Poll: On the trolls...?

Question

I heard somewhere that Yahoo Answers is set up the way it is to keep out spammers, which is all well and good, however this same set-up allows trolls. Some kind of inter-net vigilantes who get you suspended not necessarily because you did something wrong but because you passed them over for best answer or because you made Top Contributor. I agree there should be a system in place to keep out offenders but when your account is a year old and 10 people reported you, whose accounts were made this morning, that should be a red flag. Or having a level 5 status, when they're only 1's or 2's, should have more merit along with the TC status. How can Yahoo weed out the trolls better and still keep out spammers?

Bender, my bud just gave me an interesting option. Make it more like the 'death note', by suspending other accounts it shortens your own accounts life. One way around this would be too create new accounts, but if they factor in the account levels, a level 1 shouldn't have as much power over a level 4. Plus you can also take into consideration the 'thumbing' system. If you have 10 thumbs up against 1 thumbs down, that should carry some weight.

Also, an offending question or answer could be put into a special voting pool, just like when a question's time expires. And the Yahooniverse could vote on it as a whole as to wether or not it actually was offensive.

And 'Just Ask' with her sexy self, also has a good point, if you're an adult you can sign into a special area of Answers, where you could ask something, that actually could be outright offensive but since you've clicked on a disclaimer to get in, you can't report anything or anyone.

I sent all the suggestions along with a link to this question to Yahoo, and then I also joined all the answers groups. There's like 4 yahoo groups for people on Answers plus a MySpace page, I did NOT know that!

All ya'll that agree with me need to go to the Yahoo Answers Suggestion Board and vote on my suggestion, so it'll have more weight. Here's the link. http://suggestions.yahoo.com/detail/?prop=answers&fid=67820

Answer 1

The answer is actually quite simple, Yahoo puts restrictions on anything when you start out at level 1 to 4.
Amount of questions you can ask, answers you can give, thumb up and downing, starring and E-mails you can send.

So why not simply apply the same to the report flag !.
Now anybody can create an account and start shooting others, plainly ridiculous, let them prove themselves as good citizens on Yahoo answers first, building up their account to level 4 at least.
Showing that they are serious participants and only then give
them the power to "report ".
And restrict the number of reports you can make in a day to 5
maximum. Anybody who is out Cruising for more reportable
offenses is obviously not here to answer or ask questions anymore ( and that is a certainly a guideline violation ).
Also a false report should cost you at least 10 pts.

Answer 2

I answered a question or actually voted on a question earlier about this same subject. I suppose you can privatize your account to avoid the trolls. It's a shame though because it makes it harder to get to know someone(if you can know someone from dialogue online) by making every thing private. I find it utterly ridiculous that there are people who are so serious about this forum to actually report people for not giving them best answers. Seriously get a job or go do something you should be doing as opposed to being on the computer all day. If you really think about it, it's insane. This is a forum, if used properly, to help others. It would behoove Yahoo to take a closer look at certain answers before they just automatically delete them and delete accounts.

Answer 3

The truth of the matter is, there is no one at YAHOO reviewing the reports made by the trolls, it is all handled by computer. If you are hit with a number of reports the computer automatically suspends your account, it is totally arbitrary, and it sucks, big time! But it is far easier and cost effective for them to let the computer handle it then to pay an employee to review the thousands of reports they must get everyday.
I think there should be a section were your "offensive" remark would get transferred to and then it could be voted on by other y/a members, if it is found to be truly "offensive" then it can simply be removed, but there should be no need to suspend the account of the "offender".
I do think however, that there should be a limit on reporting as well, if it is found that one reports too many people, then they should be reviewed, warned, and suspended for abusing the reporting process!

Answer 4

maamu has a bulls eye!!!!
Trolls comes all disguises. Anything that creates by "man" beings know how to get around to multiple by dozens. They are hackers to make people life miserable. In my opinion this site doesn't scrutinize members answers or questions. There should be post screening that has filters before a question or answer are posted. Questions should be flagged if its not label in the appropriate category.
Yahoo staff needs to re vent the wheel for the forum, There should a better incentive program. I am not saying what forum but I have visit others sites that has better incentive programs for their members. It raise a question does Yahoo administration wants "Quantity" or Quality"? Forums should be on a professional and reality levels instead of "jokes".
With my observations, I have seen answers or votes selected as "best answer" that's not relate to the subject. I have seen repetitive questions on this site being asked. I have seen racial or profanity comments.
BTW, when a question is posted for answer...the point system is bad..example: member post their question for answer and the respondent answers with a letter, and you received 2 points. Now tell me how you get 2 points when the respondent hasn't answered the question...So this lets me know that Yahoo isn't scrutinizing the answers....means anything goes for answers unless someone reports you.

Level of points should be revent..When you reach certain points, Yahoo should have an incentive for those members.

Anyway thanks for reading

Answer 5

I actually saw that once. Some person had like a level 4 or 5 status and they had only answered 30 questions or so. How does that happen???

Trolls, the world is full of them.
They are in your neighborhood (oh the Smith family got a new R.V., they parked it in their backyard--lets call the city and complain).
They are at school (Sally always gets good grades in this class, I bet she is sleeping with the teacher--lets ask around and see what everyone else thinks).
They are at work ( Joe's sales are higher than everyone else's all the time, he must be cheating. Let's go tell the boss he is cheating)

I could go on, you get the picture. Trolls are people that cannot excel at anything on their own, they are jealous of your hard work ,and feel a strong need to attack people that are clearly harder workers than they are.

There is no way around trolls. They are like a disease.

Answer 6

Polls & Trolls

Answer 7

Every time you get suspended you open up a new account and a new Yahoo email address.


Yahoo is the largest email client provider on the planet to their advertisers with real $$$$$$...... Money talks bullshit walks.


Easy as that.


BTW there are 400.000.000.00 fourhundred million questions and answers world wide EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Answer 8

first let me start off by saying i dont mean to be rude, but anyone who has the time to be reporting people because they didn't get best answer or top contributor, seriously needs to get a life. i mean, if the only thing they can do is spend time on this website causing trouble for people then they need to get a hobby or take out their frustrations elsewhere. its not as if you could get money for the points or trade them in for food. but to answer your question i think that YA people should look at the question carefully before they remove it!

Answer 9

I agree with Goss, send your suggestion into YA!
What is the worst that can happen, they ignore it?
Unfortunately there are WAAAAY TOOO many cry babys who will biiiiitch & report you for NO reason ( had it happen several times over the last few weeks)
All we can do is HOPE they do somthing about the troll situation

Answer 10

Their process for deleting answers should be stricter than allowing them to get deleted by another person flagging the answer. There should be some kind of filter that allows a question to get deleted if there is profanity, racial slurs or something similar.