Yahoo Answers Sucks: October 2007

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Best Answer!

The answer I gave to What does mutual friends mean? got voted as the "Best Answer"

Rah me.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

An attempt to be useful on Yahoo Answers

The vague, mindless answers didn't get me booted yet, so I thought I'd be useful again.

Is painting over wallpaper a good thing if you prime first?

Your Answer:
Wallpaper paste isn't designed to hold more weight than the wallpaper itself. The primer plus a coat or two of paint will cause it to start peeling. The moisture from the paint may even weaken the existing paste causing it to come off even faster.

There are some insulating wallpapers intended for use as a base layer for paint, but those are sold to either provide texture, such a pho-Adobe, or to provide heating insulation.

If you paint over the wallpaper, you'll end up taking down the wallpaper anyway. My advice is to get a steamer, a wallpaper scraper and take it down and do the thing right. You'll regret it otherwise.
Source(s)
Painted over wallpaper. Learned the hard way what a bad idea it was.

UPDATE: On December 1, I was notified that my answer had been chosen as the "Best Answer" with two whole votes.

Just to be safe, I posted a couple of the useless, mindless drone answers Yahoo loves so much.

Q: What is the best way to heal a broken heart?

A: Time is the only balm for a broken heart.

It's almost lame enough to be a line in a country song.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bad Advice on DVD Region Encoding

A lot of people don't know this, but DVDs sold in different parts of the planet are "Region Encoded" so they'll only play back on players sold for that region. For example, a DVD bought in America will NOT play in a DVD Player sold in Europe.

A DVD that can be played in ANY DVD player is known as a "Region 0", "Multi Region" or "Region Free" DVD. Players that can play a DVD from any country are also known as "Region Free" or "Region 0."

It doesn't matter if the DVD you bought in America plays on your Panasonic 345 in the USA, it won't play on your cousin's European Panasonic 345 because it has a different region encoding. Video games are frequently region encoded as well, which is why Wii and Playstation owners in the USA have to hack their game consoles to play games that are only available in Japan. You need a "region 1" game to play it in a US game console.

Some DVD players can be hacked, either with hardware or software, to make them Region 0 players. For example, I have a boot DVD for my Playstaion 2 that will let me select which region it will be until I reboot it. This way I can, for example play Region 2 DVDs.

This brings me to a Yahoo Question asked by James R:

Is windows Media Player Multi Regional?
I was wondering if Windows Media player can play DVD's from different regions. As im wanting to buy some Region 1 DVD's but the 2 DVD players we have in the house are not multi regional.

This is a fair question. Most people never encounter problems with region encoding as most people jut buy DVDs at their local Wal-Mart or Target. Such stores pretty much always carry only DVDS and games encoded for the region they're in.

Mchiang's "Best Answer" chosen by the asker, however, is a pile of uniformed nonsense, perhaps deliberate misinformation.

yes. i can play dvd from europe, us, and asia. it depends on the codec installed in your computer.

if you cant play your dvd in your media player, all you need to do is to find the appropriate codec for that region

This answer is, of course total nonsense. Windows Media player respects the region of the hardware DVD player that's installed. If the DVD drive in your PC is Region 1, then Windows will only play Region 1 DVDs.

James R has a few options. First, he can do some research on how to make his existing DVD players "Multi Region" or "Region Free." Many DVD players have an easter egg built into them where a key combination entered on the remote control will unlock them, permenantely or temporarily. Some DVD players, such as those in computers, will let you change their region up to four times before permenantly locking to whatever region was selected last. He could buy a second DVD Drive, set it to the desired region and just remember to insert the DVD into the correct drive to play it.

James R could also see if there's a firmware update for his computer's DVD Drive or even his stand alone players that will make them region free. This is a bit riskier as the hacked firmwares could "brick" the player.

Finally, he could just buy a Region Free DVD player. He'll need to buy one online and probably order form Japan or Germany, but models that can play any region DVD, MPEG , AVI and other formats can be had very inexpensively.

Mchiang's nonsense about installing a Codec equates region encoding with different file formats, a misinformed and costly mistake. There's no magical Codec that will let a Region 2 player play a Region 1 DVD. A Codec is merely a set of information about a particular file format. iT'S not a firmware upgrade or hack program to modify a DVD player's region encoding. Mchiang either doesn't know what he's talking about, or he doesn't know what words to use to describe the issue.

