I recently discovered Yahoo Answers and have been using it for about two weeks. It seemed like a great way to help people out, but the concept and the reality are very far apart. In two weeks I have received 10 violation notices. That sounds horrible until you understand how Yahoo runs this so-called help forum. If you post a question that a person working at Yahoo does not personally like, they delete it and you get a violation notice. If you post a comment that Yahoo and/or another user does not like, you get a violation notice.
I just received two more notices, and please read this carefully, for posting links to software drivers that the users were asking about. A guy was having a problem with his LG phone. His problem was a software driver issue, so I posted a link to LG's software home page. I did not post a link to a site selling anything. I posted a link to the content he was having trouble finding. Yahoo deleted my link and gave me a violation notice! The other violation notice was the same story. A different guy was having a problem with his cell phone, so this time I posted a link to both the drivers and to an FAQ on a forum that would help with the install. For my trouble, I got a violation notice.
This has been going on almost since day one. I have seen people post questions asking how to steal, how to counterfeit and how to clone cell phones, all types of illegal activity, and Yahoo does not delete those links. But if a guy asks a bigoted question bashing gay marriage and I comment, "Conservative is just another word for Ignorant," he can report me and I get into trouble. That was my first violation notice. The guy's hatred-based question was not deleted, but my comment trying to defend someone was, because he did not like it. This is how Yahoo Answers works. It is 100% biased. Since the Yahoo employees working that day did not mind an ignorant question like that, the guy was free to rant about anything, and I, along with everyone else who disagreed, received a violation notice. After seeing which questions stayed up, I posted one asking, "Is Anyone Else Sick of the Yahoo Toolbar Being Included in Everything Without Our Knowledge?" And guess what happened? Violation notice!
So unless you ask a question or make a comment that the Yahoo staff personally approves of, you risk having your account closed. And if you are not a Republican bigot, your posts and comments will be deleted by other users, and Yahoo will hunt you down like some kind of blind hitman and hand out unreasonable amounts of biased punishment. Read through the "Yahoo! Answers Suggestion Board." If you want to see an abuse of power by Yahoo, deleting what it does not like and then trying to sweep it under the rug as quickly as possible, you will have hours of fun reading it.
I am done trying to help. I cannot compete against a system that rewards questions by ignorant people and punishes people who truly try to help. And since they never bothered to respond to my pleas by email and instead blocked my emails altogether, I have nothing more I can do but post my complaint so everyone else who has had these problems can do the same.
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