Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

Actually, this is the previous blog post by “Vera”, one of our team since 2006. However, I think it’s worth to share with you again!

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If you’re still agonising over whether you should ask those burning questions, my advice to you is: just ask it already. I’ll even tell you the secret to getting good responses. It’s CONS.

It stands for Categorise well, seek Opinions, reduce Noise, and be Specific.

Categorise Well
It’s like choosing the right co-curricular activity (CCA) in school. If you’re really into chess, you probably won’t join the swim team to seek a worthy chess opponent.

Similarly, you want to put your questions in the category where people with the right experience or interests will naturally hang out. Asking for information on what diet your cat should be on in Computers & Internet > Programming & Design section will probably leave you none the wiser. Post it in the Pets > Cats section – other pet owners there will be happy to share their experiences.

Seek Opinions
You’ll be surprised at the creativity and resourcefulness of the collective community – if only you ask their opinion. A question like, “Do you like fish curry?” would likely only yield a bunch of “Yes” and “No”. But if the question was “How do I make fish curry delicious?” then you’ll not only find that people like fish curry, you’ll also discover how they prepare it to make it special.

Reduce Noise
There are several kinds of noise:

* Duplication: We heard you the first time, don’t go on and on like my secondary school Chemistry teacher. Asking the same question in different categories doesn’t get you better or more answers either.
* Junk: You know junk when you see it. The ones that go “What did John cook for dinner tonight?” or “What are you doing right now?”. If you see questions like that you should not answer them. Questions with no answers will automatically get deleted after seven days. You can also report these questions by clicking on the “Report Abuse” link and we’ll delete those questions if necessary.
* Chatting: Yahoo! Answers isn’t meant to be used as a chat site or personals message board. Asking things like “Does anyone out there want to exchange emails” or “Could someone please be my Yahoo! 360 friend?” is just uncool on Yahoo! Answers. There’s a place for that, it’s called Yahoo! Chat.

Be a sport, read the Community Guidelines for a clearer picture of what Yahoo! Answers is about.

Be Specific
Remember, you reap what you sow. Being specific will help others give you a relevant answer. A vague question like “Good recipes?” might contain a large number of meat recipes, but it won’t be very relevant if you were looking for a good chocolate cake recipe. Help others help you – give them as much information or as many clues as you can to get yourself a good answer.

Here are examples of questions which follow the CONS rule:

* How do I keep my socks from going missing in the laundry?
* If ‘dry-cleaning’ involves petrol, is it really ‘dry’?

Consequently, they earn a big “thumbs up” from me! Good job, folks!

I’m sure you get the picture by now. So go ahead. Shoot that question. There’s an answer out there waiting for you.