Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

The next time you log into Yahoo! Answers Malaysia you may notice things look a little bit different. We’re rolling out a new homepage and navigation over the next few days. Don’t worry: if you don’t see the new changes just yet, you will soon.

We’ve made quite a few changes to the homepage, so to make navigation a bit easier, we’ve broken things down for you by section, so let’s get started.

New Yahoo! Answers Malaysia Homepage

1- New Navigation
You may have noticed that atop the Answers banner, there are four new, navigation tabs: Home, Browse Categories, My Activity, and About. Each of these tabs (as well as the green Answers banner) will stay with you throughout your experience on the site, making it easier for you to get to the places on Answers you care about most.

New Navigation

Home: This brings you back to the main page of Answers, where you can see the Best of Answers rotating module, the link to the Answers Blog (which is now on the right hand side, as well as the most recent questions posted on the site.

Browse categories: more about this below

My activity: From here, you can go directly to your Answers profile, view your network, your network activity, and even edit your preferences.

About: Learn all about Answers, revisit the Community Guidelines, check out the leaderboard, Suggestion Board, and visit the Answers Blog.

2 – Browsing categories

New Category Browse

On the old Answers homepage all of the categories were permanently displayed on the left hand column, hogging up homepage space that could have been used for valuable questions. We’ve decided to tuck the categories away under the top hide-away menu where you can easily access them any time, or, if you want to view them all at once, just click on the browse category tab to be taken to the “All Categories” page. From here, you’ll be able to peruse all of the questions that are: open, resolved or in voting on the site.

3- An updated look and feel
Over the past few years we’ve heard from quite a few of you that you love the Answers green but it’s just a little too green. So we’ve taken your feedback to heart and have toned down the green just a bit and have replaced the white background with a light blue that is a little easier on the eyes. Our smilies (4) have also received a facelift and look a bit more polished throughout the site.

Additionally, you’ll notice that the page feels a bit wider—one thing we heard from you when we introduced the new category pages several months back was that you liked the extra space. This extra space allows us to display even more questions on the homepage, making it easier for you to jump right in.

But wait, there’s more!

This release doesn’t just include cosmetic changes—we also included quite a few backend bug fixes, as well as a few feature requests, like updating the category leaderboards much more regularly. Starting today, category leaderboards will update on a daily basis instead of weekly.

Please note they will NOT be real-time, but will update at the end of each day. This means at 6am on Friday, your points total will show as it was at 5.59am on Thursday.

Tell us what you think

Once you’ve given the new homepage a test drive, tell us what you think! We’ve started two threads on the Suggestion Board for the new homepage—one for questions and one for comments – and we’ll be checking them regularly. Additionally, you’re always welcome to use the “Tell us what you think” link found at the bottom of every Yahoo! Answers page.

You’re also welcome to leave your comments here, on the blog.

Thanks, and we hope you like it!

When visiting Answers, there are three main ways to engage with the members of the community: you can ask a question, answer a question, or vote.

By now, you’ve figured out that asking a question costs you points, and answering a question awards you points. But did you know that you can also earn a point by voting on a question?

How do I earn (or lose) points?

• Give a best answer: earn 10 points
• Answer a question: earn 2 points
• Vote for an answer: earn 1 point
• Ask a question: lose 5 points
• Violate the community guidelines: lose 10 points

When participating on the site, a few tips will help you move from level to level in no time—they are:

• Provide Best Answers—be sure your answers are quality, don’t violate the Community Guidelines (http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines) and answer the question!

• Search for your question before you ask it: while your question may seem unique, you may be shocked just how many people before you have come to Answers to ask “Why is the sky blue?” – Save your 5 points and use the Advanced Search feature (http://www.yanswersblogmy.com/b4/2010/02/19/answers-how-to-advanced-search/) to check the site for similar questions before asking your own.

• Use the “Sort” feature to find questions with the fewest answers—by filtering by the fewest answers you’re naturally “upping your odds” of earning a “Best Answer” as you’ll have fewer other answers to compete against, and, may be providing someone with the perfect answer!

With these tips under your belt, you’ll be at level 7 in no time! Happy answering!

We know that when visiting Yahoo! Answers you’re here either to ask a question or answer a question. For many of you, your main objective is to lend a hand and answer as many questions about your area of expertise as possible, but oftentimes, you’re unable to easily find the right types of questions.

While a basic search (using the top search bar) will produce quick search results, the advanced search function will help you pinpoint specific terms within targeted categories.

Answers community member, Calimecita who is well known across the community for her expertise in Biology/Zoology, is also a savvy Answers member and has worked with us to provide useful Answers tips from Answers users.

