Are yahoo high scorers merely yes men/women?

Question

I have observed that contraversial answers are not generally accepted. Is it the case that the high scorers are merely those poor, mentally underprivileged souls who haven't got anything better to do?

Answer 1

Not at all. Let's take a look at the leaderboard... Right now, I'm getting as the top five U.S. people:

.....name.................. points........Qs........As
1...dukalink6000.... 320,586.......2......78402
2...Richard............. 303,118....607........6559
3...Judas Rabbi.... 248,235....361.....79663
4...Kevin................. 228,420......15........7308
5...Renée............... 172,969......42......51142

You can see a few commonalities right off. Three of those folks just give a heck of a lot of answers. In fact, if we look at Judas there, you'll see that 159,326 of his 248,235 points (64%!) comes just from answering questions. If you answer THAT many questions, it hardly matters at all whether anyone agrees with you or not.

In fact, if we assume that Judas always voted for his own answers as well, we find that only 9,968 points (the remainder of his balance plus 2 points for every question he's asked) remain unaccounted for. So he could have gotten that score with a mere thousand or so best answers. Which would be 1%.

In fact, ol' Judas Rabbi is at 5%, which suggests that he humbly doesn't always vote for his own answers. And perhaps that he's more agreeable than you might at first think (which is my personal observation from seeing him around... heh).

Richard, on the other hand, has only answered 6559 questions and yet has come up with 303,118 points. Even if EVERY answer he gave was a best answer, that would only account for 65,000 of his points... so he must be getting them from some place else. So either he is getting a miraculous amount of thumbs-ups (he'd need to get a best answer for every question and 36 thumbs-ups for each one besides!), or he's just spending a LOT of time voting.

Looking at Richard's account, we find that his best answer rate is actually just a little more than 50% and that his last 10 best answers average 'only' 4.6 thumbs-ups apiece. Those averages carried through only account for about 19% of his points if he's voting for himself too... so, again, it's probably a lot of voting.

You may have a point about being popular, however. Personally, I consider it a miracle if I get more than one or two thumbs-ups and Richard's minimum of those I looked at was two. Likewise for voting - he has easily carried every vote he's been in that I saw, with AT LEAST 6 votes and an average of 9 (!). Perhaps he has a cult following or something. Even so, most of his points must be coming from votes.

So it would seem the answer to your question is that many of the point leaders are not ahead because their answers are bland or appeasing. Rather, it would seem their status is supported by just a massive volume of comparatively low-scoring behaviours that are cumulatively rewarding.

Answer 2

That statement is not at all true, I often challenge things if I don't agree with a question.

I would never be rude or hurt a person's feelings.
I respect what others have to say. I like the serious and the amusing replies, and some of the more controversial answers.

As for assuming someone is mentally underprivileged, because they haven't got anything better to do than answer questions, therefore getting a high score, that is horribly patronising, and smacks of sour grapes!

There is room for everyone on this site whatever their capabilities.
We are not answering questions to point out, or correct spelling. We are not here to assess a persons IQ
Nor are we here to look up to, or down on anyone.

Many of the people who are high scorers, are so, because their answers are amusing, or have a way of hitting the nail on the head.

I have to say, my thanks go to you for helping me increase my typing speed, which is usually of the two finger method. Answering you under much steam , I brought in an extra finger.

To show you I am not being rude to you, I leave a smile to defuse my words, ok?;-]

Whoops, sorry ok? That was a question

ps. no, I haven't got a high score, well not for questions answered...

Answer 3

The high scorer dedicate a lot of time to this and that is their prerogative. I will never be a high scorer because when I start gaining ground yahoo will delete my account. I have toned it down considerably though because I started noticing more kids on here.

Answer 4

I grew up in an exceedingly small city and extreme college change into were all the interest change into except for procuring inebriated and making out. I even did a number of that in school. LOL this is troublesome to trust I survived extreme college and that i change into an "A" scholar. college is were females were and were I performed football so I had a blast. It did not harm that by potential of the time i began extreme college my Dad had supply up eating (He change into between the worst alcoholics I have ever considered) . mom change into nevertheless a discomfort yet Dad and that i grew to change into maximum perfect friends, So i guess my view of my extreme college years is somewhat biased. the college Dances were enormous events in a small city that had one action picture theater with basically one demonstrate, no quickly nutrition eating places and no shops. We did not get Rock live performance events coming interior of one hundred fifty miles so i did not see my first stay live performance till I went away to varsity except you count number community bands playing on the Dances.

Answer 5

i think some of the high scores cheat :( by having side accounts .

They ask questions with the side account and answer with the main account, and vote for their own answers.

Ive notices some very good answer don't get the 10 points while some stupid comment will get the 10 points.

also Ive seen friends vote for each other.

Also often similar questions are asked and people just find the old 10 point answers and copy and paste.

I only look at certain sections and have notice it. (its pretty easy to spot)
personal i don't want to wast my time with getting points i just answer ask and answer for enjoyment you get nothing at the end of the day for points.

Answer 6

i don`t know maybe theyre on here 24/7 it was`nt to hard to reach level 5 but i been on it for weeks now and i`m getting nowhere
not that it matters its not like you can take the points to the shop and spend them

Answer 7

You should know, seeing that you are such a high scorer yourself. I was aiming at being a high scorer myself, but since you categorize them as such, I don't know now.

Answer 8

No, i checked some of the top leaders and they have a large amount of best answers. The percentage though is little when taken into account the number of questions answered.

Answer 9

I know that I've never got a best answer when I disagreed with the questioner.

Answer 10

yes you will notice that the very high scorers only give 1-line , uncontroversial, fairly "non-committal" answers.