What keeps you going on Yahoo! Answers?

Question

Do people of Yahoo! Answers find the answers more useful than professional help? What keeps you going on Yahoo! Answers? Are common sense and life experience more useful than advice of book worms?

Answer 1

I think the answers to alot of my questions are answered in a better way on here, because the people who answer have been through what I've been through, and it's nice hearing people's advice who have actually been there, rather than go to a website on the subject and get some proffessional's idea on what to do, when they may not have even experienced it themselves. Plus you get several different ideas, and get to choose the one you see would work best in your situation. So in a way I see common sense as a better tool for answering questions than book smarts, unless the question has to deal with math or science, and in that case it would probably be better to just seek a website, because you can trust these more to have the correct answer. The only time I ever feel like just saying "Screw it, I'm done with Y/A", is when people overanalyze your question and try to make generalizations about your life, when they don't know the whole story- theres only so much space to write your question. An example is when I wrote in asking for advice on how to get my son to develop his gymnastics talent( he got hurt once and wanted to quit- I was only trying to get him not to give up) , and I had people writing in telling me to stop living out my own insecurities through my 5 yr old- which had nothing to do with anything. And also when people are just flat out rude for no reason. That's when I just have to remember that there ARE people who are actually focused on helping people here, and that makes it worth it.

Answer 2

What keeps me going on "Yahoo!Answers?" is first the pleasure to speak English for the French girl I am. In a second time, it is the possibility to expose my opinion and see that of the others about the question I have choose to respond. After that it is because I like making people react about my questions (or answers).
Earning points and learn many things (even when you don't answer but just read the questions) is one of those reasons which makes me come on the "Yahoo!Answer?"
At last, I'd say that there is always one interesting question each day I come there.
I wouldn't say that people of "Yahoo!Answer?" find the answers more useful than professional help. I think they are only searching for a different advice or try to find people with the same point of view as them. Moreover common sense and life experience are sometimes more useful than advice of book worms... not to say that we don't need books anymore but there are some things that books can't explain, some things that books do not detail. Humans are naturally curious and want to go further to understand things.

Answer 3

I normally only ask something if it's a meanial quick question that people may know as part of their general knowledge on a a subject I can't be bothered to read through websites of information to find.

For example my sister got an ant farm for her birthday last month and wanted me to go find her some ants, so I used it to see if anyone knew where they tend to hide during wet weather. Generally I come on here to answer things as it gives me a laugh to see some of the questions people put up.

As a general rule though I do tend to find that personal advice and life experience can be worth a lot more than any written texts on a subject. A good example is I'm a strong advocate of on-the-job learning. Anyone can go to a uni, read all the books in the world and know the theory of how to perform a certain role when alls going as it should be, but there's no substitute for having been there physically working your way through a problem yourself. I'm an IT Technician and I've never done a day's IT education in my life, it's all been my own fiddlings with computers, and I've learned a lot more a lot quicker than a friend of mine studying the same field I "specialise" in at uni.

Answer 4

Questions and answers can be interesting, informative, humorous, unpredictable, useful, zany, off the wall......etc. Many of the factual answers could be found in an encyclopaedia or on the Internet, however, ones that ask for people's opinions can't necessarily be found elsewhere.

Yahoo answers are not necessarily a substitute for professional help but may point someone in a direction they had not thought of before.

What keeps me going? All of the above; any answer is reinforcing so I continue..... It's not quite addictive - yet.

Answer 5

I think that it is because you can get an array of different answers, from people with all kinds of lives. True some may not have even graduated high school, but I would much rather have someone helping me who lived through it, than a professional that is only going to give me an answer they learned from generalizations in a text book.

Answer 6

I continue to use Yahoo as I like to broaden my scope of education - obviously depending which category I answer from and ask also. I do feel that it opens my horizons on certain categories actually. Although I do tend to think that different levels one reaches should have the opportunity of different questions - give one more of a target to get to different levels than it already is actually. Yahoo has the chance of reaching more people to change things in the UK etc., for the better if people took up on a lot of questions and acted on good response.

Answer 7

I think both are equally useful. Information which I know about may help someone make a decision. Sometimes it's nice to know that out there in Answerland, there are people sharing the same problems as you.

Answer 8

Who is it to say the people giving advice on her not professionals? I think it is good to see what people from all over think! The comments are interesting except the few that abuse the site! Everyone is entitled to their opinion! It is a good little "meeting of the minds"!

Answer 9

I think this place is interesting. When I'm sitting at home alone, it makes me feel like there's others out there who (sometimes) care. It can be useful and helpful, sometimes it's just a laugh, but that's the point right?

Answer 10

I prefer to read others' responses because I easily and conveniently learn something from it. Experience is the best teacher....in this case experience of others.