Another Round of Dull Answers

Today I continue posting more dull, lifeless answers in an attempt to get a feeling for what Yahoo Answers is looking for.

Here's a typically vapid, pointless "question" someone posted.

This is Bill Cosby. Kids, what do you best know me from? Is it the film Ghost Dad?
For example, William Shatner is best known for a film he did in Esperanto. I also heard a rumor he did this tv series that took place in space.

What would you say you best know me from?

Of course someone else already said "The Cosby Show" and even though I know the "Safe" answer is to repeat the obvious I decided to go for something that's at least a LITTLE different. I replied with:

"Bill Cosby: Himself" and "Leonard Part 6"

I now, I know, by Yahoo Answers standards it's an edgy response but sometimes you just have to live dangerously, you know?

Some of my other recent answers:

Q: Has Anyone Actually Received Any Money By Forwarding Chain Letters To Friends?
A: I think they're all scams. I don't know anyone who ever got any money but I know a lot of people who forwarded the e-mails.

I figure the above answer is safe, as there are a LOT of posts debunking things like the Yahoo Lottery scam that's been floating round for ages.

Q: how can i ask my mom for the pill without her thinking i want to have sex?
im 13 and i'd like to get the pill, just in case! and since most of my friends are boys my mom already suspects i do things with them, yes its true most of them are older but my mom thinks i do more than i actually do...how can i ask her inoccently without her thinking i want to have sex or i'm a **** who wants the pill so i can go round sleeping with everyone if i can get the pill?
A: I don't think any doctors will prescribe it to you that young unless there's some sort of medical problem. Ask your doctor for some advice. She'll probably tell you you're too young anyway.

I'm playing a few cards here. First, I'm being vaguely conservative by stating a 13 year old is "too young" for the pill. Never mind the fact that most 13 year olds are already menstruating and there's a sizable percentage that is already sexually active at that age. I also make an appeal to seeking a doctor's advice without speculating about any actual medical issues beyond the vague phrase "unless there's some sort of medical problem." Finally I stick to what appears to be a Yahoo Answers golden rule, I'm not actually providing any useful information.

I'll leave things sit for now and see what happens.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Racist Posts

In my October 8, 2007 post Why Aren't the Racists Suspended? I linked to the questions, answers and profile of a rather racist and inflammatory individual on Yahoo Answers. The account appears to have been suspended and the questions deleted.

My first thought was "Perhaps they DO deal with those complaints." I decided to do some digging. I easily found a new question (less than an hour old when I found it) where some inflammatory little jerk asked:

Why can't black women on the maury show find there baby father?

85% of the time a black women(usually fat) is usually the on Maury show can't find her baby daddy.You never see one of us Indian/Asian women on there.They slept with like 7 0r 8 men.How can someone that represents %6 percent of America be so bad?

Well, that question doesn't prove anything because it's too NEW. It's entirely possible that no one has even had a CHANCE to report it, let alone for the mods to delete it. I decided to go hunting for older samples of racist content. My goal was to see what kind of racist content could be found by searching for "resolved" questions, onces for which a "best answer" had already been chosen.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised. At first, I found very little. The first thing I found was some "white pride" propaganda. I found this noteworthy because I've had accounts suspended for far less than the list of "observations" posted by Prashant. My issue with the post was not that it was still there, but that it's existence revealed a disturbing double standard. While the account that posted the question has apparently been suspended, the question and it's answer remain. Why was this spared when the account was suspended but my answer explaining the meaning of the SPCA acronym was deleted?

The Fourth Account

Dear God, I've created my fourth account and have YET to find out why any of the previous ones were suspended. Allow me to introduce keaton.alex, the newest pseudonym I've used to find out just how innocent an answer I can post before getting banned. In accordance with my plan detailed in Banned again, but a pattern begins to emerge this post will remain a "Draft" until the account is suspended, at which point I'll publish them in a batch.

For some reason when I signed up, I was given the Yahoo Singapore terms of service and my language was listed as "English - Singapore". I'll be generous and write that off as an error in figuring out my IP address. The amusing thing is, I'm not using any kind of a proxy, so I'm not even trying to hide where I am.

