Updates on Old Friends

Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the old Yahoo Answers Accounts to see what, if anything, had happened to them since I last logged in.

Account001 bulkhater:
Still banned from Yahoo Answers, the mailbox contained nine spam messages and a lone myspace notice that a myspace account I forgot I had was about to be deleted due to inactivity. I tried reporting the Spam messages, but got a slew of errors for my trouble.

Account002 bulkhater01:
Still banned from Yahoo Answers, the mailbox contained the following e-mail:

Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:31:30 -0700
To: "Anon Annoyed"
Subject: Yahoo! Answers (KMM58596866V28286L0KM)
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. Yahoo! may, in appropriate circumstances
and
in its sole discretion, remove or edit any content and/or terminate the

accounts of users who appear to have violated the Terms and Conditions.

Any action taken is confidential. We will not release this information
unless required to do so by law or under other similar circumstances.
We
are unable to make exceptions to this rule.

We invite you to visit the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community

Guidelines. These documents can be found at:

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

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

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers.

Regards,

Nick

Yahoo! Customer Care

40451616

For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

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

WHY
WAS
I
SUSPENDED?????

What did I do?????

Account003 lagon.dupri:

Still banned, the mailbox contained...

Well, I wasn't sure at first as I got 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.

Once I did get in I found one lonely e-mail from Yahoo Support:

Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:13:51 -0700
To: "Lagon Dupri"
Subject: Yahoo! Answers (KMM58572206V9182L0KM)
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,

Evan

Yahoo! Customer Care

40532437

For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/




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

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?

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?????

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.

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.

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%.