Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

Here’s something that I’m sure you’ll find interesting and challenging. We are introducing a brand-new quiz that will test your community guidelines knowledge! Do you know the difference between chatting and point gaming? Have you committed a violation without understanding what you did wrong? Test your understanding: it’s fun, and if you pass, you will earn 20 points!

Why are Community Guidelines important?

Our site continues to grow at an incredible speed and we have thousands of new people signing up every week. To keep our Answers community a fun and informative place it is important to understand our community guidelines.

What improves our site’s content is understanding how to ask questions and how to write a great answer. Like any other community, members must follow a set of principles in order to keep our site a safe, fun and positive. As members of our community, we want you to understand the following:

Test your knowledge!

We encourage new members of the community to read the community guidelines so that our community can continue to be a helpful place for you. By following, the above points our site will continue to be a place where members can find answers to questions that you were always curious about.

Take the community guidelines quiz to test your knowledge, earn points and let us know what you think!

A lot of people received a “front-row seat” last Sunday evening, May 16, 2010 to a common and yet always awesome sight – the “evening star” visibly sitting on top of a crescent moon. People were abuzz both offline and online as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites.

The “evening star” is, as many may know already, the planet Venus. As community member Wiser explains in a question, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after Moon so people thought in the early days (before we has astronomy) it was a star.

Actually, when Venus is seen in the easter sky before the sunrise it is referred to as a “morning star” and when it is seen in the evening in the west after sunset (similar to what just happened last night) it’s called an “evening star.”

How does this happen, that Venus appears as a star? Nuscorpi223 explained that it’s because Venus’ orbit lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.

To people who have just seen this, one question that may be on your mind is if there’s any significance to the crescent moon and Venus being so close together. Don’t worry, this natural phenomenon has no effect on Earth. Community member podi shared that planetary alignments have been happening for the longest time and there’s never been a documented effect to our planet.

In case you’re wondering why the crescent moon and star has come to symbolize Islam, this was asked before by community member bettycatmouse and Schneb gave the best answer. He said the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. Most sources say that these ancient celestial symbols were in use by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of the sun, moon and sky gods. In this Wikipedia article, it says that possibly the symbol became associated with the Muslim faith when the Ottoman Empire became affiliated with the Muslim world.

If you missed seeing the crescent moon and “evening star” last night, don’t worry. Just click here and check out the different photos submitted in Flickr.

This week Yahoo! Answers reached an important milestone – we received our 1 billionth answer!

From the small beginnings when we received our first answer from the public back in December 2005 we have now become the largest and most popular global Q&A site on the internet, available in 9 languages across 21 countries.

The volume of contributions we receive from the Answers community on a daily basis is mindboggling.  Yahoo! Answers currently receives:

823,966 questions and answers per day…

that works out to 34,331 per hour or 572 per minute

which is 10 questions and answers posted EVERY second!

The first answer on Answers

It’s difficult to pinpoint the first answer to the first question once Answers was opened to the public, but one of the first-ever answers came to this question – “Why are yawns contagious?”

This was one of many questions you’ve always wanted to know the answer to, but didn’t know how to find – until Yahoo! Answers came along.

The most answered questions of all time…

Through the years, we have had numerous celebrities and leading political figures appear on Yahoo! Answers. Their questions have proven to be overwhelmingly popular with the community due to the large numbers of answers received.

Here’s a rundown of some of the biggest:

• The most popular question ever was from Hilary Clinton who received over 38,000 answers to her question: “Based on your own family’s experience, what do you think we should do to improve health care in America?”.
• For Malaysia, the most popular question was asked by one of the editors of Yahoo!, about a controversial issue.  The question is “Do you think the Malaysian government is doing enough to deal with the church attacks in Malaysia?” and it received almost 300 answers.
• The most popular question asked by a local celebrity/personality was from Marina Mahathir.  She asked “How do we change mindsets towards women so that they are no longer the victims of violence and abuse?” and it received more than 200 answers.
• As part of the ONE campaign to Make Poverty History, Bono took the time to select David C’s response as the best answer to his question, What can we do to make poverty history?, from the 29,458 received.

The quirkiest questions of all time…

The following are some of the most interesting and original questions that our Answers community has asked:

• What numbers and letters do you key on your keyboard to make a heart symbol?
• Is eating the inside of an orange peel good for you?
• How far east can you go before you’re heading west?
• What are some of the challenges you’ve faced when dating someone of another culture?

Drum roll…

The honour of providing the 1 BILLIONTH answer on Yahoo! Answers goes to cgramer2 for his excellent response to this question: What laptop part can I replace to speed up my pc?

Thank you cgramer2 and THANK YOU Answers Community.  It is you all who have made this site such a phenomenal place where information can be exchanged and opinions heard.  Thanks to our amazing community for making this milestone happen!

So, if you ever have a question?  Yahoo! has an answer… over one billion of them!

Over the past few weeks we’ve made several exciting new changes to the overall Answers experience including changes to the look and feel of the site, as well as a new search experience for Yahoo! Answers.

While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favorite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?
A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”
A: Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo! Answers. From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Aunt Sally may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?
A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?
A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?
A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below!

Being the “Biggest Loser’ in Asia is certainly not a bad thing.

After all’s been said and done, the stars of Asia’s very own ‘Biggest Loser” series are beside themselves with joy. Though only one of them took the crown, there is no question that all of them feel like winners.

