Best Answer!

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

Rah me.

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.

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.

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.