My first answer was, as planned, short and only marginally informative at best. The question asked was:

What is the best type of wood to burn in an indoor fireplace?

My answer was:

I've seen "Wood Stove Pellets" at home improvement stores. That might burn well, but I think you're supposed to have a stove made to burn them.

My answer is vague, poorly informed and a bit backward, all characteristics of things I've seen listed as the "Best Answer." The reality is some wood burning stoves are specifically designed to take wood stove pellets, and you should stick to the pellets if you have such a stove.

Next, a bright bulb asked: How do you make friends?

I replied, in as Yahoo Answers friendly a manner as I could muster:

By smiling and being nice. :)

Notice the insipid "smiley" at the end?

Finally, I decided to push my luck and answer a third question on my first day:

Q: What does mutual friends mean?

A: It means a person is already a friend to both of you.

Let's see if the account is still able to post to Yahoo Answers in a few days.

Interestingly enough, a good hour and a half after creating the account, I still can't get into Yahoo Mail. I get the error message:

Sorry for the inconvenience.

You've stumbled upon a temporary problem we're having with Yahoo! Mail. Usually this problem gets resolved quickly, without you doing a thing. In fact it may be taken care of now.
Try pressing the Reload or Refresh button on your browser, or logging out and then back into your Yahoo! account. Hopefully that will take care of things.

If that doesn't fix the problem, please be patient while we sort it out and try again shortly. The fact that you're reading this page means we've been automatically notified of the issue, and chances are we're working on it now.
If you think you've been more than patient and tried the tricks above, feel free to contact Customer Care about Error Code 1.

Thanks,
The Yahoo! Mail Team

I tried logging off and logging back in to no avail.

I wonder, have they flagged my IP address? I've created four Yahoo accounts from this computer in a fairly short time frame, so it's possible some bit of code designed to catch Spammers has tripped. I'll wait and see.

Does Yahoo Answers hate Hispanics?

I stumbled across an interesting question. It's "resolved" and neither the account that asked the question nor the account that got "Best Answer" have been suspended. Take a look at the sort of thing Yahoo Answers allows.

Question:
Is anyone else getting tired of these ad on TV done in Spanish?
I saw an ad a couple of weeks ago on TV for The National Gaurd done in Spanish. This past weekend I saw one done in Spanish for the NFL.

I live in Kentucky, not California. It's bad enough that when I get a voice mail on my phone I'm told to "Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Spanish" now I've got to listen to it on my TV.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
i know how you feel. call your state reps and complain. i do. and for the first on that answered, we do have an official language and its English. it's in the 14th amendment. we are to speak the language it was written in. and that's English, so boyyyyaaaaaaaa

Now take a look at an answer that got a Yahoo Answers account suspended.

See the pattern?

Being a borderline racist gets you points, being informative gets you banned.

Same old, same old

I received an e-mail on Account 002 from Yahoo's alleged Customer Service department. It was the same cookie cutter, "We're not telling you anything" reply I always get. I'm not surprised, and I now have such low expectations of Yahoo Answers that I'm not even disappointed.

At this stage I'd be shocked if I got something even remotely informative or intelligent from Yahoo Answers.

Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:06:14 -0700
To: "Anon Annoyed"
Subject: Yahoo! Answers (KMM58397440V74758L0KM)
From: "Yahoo! Answers"

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.

We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers
and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and
decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement.

Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service,
the
subscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access
the
account and its contents (including email and content stored with any
other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated.

Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read

the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help
ensure your new account is not deactivated.

Yahoo! Terms of Service:

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Yahoo! Community Guidelines:

http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers.

Regards,

Jasmine

Yahoo! Customer Care

40451616

For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

I'm really confused by this suspension. I answered three questions.
In
all three instances I was polite, accurate and to the point. I didn't
use any "naughty" words or graphic phrases.

What did any of those posts contain that violated Yahoo Answers
Community Guidelines?

I sent another futile, pointless reply. It's becoming something of a time delayed game of Ping Pong. If I'm lucky there's some kind of counter where they'll give an actual answer if you ping them enough.

Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:48:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Anon Annoyed"
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Answers (KMM58397440V74758L0KM)
To: "Yahoo! Answers"
WHY
WAS
I
SUSPENDED?????

What did I do?????

The last gasp of Lagon Dupri

Naturally, I HAD to make my usual, futile attempt to get an answer out of Yahoo Answers.

Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:38:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Lagon Dupri"
Subject: Why was I suspended?
To: answers-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com
What did I write to get suspended?

Why was my account suspended? What did I do that violated the terms of service?
I answered two questions. Was this political? Did one of my answers offend someone's political beliefs?

Banned again, but a pattern begins to emerge

My third test account, lagon.dupri, has been "Suspended" from Yahoo Answers.

Date: 10 Oct 2007 06:25:08 -0700
From: "Yahoo! Answers "
Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by cc.yahoo-inc.com. Learn more
Subject: Yahoo! Answers Suspension Notice
To: lagon.dupri@yahoo.com

Hello Lagon D(lagon.dupri)

You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.

If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.

Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care

I'd answered a mere two questions before my most recent suspension. Since this suspension followed my last post so closely, it's probably safe to assume that it was the Cold War related comment that got me suspended. I can think of a few possible explanations:

1. I was banned because of the political content. Given the rather dry, politically moderate nature of my comment, this only makes sense if Yahoo Answers is actively discouraging political discussion that doesn't lean towards the extreme left or extreme right.

2. A group of Yahoo Answers users got together and "reported' my comment, which resulted in a suspension without any review by a human moderator. This makes the most sense if the person who posted the question decided to use it to cheat on their homework and wanted to remove the online evidence before turning it in. I consider this option rather unlikely.

3. Yahoo Answers has found this Blog and is Suspending my accounts based on the information I'm posting. This would be a petty, punitive attempt to silence their critics.

4. My answer was too "wordy" or "Complicated" for the what Yahoo Answers considers appropriate. In other words they've started kicking all the "eggheads."

Please feel free to comment below if you have any ideas about why this most recent account was suspended.

Naturally I'm not going to stop here. My curiosity is piqued and I won't let this go until I know WHY these accounts keep being deleted. To this end, I'm going to try to eliminate each of the possibilities above.

The most obvious step is to remain silent about the activities of a given account until such time as it's suspended. I'll write up the same posts, but I'll leave them as drafts until the Yahoo account is suspended.

Next, I'll stop checking the old accounts from the same computer. Hell, I'll actually delete some of the old accounts, as there's no real reason to keep them hanging around. Yahoo Answers "Customer Care" has yet to respond with anything useful or informative so there's no real reason to keep the old accounts around.

Finally, I'm only going to post the same mindless, unimaginative, two sentence or less answers favored by the other posters to Yahoo Answers.

Don't worry though, this Blog isn't about to go silent. I'm still going to post about some of the idiotic, mindless questions and answers that survive Yahoo's obtuse moderation process.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Still kicking

Surprisingly enough, Account 003 is still active. Let's see if answering another question will get me banned.

(Update: The account has been suspended.)

Q: why didn't the u.s. & the soviet union go to direct war?

My Answer:
Who says we didn't?

First, everyone was looking for peace and prosperity after WWI and WWII and the Great Depression.

Some of the growing animosity was vented through Proxy Wars. Technically, the USA was at war with Communist North Korea in the Korean War, but in reality the Soviet Union and Communist China provided the financing and raw materials.

As time went on hostilities grew, but by the time animosity had grown to the point where DIRECT war was likely, both sides had enough Nuclear Weapons to destroy the Earth several times over. The fear was that if war started, it would become Nuclear and both sides would lob everything they had in an attempt to ensure the other didn't survive.

This doctrine of "Mutually Assured Destruction" was the biggest barrier to outright war.

Side battles vented hostilities. The Space Race for example allowed both governments to "battle" each other without lobbing bombs. Vietnam was a bloody and violent proxy war.

There was also the philosophical problem. Both sides believed their own system was superior. While a military victory would provide relief from the government in question, it would NOT provide a total win in the face of the FORM of Government.

The fall of the Soviet Union was seen by many as the Death of Communism. The remaining Communist governments, like China, are slowly adopting a free market system. The economic defeat of Communism means it has little to no ongoing power.

