are you afraid to answer questions due to all the violations? I KNOW I AM! i was an avid answerer!?

Answer 1

Nope, though for a while there I was a bit put out and didn't ask any Questions. To elaborate, just FYI:

--It is much easier to get a Violation Notice when you ask a Question than it is when you Answer one. Why? When a single person Reports an Answer for abuse, they can only click on the Flag *once*, and then the option goes away. Meaning multiple people (or one person cheating across multiple accounts, like some trolls do) have to report an Answer to get it pulled.

On a Question, you get a *Flag* to click on and a "Report Abuse" text link, and they both stay put. One person can freely Report a Question for Abuse *multiple times*, which raises the risk that the Abuse Reports will exceed the thresh-hold (which is in the 8-12 report range) and draw the Violation Notice. So Questions are higher risk really.

--Whenever anything is flagged for Abuse, it is run through a Baynesian filter, similar to what some folks use to filter spam out of their mailboxes. It basically *keywords* every word in the questionable Answer or Question, and assigns a value to it, based on the odds or probability that any given *word* is offensive.

What this means is that some fairly common insults and obscenities will get flagged down and Violated *instantly*, regardless of what the content of the rest of the material is....you could merely be responding to a troll and *quoting him* and still get the Violation Notice. But what it also means is that trolls *by nature* already know the ways around the filter....hashing out their text with spaces, punctuation, numbers and typos until the *character string* is something the filter itself doesn't recognize.

And....to make matters worse, the system appears to learn only very slowly and in a very dysfunctional (read: messed up) fashion. How many times did we have to *report* the infamous Bot Profiles for Abuse before that system learned that the string "Bot" is a high-priority thing that means "take action NOW damn it!"? Okay then. And it also appears that different servers in different nations have different Abuse system filters because some people are able to exploit double standards and get away with *a LOT* that we in the U.S. or U.K. couldn't get away with.

In short...if you really *really* must avoid getting any more Violation Notices:

--Don't Ask Questions (this is the single riskiest thing),
--Don't Answer Questions in: Politics; Religion & Spirituality; Singles & Dating; most of the Sports --> areas; and any *other* places where people are *hair-trigger* with trolls, flames and insults (and the Abuse Reports).
--When you do Answer Questions....keep the language as non-committal and non-offensive as possible. Be polite. Or, failing that, if you need to be opinionated, get out the dictionary and thesaurus and *be exceedingly creative* with the dark side of your vocabulary. There's no need to hash-up your words like a troll when you can find other words that *nobody* ever uses that mean the same thing (and will be more confusing).
--And if all else *truly* fails....just resign yourself to getting one point at a time. One for showing up in a day, then the rest by going to the Undecided Questions page and voting to your heart's content. You cannot (to my best knowledge) get a Violation Notice just for voting on Questions. And Yahoo's backlog is huge, so they'd appreciate the help.

I hope this was helpful...thanks for your time! ^_^

Answer 2

I am not too afraid to answer.I am answering you, aren't I?? I am however, a little ask shy!
I am SO tired of the violations! I never had received even one until I reached level 5! Then it all broke loose!
Don't let the trolls frighten you away. They have no life and all they live for is to annoy others! Just keep on keeping on and answer, answer, answer... ask, ask, ask! =)

Answer 3

I haven't received one yet--but I wont let it bother me if I do. I try to be careful with my answers, be truthful, a little funny, and think before I write. I'm not always successful, therefore thank GOD for the edit button.

Answer 4

At times I have been afraid to speak my mind because it seems that some people report you if they simply did not like your answer, regardless of whether it's truly offensive.

Answer 5

Dont let it deter you....you get used to the violations after a while and I just laugh them off.

Its not your fault people have no sense of humor!!

Answer 6

Yes especially in the politics section. People on that board will report you for nothing.

Answer 7

I am becoming a bit paranoid. It's spooky here at Answers at times.

Answer 8

i think i received a violation for say lol or something of the sort. i thought it was hilarious actually

Answer 9

Feels like walking on egg shells.

Answer 10

No, not anymore. I've received a voilation once for saying I liked cats. They don't mean anything anymore.