Aaron

‘I feel great! I’m really happy for David (Gurnani) for winning it,” Malaysia’s Aaron Mokhtar told Yahoo! Southeast Asia in a phone interview.

Aaron, who took third place in the show after losing to the Philippines’ Carlos Miguel by a single point, is just happy to have lost the 60 kilograms that threatened his health just a few months back.

Carlos

‘From the moment I first saw him (David), I knew there was no way I would win,“ Carlos admitted. “The amount of weight David lost was just staggering,” Carlos admitted.

Staggering is right. David lost 83 kg and now weighs only 78 kg.

But despite the suspected rift between the two, Carlos and David were happy to pat each other’s backs at the end of the day.

David

“I just thank God for this opportunity,” David says. “Carlos is one of those who pushed me to work hard, and I’m sure I pushed him too. But after the competition, we will always be friends. We got to know each other a little but later.”

Now that the show is over though, David plans to take a holiday, buy a house and plan his wedding. On the other hand, Carlos will return to his job as a less-diet-worried chef, while Aaron plans to teach his friends and family to cook and eat healthy.

So what’s next for our biggest winners? To live a fuller, healthier life. Sounds like a good plan

What about you? Can we lose weight like the Biggest Loser Asia contestants without help from a coach? How?

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!

- – - – -

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.

As a part of the recent changes to Yahoo! Answers, we will also be rolling out a few changes to the search experience over the next few days.

We’ve taken the feedback you’ve provided and have incorporated your comments to improve the current search experience. Through the new search experience, you’ll notice a new, re-designed layout on your search results page, making it easier to refine your search without having to leave the page.

1- We’ve taken all of the options which were previously available in Advanced Search and moved them to the left-hand-side of this page to make it easier to customize your search queries.

2 – The category dropdown has been re-structured to fit this new design.

3- For those of you who perform the same search regularly, we’ve also thought of you: we’ve replaced the `Make this my default search option` with the `My Saved Search` feature. `My Saved Search` allows you to save your favourite search so you can easily access the results from anywhere on Yahoo! Answers. By checking this box Answers will store your most frequent searches. You can then click on the `My Saved Search` link next to the `Search Answers` button to access your saved search from wherever you are on the site.

You can find out more about making the most of `My Saved Search` by checking out this help article: http://help.yahoo.com/l/mye/yahoo/answers/overview/overview-7163231.html

As with all of the changes we’re making at the moment we’d love to hear your feedback. Leave us a comment here on the blog or on the feedback thread on the Suggestion board

As the only Malaysian on the final leg of The Biggest Loser Asia, Aaron Mokhtar has changed a lot – but in good ways.

For starters, he’s shed weight. Okay. A lot of weight.

Initially weighing 159 kg, 30-year-old Aaron has already lost as much as 46 kg overall (as of the last weigh-in) in about three months time.

Second, he now knows more about food than the average Joe – and he’s not hesitant to share his new-found knowledge to fellow weight-watchers.

“It’s not how much you eat but what you eat,” Aaron explains.

When in the past, he used to eat anything, Aaron says this has changed. “I’ve learned about calories…I am eating healthier now.  And because I am eating healthier, my family is eating healthier too.”

Of course, losing weight isn’t an easy task, even for someone like Aaron who used to have an active lifestyle.

So what keeps Aaron going? One word. Family.

‘I have been blessed. I have a lot of weight to lose. (Although) I was never faced with a brick wall…it is hard to be away from my family, but that is also what motivates me.”

But for Aaron, being on the show has changed him in other ways as well.

“My weight used to dictate my way of life,” Aaron shares. “I used to wear black all the time – not because it was my favourite colour, but because it made me feel better. I don’t want to get to that point ever again. “

“The show has definitely changed the people in the show but it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about winning and getting a bonus. “

Bonus, indeed. But is Aaron going to win the show? We’ll soon find out. But even then, it’s clear that he’s already a winner.

PS. We also have Sarimah Ibrahim here. She has been asking questions about health on Yahoo! Answers Malaysia in the last few weeks. This is her seventh question. What are other cooking methods that will make tasty chicken breasts without the guilt?

Hi everyone! Apa khabar?

I’ve noticed more questions from local users in Malaysia in the last few weeks. Some of you have come across questions on the front page of Yahoo! Malaysia or were sent here through search engines or by friends. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how you got here — I’m just happy to see you!

As a community manager for Yahoo! Answers, and the interface between you and the Answers team, I’ve noticed that users here often click on English-language questions from other countries.

For example, if you’re finding out more about the recent budget, you’ll get answers about the Malaysian economy mixed in with those from the U.S., U.K. and Australia as well.

Are you wondering how you can get more locally relevant answers? I have a few tips for you:

1. Add the “Malaysia element” to your question if you want to get answers from other Malaysians, put in local terms like “Bangsar Village”, “KWSP”, Kuching Waterfront”, or just add the word ” Malaysia” to your question. For example, “How do you organise a grand birth celebration kenduri in Malaysia?”

2. Look at the leaderboard
You will see many people asking and answering interesting questions. Add them as contacts and stay connected through Yahoo! Profiles. Then you will know when they ask a question or answer one. You will also find out if they just shared a Tweet or video. Find out more about Profiles here.

3. Filter the content
Use the content filter and select “Malaysia questions only.” Find out how over here.

That’s all! I hope you guys are enjoying Yahoo! Answers Malaysia. If you have any questions, post them here today!

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!