This question has a high likelihood of getting me banned. It involves politics and I'm trying to remain level headed and fair. As this raving lunatic post reveals, being a member of a lunatic fringe is the way to ensure your questions remain intact on Yahoo Answers.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Yahoo Answers - Banning a Pregnant Woman

Bogger "A Cowboy's Wife" had a nasty encounter with Yahoo Answers.

Yesterday, I answered all kinds of questions. This morning I wake up to about 15 emails saying all my answers are violating the rules. Then about 2 hours later, I get an email saying I am suspended. WHAT THE HECK??? I go and read the rules but was unable to pinpoint my violations.

I recommend checking out her Blog. She too got no information on WHY she was suspended and wrote the process of seeking more information "was like talking to a robot." While she doesn't give any examples of the kinds of answers she was giving, my experiences with Yahoo Answers leads me to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Why Aren't the Racists Suspended?

Here's a racist question asked by a random person on Yahoo Answers. I'm listing it here as an example of the sort of thing Yahoo Answers allows to remain. I doubt they'll delete the question, but you never know...

Tara J asked:
How much aftershave will the average indian drink today?

What a charming bit of racism.

The Racist behind the question, Tara J, has been a Yahoo Answers member since October 07, 2007, or about a day as of when I wrote this post. She has 69 points and is at Level 1.

The classless little Git also asked "Why are the North American indians such a waste of skin?"

Of course the little brat has dished out at least one equally racist answer. Another classless Aryan Pride Poster Child asked "I don't want to sound racist but...? How come women with black avatars give the rudest answers?"

Tara J's reply was: "what you say is so true.i know a few fatassed loud mouthed n-word b!tchs on this site"

That last "question" has been up for 15 hours as of my writing of this post. Apparently racism is AOK on Yahoo Answers, but telling people what ASPCA means is verboten.

Perhaps I should create a new account and just post the lyrics to Prussian Blue songs and Neo-Nazi propaganda. That sort of content seems to be accepted by the Yahoo Answers mods.

Yet Another Login

I'm trying again. This will make the THIRD Yahoo Account I've created for using Yahoo Answers, and I have yet to receive any information from Yahoo on WHY the first two were suspended.

The fact that one of the service e-mails reminded me to read the Terms of Service carefully if I created another account tells me that Yahoo isn't banning me for creating new accounts.

First, I'll answer a question in EXACTLY the same way I've seen "Best Answer" rated questions be answered.

The question is:

My brother has pain in the genetic reigeon during urination. This is a symptom of some disease. How to cure it

He complaints of pain and a burning sensation while urinating.
this is probably a symptom of some disease which can be sexually transmitted.
Is there any Natural cure.
he has stopped complaining of this since a month and this lasted for around a week or so.
Is it ok right now(the pain has stopped).

Here's my unimaginative, useless reply, crafted to resemble the responses that Yahoo Answers tends to leave on the question.

He needs to get to a doctor Right Away. There's not enough information to diagnose the problem in your post but he needs to see a doctor.

Let's see if THAT gets me banned. I'm not looking for a "Best Answer" here, I just want to find out what it is that keeps getting me banned. After posting this lone, pathetic "answer" I'm going to leave the account alone for a few days just to see what happens.

New Query to Yahoo Answers Mods

I've sent the following e-mail about my recent suspension:

Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 08:39:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Anon Annoyed"
Subject: Confused by Suspension
To: answers-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com
I'm really confused by this suspension. I answered three questions. In all three instances I was polite, accurate and to the point. I didn't use any "naughty" words or graphic phrases.

What did any of those posts contain that violated Yahoo Answers Community Guidelines?

Let's see if they bother to respond. Personally, I'd be surprised if they do, but I'll give them a chance to explain themselves.

Banned Again

I just got the following from Yahoo Answers:

Date: 06 Oct 2007 20:55:02 -0700
From: "Yahoo! Answers " Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by cc.yahoo-inc.com. Learn more
Subject: Yahoo! Answers Suspension Notice
To: bulkhater01@yahoo.com

Hello Anon A(bulkhater01)

You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.

If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.

Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care

Let's take a look at this. I Answered THREE questions with this account.