Using Advanced Search you can:

* Find questions that match specific words or phrases, and/or exclude specific terms.
* Search questions or best answers only
* Search by category or subcategory
* Choose to search among all English vs only your home portal questions
* Filter by question status (open, resolved, undecided)
* Restrict by question time frame

You also have the option of saving this search and making it your default “advanced search” for the future by checking the “Make this my default search” box.

“With Advanced Search, I can locate open questions about specific topics quickly and efficiently, without restricting myself to a single category. I’ve even set up a few Yahoo! Alerts based on the RSS feeds from these Search results, so that I receive those questions as emails.”

Cali also says, “when I need an Answer, I restrict my search to Resolved Questions only and use some of the other options, such as “search for exact phrase” and “none of these words”, to find very specific content (for example, information about turkeys that doesn’t involve Thanksgiving recipes, or a question about vampires – not the Twilight kind ).

I see lots of comments and requests in the Suggestion Board for ways to do these things – and many users don’t know that Advanced Search is the answer,”

For an even more in-depth look at what the advanced search feature can do for you, stop by Calimecita’s Unofficial Answers Tutorial, found here

One of the things the Team is trying to improve this year is getting the Answers community involved earlier when we make improvements to the site. As part of that, we’d love for you to fill out a short survey on the notifications. Please find it here.

We need your opinion on what you love and where there is room for improvement, which notifications we send and how often we send them. Want to receive notifications via something else than email?

The survey is completely anonymous and the results will be used only by the Answers Team to help us with this project.

You can take the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YQZZBJB

Thanks so much for your help on this!

Hi guys, actually, I copy this post from my colleague in Philippines and adapt it with Malaysia. But I do believe it works with all of us. Check it out now.

- – - – -

We receive a lot of feedback each day through the blog, Suggestion Board, and other channels of communication. One of the community’s most heatedly discussed topics centers around the quality of questions or answers.

As you probably know, our Community Guidelines exist to explain our daily moderation on the site, and also to help you form better questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers. Let’s look at some golden rules that will help improve your experience by increasing your chances of getting even better results:

1. Start your question with “who,” “why,” “how,” etc.: Formulate your question in a clear, straightforward way. This will help your question stand out to visitors who can share their knowledge and answer some questions. Make it easier for them to find yours! Example: How can I solve a Rubik’s cube?

2. Use correct spelling (avoid text lingo) in your questions: Correct spelling and grammar help people understand your questions. You’ll get better answers when others can clearly make out what you’re asking. Example: “Who da actress dat plays Monica’s BFF…” should be “Who is the actress that plays Monica’s best friend…”

3. Open the debate (politely!): Remember, we’re a diverse community of people with differing opinions. Feel free to introduce your point of view with constructive thoughts or examples, or compare your vision with another’s personal experiences. And by citing sources, using quotation marks, and including hyperlinks, you make the community stronger and better informed.

4. Categorize your question in the proper place: Placing your question in the right category helps make it more visible to the people who can give you the best information and most accurate answers.

5. Respect other members and the opinions they post—do not target specific users: With a community this large, expect to find opinions that are different from yours. Everyone wants to be treated with dignity. Showing respect to others makes the community better for all of us. Don’t ask or answer questions about another member—let’s not engage in gossip. We’re here to share knowledge!

And remember, it’s always a good idea to search first to check if the question that’s on your mind has already been asked.

For more information, check our Community Guidelines or Help pages. Feel free to share other helpful hints with the community by leaving a comment below.

Photo by chrisjohnbeckett

At the start of the year, many people often think about getting things in shape: their homes, their bodies, but they don’t stop to think about getting their computers in shape. While online safety and virus protection should be thought about year round, this is a great time to take a quick refresher course on some of the common online threats that you may (or may not) encounter while surfing the net.

Online and within the news you’ve likely heard of some of the most common terms (malware, spam, viruses, and Trojans), but may not have known what they are, or, how to protect yourself or your computer from them. We’ve pulled together a quick resource guide outlining the who’s who, and where to go for more information. But when online, some of the most important things to remember are:

• Don’t trust pop-ups; things pretending to be virus checkers may actually be viruses (more on that later)
• You don’t have to understand a lot about online security to protect against the most common online threats. Keep your computer up to date and be suspicious about the sites you visit- employ the same skills you do in real life as you do online: don’t give out your personal information to strangers, and don’t trust something because it “sort of” looks official. And remember to trust your instincts: if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

What’s malware?
Malware is software that does something you don’t want done, usually installed without your permission. It includes viruses, worms and Trojans.

