of digging to find out which people on Earth truly live in a constant carwash.

While Australia does have many claims to fame, being the largest island technically isn’t one of them – since we’re actually considered to be a continent and you just can’t have it both ways. Despite being the world’s largest exporter of coal we can’t claim the deepest mine, and we don’t have world’s longest bridge . . . but fortunately we’re not on the list of the world’s officially poorest countries either!

I had a look around Answers and came up with questions about the world’s smallest country, where you can find the smallest tree and even the location of the world’s largest national park. I also found out which nation drinks the most tea (which I could have guessed) and which population of people eat the most cheese per head each year (which I never would have guessed!)

As you can see by the picture I’ve included with this blog, perhaps Australia’s most interesting “world’s biggest” is that 17 metre tall sheep in Goulburn!

Clea

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The feeling of walking out of that final exam and knowing that high school is behind you forever is definitely memorable. Twelve long years finally over, and now the rest of your life sits in front of you – with endless possibilities.

But first things first – time to celebrate. Australian teenagers do it in… ahem… “style”, by heading to several key destinations around the country, including Western Australia’s Rottnest Island, Byron Bay and most significantly to the Gold Coast, to live it up. There are loads of questions on Answers around this time of year about the topic of schoolies – some users just wondering what it’s like, others wondering if they dare send their child off to party unsupervised for an entire week! The hazards of this massive annual event are numerous – police have their hands full to stop the fighting, predatory “toolies” abound and for those who have just come of legal drinking age – well it can get messy. Plus all that sun can result in nasty burns, ruining the week for some. Girls get bitchy, boys brawl and not everyone is lucky in love.

Many have called over the years for the mass congregation of excited teenagers to be banned, saying it puts them all at risk and ruins the holidays of anyone else who has foolishly booked their annual vacation on the same week. But if you look on the bright side it’s a massive boost for local businesses… and who doesn’t look back on their own action packed schoolies experience and laugh? It’s a once in a life time opportunity that precedes life in the real world – and wouldn’t we all go back to that best summer holiday ever if we had the chance?

Clea

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They say chivalry is dead… but to many people knowing the right things to say and way to behave is still very important. Thus the Etiquette category within Yahoo!7 Answers is always full of diverse and interest questions from people wary of making a social faux pas.

The tried and true questions that have confused people through the ages relate to proper dinner table manners – which knife, spoon or fork to use when eating and what is considered acceptable practice. Etiquette questions extend to relationship matters aswell, and whether or not it is rude to offer back an expensive piece of jewellery offered by a former love. Office etiquette is another popular point of discussion – on issues such as how to get along with your co-workers, how to tactfully resign and when to offer your notice.

Moving into the modern age the tricky ground of appropriate SMS behaviour can be very confusing for newcomers to the “art” and when it comes to the subject of money there’s always a risk of offending someone, whether you refuse to split the bill when dining out or if your child’s friend’s parent doesn’t offer money to cover the cost of an outing to the zoo.

What a minefield! Luckily, if you’re wondering if you can get away with wearing white to a wedding or have any other questions based on manners and etiquette just put it to the community and you’ll soon know the answer!

Clea

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If you are an old skool Yahoo!7 Answers community member, you will remember me from day one, but might not have known that I was still around. I have been working behind the scenes on all sorts of exciting things over the past year and half. Well… it’s good to be back on the blog!

Speaking of ‘old skool‘, as a Gen X – Gen Y cusper, I grew up with much of popular culture’s old skool classics. To me, old skool means ‘old is kool’ and is all about the 80s and 90s when rap artists started making use of the term.

Before game consoles, there were hand-held gaming devices. My favourite one was a 2-layer, orange ‘game and watch’ from the 80s called Donkey Kong. Have you ever wondered why the game Donkey Kong doesn’t have a donkey in it?

Growing up, I used to call a 0055 number to find out where an underground rave was a few hours before it started – I loved the music and the culture, especially the happy vibes from the other ravers. The other day when browsing Answers, I found a great list of songs that I used to listen to and found it quite nostalgic! Did you know which old skool track was used in the movie, The Shining?

Old skool even describes basketball and Ferraris, anime and parenting to name just a few.

Let us know your fondest old skool moments from your life!

Alana

After the barrage of questions relating to the Easter Bunny and the origins of the season last week I found myself spending some time in the Mythology and Folklore category of Yahoo!7 Answers, which is highly entertaining to browse through – if you’re not easily scared!

There are some particularly creepy tales of supernatural experiences and some accounts from users who claim to have regressed into their past lives after being hypnotised. Whether you believe it or not – you can’t help but feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you look through some of the answers to questions seeking stories of ghostly encounters.

The category also allows for users to ask for explanations about superstitions such as the discomfort involving Friday the 13th, or to get some advice on how to further their knowledge of tarot cards and their meanings. It is also interesting to read through and have a look at the questions concerning other cultures, their deities and the customs and beliefsthat have been passed through generations.

If you’re intrigued by things that go bump in the night, or in the background of various folk stories and old wives tales it’s a great category to have a look at – just make sure your nightlight is plugged in!

Clea

One of Australia’s cute native animals – the quokka

I was fortunate enough over the Easter break to do a little bit of travelling and to appreciate some spectacular parts of what this wide brown land has to offer. I really enjoy holidaying within Australia – I love the breathtaking sights, the smell of native wildflowers and getting up close to the beautiful animals that are unique to this country.

Being such a passionate Aussie, I am often surprised by how little outsiders know about our country, especially since we only have a short history to learn about. Perhaps it is the mystery of ‘Terra Australis’ that attracts so many travellers Down Under each year… travellers who are often inspired by their experiences to change their whole lives and to move here for good. Often immigrants who haven’t had the opportunity to check out Australia first will post a few questions on Yahoo!7 Answers to address any concerns they may have about safety or the environment and to help them make a decision on which part of the nation they are going to settle in.

Life in Australia does take a bit of getting used to, but other than missing a few of the comforts of home (recently a North American friend of mine nearly went mad trying to track down a supply of peanut butter chocolate!) it is more often than not a change for the better.

Clea