First, I revealed the meaning of the ASPCA acronym

Next, I discouraged Software Piracy

Finally, Instead of the vague "You should go to a doctor" comments made by other people, I described possible causes of a seeping "bump" a woman claimed to have, avoiding most "icky" terms in the process.

What could any of those answers POSSIBLY have done to justify the suspension of the account? I'll admit I was a bit rude with the first account which may have been why I was suspended, but I was polite, accurate and succinct with all three of my answers.

Before I was willing to write this off as the act of an overly aggressive moderator with insufficient accountability. The most recent bout is far too arbitrary and irrational for even that excuse.

Either Yahoo Answers is penalizing people randomly, or someone at Yahoo found this Blog and is using Yahoo Account suspensions to "Punish" me for daring to speak out about their incompetent moderation. Lacking propper nut job paranoia, I'm inclined to suspect that the Yahoo Moderators are just stupid and incompetent. Perhaps they saw scary words like "cyst" and figured I MUST be posting something disgusting.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Dangerous Ground

I'm venturing into dangerous territory now. I'm answering a medical question with bad news.

Weird bump on breast?

I have this strange bump on my nipple, right above it. It's been there for a long time, but i've ignored it. Lately, I've mashed it, and nasty liquidy stuff came out of it, and after it started bleeding. It's not out of my nipple though. Just the bump. I have no idea what it is though. You can squish under my nipple a little bit and feel this bump under it as well. It's like connected to that bump under my skin. I'm really afraid, does anyone have any idea what it could be? Thanks!

My reply is the most detailed one the question has received so far.

There are several options. The most likely is you have an infection. I would recommend getting to a doctor to have it looked at. The fact that it's been there a while means it's unlikely to be resolved just by lancing and draining it.

Inflections like this can also be the result of a growth in the breast tissue. Surrounding tissue is irritated and weakened by a growth which in turn causes infected sores like the one you describe.

It could also be a ruptured cyst.

While this could be a minor infection, it could also be a symptom of something life threatening. Please get to a doctor ASAP.

If any of my existing questions are going to get me banned, this is the most likely candidate. I used some graphic language, I said something "sad" and I used words that a third grader may not know.

You've got to be kidding me.

Here's an example of the kinds of absurd things you find on Yahoo Answers:

What do you think the Mana which moses ate in the desert for 40 years and kept in the Ark of the Covenant was?

was this some mystical substance which we no longer have any access to? or was it something which we still have around us today? ive heard many theories ranging from algee which grew "sponteniously" on cave walls, to gold which had been alchemically turned to nonreactive powder and made into bread. Ive heard people say it might be the same Ambrosia which the greeks refered too, and ive heard people claim its just pure goodness manifested by God to maintain his chosen people. im really just undecided at this point, what do you think?

Let's take a good look at this "question." This person is rambling about all sorts of absurd "explanations" for what the Bible describes as a Miracle, and those "Explanations" include Gold magically transmuted by Alchemy. The comical "explanations" are harder to swallow than simply saying "It was a miracle."

If this question isn't a joke, then the woman asking it is a first class, top notch loony. My guess is for it being a gag question, based on what she chose as the "Best Answer."

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Bug poop. To this day, there are insects in the desert that exude a syrupy glop that, in a pinch, might be regarded as edible.

The idea that this is a poorly conceived gag question is further enforced by the Asker's comments on WHY she chose it as the "Best Answer."

Thanks for giving the only constructive answer! shame on you others, im not looking for snapply opinions.

That's right folks, this chick asked for a mystical explanation for a miracle, and chose the answer of "Bug Poop" as the best.

Welcome to Yahoo Answers.

More on why the first account was deleted

I did a little hunting. In my previous posts I mentioned having answered a question about a woman who I thought sounded like her retina was detaching. A Google Search allowed me to find the question.

Has anyone experienced floating lights in the peripherals of their eyes?

from time to time, a light will float from 3 oclock to 6 oclock in my right eye, or from 12 to 3. less often the same things happen in my right eye from 12 to 9 and 9 to 6. Also, i sometimes see hundreds of tiny dots floating around in bright spaces. has anyone else had similar experiences? am i crazy?

