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Yahoo! Answers, A Librarian's Worst Nightmare
Slate has an interesting look at the realm of online question and answer forums. Yahoo! Answers is boasting over 120 million users and 400 million answers placing it just behind Wikipedia for most visited education/reference site on the internet. While this may be a great insight into crowd mentality and search preferences, it seems to be a "complete disaster as a traditional reference tool." "For educators fretting that the Internet is creating a generation of 'intellectual sluggards,' the problem isn't just that Yahoo!'s site helps ninth-graders cheat on their homework. It's that a lot of the time, it doesn't help them cheat all that well. [...] Like Yahoo! Answers, Wikipedia isn't perfect. But for savvy browsers who know how to use it, Wikipedia is an invaluable source of factual information. In the last two years, there's been a heated debate over whether Wikipedia is as trustworthy as Encyclopedia Britannica. This obscures a crucial point: Wikipedia is at least reliable enough that such a question can be asked. Take my word for it--no one is going to make any such claims about Yahoo! Answers any time soon."
This is a librarian's worst nightmare.
Answers: $5
Good Answers: $10
Correct Answers: $20
Well-researched Answers complete with reference: time and materials
Dumb looks are still free.
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How could a service that provides such vital information as this, this and this ever be considered anything other than a vital font of knowledge?
If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
Yahoo! Answers--the place to go to get your question answered by a certified yahoo.
This guy's the limit!
Why not just go to the source?
According to Yahoo Answers:
Resolved Question: Is Yahoo Answers reliable?
Best Answer: No way.
But then again it could be wrong. You can hardly trust something you read on that site.
where members can "score" the comments of others... Nah, it'd never work. Sure to collapse from its own inbred weight in MUCH LESS than a decade...
Margaret Thatcher wearing nothing but a thin layer of whipped cream.
Do you get your diploma by mail, with full credit for "life experience"?
Or does your college have the word "community" in the title?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
True. That's why if I want a well-researched answer, I submit my question as an Ask Slashdot article.
I looked up how to open a pomegranate on Yahoo! Answers and ended up giving my two-year-old a lobotomy. Great.
If a baby duck is a "duckling," why would anyone want to eat "dumplings?"
Here are some actual questions I've collected from Yahoo! Answers over time:
- What is the best way to hint to your parents that you are pregnant?
- How do my mum and dad want to renew my wedding vow?
- Do lesbian cheerleaders really exist?
- How powerful does a telescope have to be to see the moon?
- How can I master the art of Levitation?
- Swimming at the waterslides and have to pee really bad... What to do??
- My BODY is my own ENEMY? WHAT would you do if YOU were IN my POSITION?
- What kind of shampoo does Ozzy Osbourne use?
- My nipples are wierd???!!?
- Is it true if you put blood in someones food they will go crazy?
- How many years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds are in 200300 if you divide it by 360?
- Do female animals have G Spot?
- Unfortunately, I have very little common sense.
- Is there a way to make my nostrils bigger without surgery?
- Do mice really explode???
- Automatic toilets scare me. Am I alone?
Anyone who reads somethingawful's weekend web should know how good Yahoo Answers is as a source of information...
Is that you can't flame moronic little fuckwits who ask shite questions or give shite answers. That's what made Usenet useful.
Deleted
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo_answers
Wikipedia in Yahoo! Answers
Any questions?
If only those poor bastards had come to Ask Slashdot. Just look at how much trouble we could've saved them!
- What is the best way to hint to your parents that you are pregnant?
1) Ready a video camera & tape this.
2) Find your parents, then say "Mom? Dad? I'm pregnant."
3) Post the "reactions" video on YouTube.
- How do my mum and dad want to renew my wedding vow?
They probably want you to get married in a church this time instead of in Vegas so all their friends will stop asking why they weren't invited to your wedding.
- Do lesbian cheerleaders really exist?
No, much like the moon, they're a ridiculous liberal myth.
- How powerful does a telescope have to be to see the moon?
I think I already said that the moon is a ridiculous liberal myth. Therefore, you'll need a telescope with a negative index of refraction. Consult this guy for details.
- How can I master the art of Levitation?
Gather enough power wands for an anti-gravity lozenge. Watch out for the koalas with nunchucks. Unlike the Black Manta, you are NOT a ninja.
Alternatively, you can try joining that cult with the gold-domed roof in some cornfield in Iowa. No, not the state capitol building, dumbass, the OTHER place with a gold dome that's in the middle of some cornfield.
- Swimming at the waterslides and have to pee really bad... What to do??
Let nature take its course. Oh, and give me advance notice so I can avoid that water park.
- My BODY is my own ENEMY? WHAT would you do if YOU were IN my POSITION?
Go visit a water park. I'll let you know which one is best once I hear back from my, umm, informant.
- What kind of shampoo does Ozzy Osbourne use?
Most likely some organic shampoo made from hemp. How else do you explain the smell?
- My nipples are wierd???!!?
Yes. Yes, they are. I suggest disconnecting the battery, though. That just makes you look weird.
- Is it true if you put blood in someones food they will go crazy?
That's what they WANT you to believe.
- How many years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds are in 200300 if you divide it by 360?
That depends on what calendar you're using and how you calculate it. If you're using Excel, the answer is clearly 10,000. If you use a Pentium, it's about 9,999.99999873
- Do female animals have G Spot?
That's what SHE said.
- Unfortunately, I have very little common sense.
Thanks, but we already know why you're here.
- Is there a way to make my nostrils bigger without surgery?
Beans. Refer to Wikipedia's article on stuffing beans up your nose. Just ignore all those POV-pushers that like to vandalize that page with a "don't" as if they can tell US what to do.
- Do mice really explode???
Computer mice? No. Rodents? Yes, but you'll need some TNT. Search YouTube for tips and advice.
- Automatic toilets scare me. Am I alone?
Yes. Which is why I suggest you join a clique on Facebook or MySpace. Might I suggest the "Biggest Loser Club"? I hear it's very exclusive. They have just one member so far: you.
Man, I hear you. I read this book once, called "The Holy Bible" and I never found out ANYTHING about a bible, much less a holy one. Instead it was a bunch of stuff about this "THE LORD" guy and a bunch of people that followed him or didn't follow him, then some Roman thugs nail his son to a tree. After that it didn't really go anywhere (a couple other guys get nailed to trees, too, but it's kind of anticlimactic after the first one), but it had a pretty spectacular ending where THE LORD gets some payback that I imagine some special effects guys could go crazy with if they ever made it into a movie.
Overall, it was kind of disappointing, though. Never did find out about a bible and whoever wrote it really needed their editor to reel it in.
I am a librarian, and my worst nightmare is the same as everyone else's: going to the circus and getting fisted by midgets in the back of the clown car.
The multitude of sites that offer 'answers' for a fee is a non-issue.
Banana shortage.
Rich