What is spam?
Spam is/can be: the repeated postings of the same content; off topic banter/answers/comments; links to commercial sites or merchandise; in general, unsolicited, unwanted or irrelevant messages, links or postings. You may run into it in your inbox, on message boards, in comments sections, etc. Basically, anywhere that someone can enter or submit text is susceptible to spam.

What is phishing?
This is any attempt to steal your account information. Phishers set up fake web sites that look like those of trusted companies to trick you into disclosing your account information. These pages can look nearly identical to the real thing, so it can be hard to tell that you are on a phony site.

Most commonly, you’ll see these as emails asking for the password to your bank account, your Yahoo! email account (urging you to send your account information or else your account will be terminated), or your credit card information. If you run into a phishing email on Yahoo!, please do report it to us !

Remember to never click on links in emails, no matter how official they look. Use bookmarks or physically type the site name in.

To protect yourself further, set a sign-in seal and don’t give out your Yahoo! password on your computer unless you see your sign-in seal (for more information on this, go here. This helps you know when you’re on a phishing page, or when you’re on a legitimate Yahoo! login page.

Yahoo! Security Center

At http://security.yahoo.com/ you can assess your PC’s exposure to online threats, including malware, viruses, and an assortment of other online risks. Additionally, you can also learn about:

• Protecting your PC
• Protecting your online privacy
• Protecting your children online at Yahoo! Safely
• Getting rid of pop-ups, viruses, adware, or spyware
• And much more!

How to help protect your machine

Be sure that your computer has antivirus software installed and that its virus definitions are up-to-date- many computers do not, and this leaves them open to many malware attacks. Programs like Norton Anti-Virus or http://www.malwarebytes.org/ will help protect and prevent future attacks.

If you see a pop-up, close it promptly, without clicking on anything inside the window (buttons inside the window may download software, no matter what the label on them says, even if it’s “No”, or “Cancel”). Click the close button on the window frame (the “x” in the upper right on a Windows machine, the red button in the upper left on a Mac).

If that doesn’t work use “Ctrl + F4″ on Windows or “Shift + Cmd + W” on an Apple machine to close the window. Worst case, kill the browser with the Task Manager on Windows or Force Quit on a Mac, and if you can’t do that, reboot the machine. (Be sure to save your work in other programs!)

Then run a virus-scan using an anti-virus program to check for any malware remnants.

At the end of the day, it’s up to YOU to help keep your online experience safe—keep your software up-to-date and be cautious about giving out information, including passwords.

How can we make questions and answers here more local?  This is important for Yahoo! since we’re under new management — you!

As you know, this is where people ask questions and get answers. By sharing facts, opinions and personal experiences.

We need a trusted source of knowledge, built by our local community in Malaysia. So you may have seen many local questions from a Yahoo! Editor.

But these questions should not come from us. You should drive it!  Who should have won Anugerah Juara Lagu this year?  How will the new GST affect my salary and spending?  Where can I find a great makan place in KL?  What’s the meaning of Makkal Sakthi?  What’s a good place for family trips during school holidays?  What’s the difference between Laksa Johor and Laksa Sarawak?  How do I prepare Yee Sang for Chinese New Year?

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Use the content filter
The default setting on Yahoo! Answers Malaysia now shows “All English questions.”  If you want Malaysia-based questions, change it to “Malaysia questions only.” Then you will see only the questions from Malaysia sites.  The choice is yours!

2. See other categories
Many users love the Malaysia travel category.  Why not also try other categories where you can talk about the great food in Malacca (Food & Drink), the new LRT route in Petaling Jaya (Cars & Transportation) or this year’s Rainforest Music Festival? (Entertainment & Music).  In the end, you’re the owner of the community. Start sharing what you are interested in!

3. Try local terms
Get the answers you’re looking for.  Click on ‘Advanced Search’ and look for stuff with specific keywords or categories.  Find discussions that are Malaysia-only, or based on when the question was submitted.

4. Put the Malaysia element into your questions and answers
Looking for local answers?  Try asking local questions! Where can I find the best Nasi Lemak Kukus in Malaysia?  Did you see ‘The Biggest Loser Asia’ last night?  To create great discussions on Malaysia, it helps to localise your questions first.

5. Talk to us!
Yahoo! Answers Malaysia cannot survive without your ideas.  You can write to us using our suggestion board or post your comment below.  We are here to listen.

We hope you find these tips useful and share them with your friends. Let’s make this a home for our Malaysia community!

Selamat Menyoal-Jawab!

Did you know that on average, 10% of questions are in tie-breaker status at any given time on Yahoo! Answers? And, at any given moment, there are literally millions of questions open on Answers?

For many members, it’s easy to get swept up in the “Ask” and “Answer” flow as you watch the steady stream of answers that come in when you ask a great question. But then the tough part comes: picking a Best Answer! How do you choose?