Google's cache turned up the page and allowed me to recover my answer:

Your retinas are starting to detach. There are usually some minor symptoms early on, but a complete detachment (resulting in blindness in the eye) can literally happen at any second. If could take a few years, it could happen in 30 seconds.

You have two choices:

1. Get to an eye doctor STAT

2. HOPE you don't go completely blind.

Since the retinas are already detaching, Option 2 is just plain stupid, since it's only a matter of time before they detach without treatment.

If you check out the live site, my answer has been deleted.

What was the "Best Answer" chosen by the asker?

No your not crazy.... you should go to the opthamologist and have them check you for retinal detachment. If possible have them take a retinal photograph of your eye to document it better. Occasionally you will get "floaters" where particles just kind of swim in your vitreous humor(gel like substance inside your eye) If possible look online to see if you can find a copy of a Amsler grid. This is a self test for visual distortion. Good luck.

Isn't that interesting. I got deleted for suggesting a trip to the doctor and detaching retinas, but this broad gets picked as the "Best Answer."

My current suspicion is that the "Detaching Retina" comment wasn't what got me banned in the first place. Unless the "Best Answer" was the result of a woman and her friends reporting me to get me deleted and then stealing my answer, I doubt this question was related. The odds of anyone going to that much trouble for one measly "Best Answer" are slim at best.

What then got my first account deleted?

Trying to Discourage Piracy

For my next Answer, I decided to go for something squeaky clean, trying to discourage software piracy. A WAREZ Kiddie Wanna-Be asked:

Game Downloads without cd-rip?

I was just wondering if anyone knows where I can download the game "Hidden and Dangerous 2" without it being a cd-rip.

I replied with:

You can download the DEMO from a lot of places. If you want the full version though you need to buy it. "Downloading the Full version is called piracy and is not only illegal but financially harms the people who made the game.

For extra punch I put in a Download URL for the demo as my "Source."

Then, just to be a good little Yahoo Answers Community Member, I reported the question. After all, the guy asking it is looking for advice on how to commit software piracy.

The New Account

So, I decided to create a new Yahoo Answers Account. Let's see how long I last now. I started off with a simple one:

blahblahb95 Asked

The place on animal planet where they take animals when they are ready to be adopted,what is it called?

My answer was:

It's usually a version of the SPCA.

SPCA stands for:

Society for the
Prevention of
Cruelty to
Animals

There's frequently a prefix that indicates it's a particular branch of the SPCA. For example the MSPCA is the:

Massachusetts
Society for the
Prevention of
Cruelty to
Animals

ASPCA is the:

American
Society for the
Prevention of
Cruelty to
Animals

This strikes me as an even keeled answer. Simple, factual and to the point. No editorializing. For example I don't point out that the *SPCA shelters that aren't No-Kill have an average euthanasia rate of 10% to 20%, while PETA has a close to 80% kill rate for most cats and dogs.

That's right, PETA kills 80% of the cats and dogs it "rescues" while even the worst *SPCA shelter rarely kills more than 20%.

OMG! A Reply From Yahoo Answers!

It's not MUCH of a reply. There's still no information on WHY my account was deleted or WHAT I allegedly wrote to get my account deleted. All they do is tell me that they "reviewed" my suspension and decided I wasn't eligible for reinstatement.

I think it's disgusting that some power tripping little twerp decided to delete my Yahoo Answers account and has NO accountability or even the need to tell me what my allegedly infringing post WAS.

Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:25:54 -0700
To: "Bulk Hater"
Subject: Yahoo! Answers (KMM58190552V23140L0KM)
From: "Yahoo! Answers" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.

We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers
and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and
decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement.

Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service,
the
subscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access
the
account and its contents (including email and content stored with any
other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated.

Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read

the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help
ensure your new account is not deactivated.

Yahoo! Terms of Service:

- http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Yahoo! Community Guidelines:

- http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers.

Regards,

Nick

Yahoo! Customer Care

40323436

For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

Original Message Follows:
-------------------------

I'm confused, why was I suspended?

What did I do wrong?

I don't think I'm asking for much, just an explanation as to WHY I was banned from Yahoo Answers. At this point I'm not even interested in fighting it, I just want to know what piss-poor excuse some self important Moderator used to justify banning someone from Yahoo Answers.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Thursday, October 4, 2007