Yahoo Answers is one of the best ways of finding answers to a question. A Yahoo user can login to his account using his Yahoo ID and start asking and answering. This is so simple. Yahoo provides a fantastic platform for its users to share their knowledge and also to clarify their doubts.
There are 3 parts as the tag line of Yahoo Answers suggest. Ask, Answer and Discover.
Ask- You can ask any question to the experts.
Answer- You can answer to any of the open questions that was asked by others.
Discover- You can find out answers for resolved questions.
How it works?
A Yahoo user can ask any question of his choice. Other Yahoo users and experts in that particular field try to give best answers. Of course, you can expect low quality answers from some users. But experts provide with exact answers and others might share their experiences. All you have to do is ask a question and describe the question if necessary. In the next step, you may want to categorize the question into pre-defined set of categories. Then your question will be up for answering. This question's validity will be upto some pre-defined number of days. You can always extend the validity if you are not satisfied with the answers and want to wait for some more. In the real time, if any user knows the answer, he can answer. He can also provide links to find more information in the 'Source' field. You can get multiple answers from different experts.
Points allocation:
When a user first login to Yahoo Answers with his Yahoo ID, he will be provided initially with 100 points. Depending on the number of points you gain, Yahoo categorizes you in different levels of expertise. More detailed points distribution is as follows:
| Begin participating on Yahoo! Answers | One Time: 100 |
|---|
| Ask a question | -5 |
| Choose a best answer for your question | 3 |
| No Best Answer was selected by voters on your question | Points Returned: 5 |
| Answer a question | 2 |
| Deleting an answer | -2 |
| Log in to Yahoo! Answers | Once daily: 1 |
| Vote for an answer | 1 |
| Vote for No best answer | 0 |
| Have your answer selected as the best answer | 10 |
| Receive a "thumbs-up" rating on a best answer that you wrote (up to 50 thumbs-up are counted) | 1 per "thumbs-up" |
| Level | Points | Questions | Answers | Comments | Stars | Ratings | Votes |
|---|
| 7 | 25,000+ | * unlimited * | 100 | unlimited | 200 |
| 6 | 10,000 - 24,999 | * unlimited * | 100 | unlimited | 150 |
| 5 | 5,000 - 9,999 | * unlimited * | 100 | unlimited | 125 |
| 4 | 2,500 - 4,999 | 20 | 80 | 40 | 100 | unlimited | 100 |
| 3 | 1,000 - 2,499 | 15 | 60 | 30 | 100 | unlimited | 75 |
| 2 | 250 - 999 | 10 | 40 | 20 | 100 | unlimited | 50 |
| 1 | 1 - 249 | 5 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 25 |
*All limitations are per day
You will have voting and other powers when you reach higher and higher levels. This point system makes the users more competitive and drag more attention towards quality answering.
You can start off answering
here.