If you’re looking for a few tips on how to pick your next Best Answer, here are a few taken straight from our community

• “To put it simply, I go with the one that is the most useful or the least useless. I do notice the number of thumbs-ups and downs the answer gets, and I use that and the level/Best Answer percentage of an answerer to determine whether or not I should trust the answerer, but the main deciding factor is what I think of the answer itself. A concise but comprehensive explanation beats a long drawn-out half off topic lecture.” – Luigi
• However, “According to the specification of the question I read carefully and I compare it to the other questions, I make sure their answers make sense and have more clear explanations. Not always the thumbs up are right and this person can be wrong, So I read & understand before I give my best answer…8)” – “Evo_Raptor”
• “[…] If there are two equally good answers, I choose the one with better grammar, punctuation, and spelling.” – *Sombra*
• “I pick Best Answer by re-reading through all the answers again from my question. Then pick the one that was the most helpful, informative, and the answerer was polite while giving me the information I needed.” – Future Pet Vet
• “Whoever has clearly spent the most time answering the question and not just put silly 1 word answers or sarcastic comments. Also, if i believe the answer is 100% true.” – Craig and Charlie

Even with tips like these, picking a best answer can be tough—and for many Answers community members, it becomes so tough, questions go unresolved and end up in tie-breaker status.

All in all, remember: If you asked a question, choose a Best Answer! Otherwise your question may end up in Answers limbo, and you may never give someone the joy of earning a Best Answer!

This year, Yahoo! Answers has seen its fair share of questions and answers—you’ve covered everything under the sun—from questions about current events to Michael Jackson’s death to everyday questions about culture to tackling tough questions about the economy and unemployment.

We’ve gone through some of the best (and quirkiest) content on Answers to create this year’s highlight book. (Review last year’s here) This year’s e-book contains 12 questions from Answers users, just like you, that showcase some of the unique questions and answers you’ll find on Yahoo! Answers as well as a few outstanding community members you might come across while perusing the site.

So view the book [download id="1"] and explore some of the content found on Answers (this will prompt you to download a small PDF file).

Feeling inspired after checking out this year’s e-book and want to share your favorite question with the team? Post your comment below.

[download id="1"]

By Jeffrey Oon
Yahoo! South-East Asia

As TV premieres go, The Biggest Loser Asia pretty much has everything.

Tears, laughter, drama and comedy, weaved in between inspiring and heart-warming tales of hope and heart-break, make for a compelling season-opener.

Tonight’s big kick-off of Asia’s inaugural version of hit weight-loss reality TV show, The Biggest Loser, revolves around the auditions held in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.

Over 2,000 super-sized hopefuls from all over the region suffer the sweaty ignominy of punishing push-ups and jiggly jumping jacks in the full glare of the TV spotlight.

Their reasons for joining run the gamut from pure hard cash (winner gets US$100,000), fame, love, health, family and repairing major image and self-confidence problems

New Zealand trainer Dave Nuku, who coaches the Blue Team, warns the combustible mix of the intense nature of the show and the fact that the severely obese contestants are away from home, lonely (and often hungry) and living out their vulnerabilities in the full glare of the TV spotlight means only one thing — plenty of drama.

“We’ve had multiple hospital visits, people suffering from hypoglycemic shock and kidney problems, busted knees and ankles, emotional breakdowns, mental collapse, fights between teams. Everyday I come onto the set expecting the unexpected,” says Dave.

“It takes a lot of courage from them to do this and I commend them.”

Watch out also for the fireworks between the Blue and Red Teams.

Australian Kristy Curtis who guides the Red Team, says, “Dave and me are very different. Dave is very reserved, quiet, and laid-back. I’m the opposite and my training is very different from his. We call the Blue Team ‘tree huggers’ because they’re all about hugging, cuddly encouragement and waving their arms while singing ‘Kumbaya’. The Red Team is a little bit more bitchy and our training much more intense, direct and in- your-face.”

Meeee-ooooowww.

And what about the chances of a Singaporean winning the first season of the Biggest Loser Asia?

While the exact lineup of 16 contestants will only be revealed in the second episode, Dave lets on that “two Singaporeans are among the strongest contestants in the show. One set a record for total amount of weight loss in a single week in TBL worldwide.”

Stay tuned.

*Start sharing your views on the show and health, exercise and living right in the Answers categories of Health, Reality Television today.

The Biggest Loser Asia premieres on 24 November on Hallmark Channel.
Catch one-hour weekly episodes on Tuesday at 9pm (SG, MY, PH, HK), 8pm (TH, WIB)