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."

Comments

No

[gustgr]

This is a librarian's worst nightmare.

Re:No

[arth1]

I remember when we used to say that about AOL...

Newbie. Many of us remember well the times before AOL and MSN dumped their user mass onto Internet.
When they were proprietary BBS networks, everthing was well in the world. Spam was almost non-existent, you didn't have to explain everything to the users, who were clever enough to figure out that inability to ping vax.ox.ac.uk didn't mean you had to reinstall your OS or call a guy in Bangalore to help you. The lion was grazing with the sheep. Or at least devouring them quietly.

The problem Yahoo Answers faces is that you can have trust or you can have anonymity, but you can't have both. In a small professional circle, you can generally trust the answers, because there are enough peers who would jump your shit if you gave wrong answers. In an anonymous world-wide forum, you can't. There's no accountability, and the volume is too high for peers to review anything. Especially if you get paid to provide answers, but NOT paid to provide corrections to answers.

If Yahoo! wants to gain credibility for their QA section, they need to introduce paid overseers that cross-check answers (and each other) and with the authority to add red ink comments inside other people's answers, axe payments to those who give wrong answers, and give a Yahoo! paid bonus to those who give extremely good answers.
Let the users see how well Yahoo! professionals (and not other sheep^Wusers) rate them.
This can only be successful if anonymity is dropped, and someone can't just create a new blank account if eventually booted or rated down (like the trolls do here on slashdot).

Get your answers here!

[morgan_greywolf]

Answers: $5
Good Answers: $10
Correct Answers: $20
Well-researched Answers complete with reference: time and materials

Dumb looks are still free.

What's wrong with Yahoo Answers?

[Malevolent Tester]

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?

Re:What's wrong with Yahoo Answers?

[idiotwithastick]

A sampling of what I see on answers.yahoo.com (YMMV)

• Did the Milwaukee Brewers really just give or are in the process of giving Eric Gagne $10 million for 1 year?
• What is a hydroxide ion?
• I have TimeWarner Cable and got the HD Receiver...But I don't wanna pay monthly!?
• I need to find a free download, no buying it, of oregon trail deluxe, can you help me?
• How often should I feed my puppies?
• What can u use for personal femine hygene while pregnant?
• My hands get cold,fingers numb,and skin does not bounce back.what causes this?
• What does it mean if I dream about my crush?
• In the game Yu-Gi-Oh GX Tag Force 2 why do I get a penalty after each duel?
• Where can i play inuyasha games online?
• Who is Gaspard Ulliel currently dating???
• Anyone see Marion Gaborik fly?
• How much do used iPods go for?
• I think I'm ugly and not a good person?

Now I understand how Yahoo! Answers is the perfect reference tool. Ask it any question you want, and some guy might come and give an answer to you...

So where is the problem?

[Vampyre_Dark]

If Yahoo answers doesn't let them cheat all that well, than why is there a problem? The student who did the proper research still gets a passing grade, and the student who tried to 'cheat' did suffers for it.

How is this any different than 20 years ago?

Is Yahoo Answers Reliable?

[mbulge]

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.

I'm a librarian, and my worst nightmare is:

[Anonymous Coward]

Margaret Thatcher wearing nothing but a thin layer of whipped cream.

Re:Why does it need to be?

[eln]

True. That's why if I want a well-researched answer, I submit my question as an Ask Slashdot article.

Now you tell me...

[butterwise]

I looked up how to open a pomegranate on Yahoo! Answers and ended up giving my two-year-old a lobotomy. Great.

Actual Yahoo! Questions

[Squiffy]

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?

Re:Comparing Apples and... What??

[Choad Namath]

Exactly. You don't use Yahoo! Answers to learn basic facts, you use it for questions that are more suited for human answers. You ask "What hotel is near the good bars in Portland, Oregon?" not "What's the melting point of Sn?"

Re:Huh?

[rk]

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.