Yahoo! Singapore Answers blog

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://sg.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.yanswersblogsg.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

Photo by Nate Robert

I hope it’s not too late to say “gong xi fa cai” to everyone. And I hope you had a great Lunar New Year and you’re all ready for the year of the Tiger.

How have you been?

I had a great break. I went to Bangkok, walking all around the city. So I’m back with a fully charged battery and ready to live and breathe on Answers with you again!

I’ve been talking to my co-workers about the Lunar New Year. “Bak kwa” came up. Our country editor Jeff told me he added two kilograms because of bak kwa!

Disclosure: I had a lot of bak kwa too and my belly is bigger; it’s too delicious to ignore!

There were plenty of people at the big name bak kwa stores like Lim Chee Guan, Florence and Bee Cheng Hiang. Some people were smart enough to beat the queues by going direct to the factories.

I was one of those who was in line at one of these stories in Chinatown. I started at 9 am. And I finally got my eight kilos of barbequed meat at 3 pm. Six hours! My goodness. The lengths we would go through to get bak kwa!

It was hot and humid, we were getting upset but we stayed in line. Some people tried to cut the queue, but were yelled at (only an old auntie was allowed to jump the queue). Some people brought their own chairs for the long wait. Some kids left the queue to get water for their parents.

So why do I bother so much with bak kwa? I love it as do the rest of us in the editorial team. What about you? What’s your bak kwa story? I do believe that I am not the only one. If you still don’t believe me look at this question.

Have a great year of the Tiger,

PS. We found an interesting question here about the red colour. Please check it out.

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 Singapore. But I do believe it works with all of us. Check it out now.

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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.

We’ve been talking internally for a while now about how we can make the discussions here a little more local. This is of course important for Yahoo! since we’re under new management — you!

As you know, this is where people ask each other questions on various topics and get answers by sharing facts, opinions and personal experiences.

Our goal is to create a trusted source of knowledge, built by our local community in Singapore. To that end, you may have seen numerous local questions from our Yahoo! Editor.

But really, we don’t want these questions to come from us. We would love for you to drive it. Where can I find a great bak chor mee? How good is the Uno steak house in Toa Payoh? How do I prepare lo hei for this coming Lunar New Year?

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Use the content filter
The default setting of the content filter on Yahoo! Answers Singapore now displays “All English questions.” If you like seeing Singapore-based questions, switch it over to “Singapore questions only.” This will filter down the questions to just those from the Singapore site. The choice is yours.

2. Check out the other categories
Many of you spend your time in our Singapore travel category. Try taking that a step further and check out the other categories where you can talk about, for example, the great food in Holland Village (Food & Drink), the new MRT routes (Cars & Transportation) and pub recommendations (Entertaining). Ultimately, you’re the owner of the community, so build the discussions in various categories that suit your interests.

3. Try the advance Search with local terms
Try searching for the answers you’re looking for. Click on the “Advanced” search function so you can look for stuff with specific keywords or categories. You can also find discussions that are Singapore-only or based on when the question was submitted.

4. Put the “Singapore element” into your questions and answers
If you’re looking for local answers, first try asking local questions that are specific to Singapore. Where can I find the best chicken rice in Singapore? Did you see the news on the new HDB flats on Channel NewsAsia last night? If you’re looking to create great discussions on Singapore, it helps to localize your questions.

5. Talk to us
Yahoo! Answers Singapore can’t survive without your ideas. You can write us at our suggestion board or post your comment below. We are here to listen.

We hope you’ll find these tips useful. Please share them and help us make this a home for our Singapore community!

Have a great day,

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 such as Ris Low 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.

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Boo! Don’t be scared! Answers will be down this Saturday, October 31th starting at 12 Noon for scheduled maintenance.

During this time, you’ll be unable to access the Answers site, but will be able to:
- Catch up on old posts on the Answers blog (http://yanswersblogsg.com)
- Stop by the Answers Suggestion Board
- or, if you dare, can take part in a Halloween themed Answers competition (details below)

Additionally, please be aware that the Yamster will be setting back his clocks at 6pm on November 1st, 2009. During this time no new questions will show on the Answers pages but things will be back to normal one hour.

Answers Halloween Costume Contest

If you’re feeling festive, download the Yamster avatar and dress him up for Halloween! Feel free to add hats, clothing, or whatever you’d like—just be sure to keep it friendly, clean, and compliant with the Answers Community Guidelines.

Sites like Picnik (which is built directly into Yahoo’s own Flickr) offer a full arsenal of Halloween accoutrements like masks, spiders, and spooky scenes that would make any Yamster squeel. Be sure to check them out here: http://www.picnik.com/app#/create/seasonal

Or, you can use something like Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, SumoPaint, or any other paint program on the market to edit or enhance an image.

Not a fan of the Yamster? That’s ok too! You’re welcome to dress up your own personal Avatar in their finest Halloween looks for the competition.

Once you’re through dressing up your Yamster or Avatar, save the image (right click and “save as”) and upload it to your Flickr account. Then, add the image to the Answers Halloween pool—found here: http://flickr.com/groups/answershalloween

Submissions must be received by 9am on Monday, November 2nd. Winner(s) will be posted on the Yahoo! Answers Blog and will receive 100 bonus points on Yahoo! Answers.

The Rules

- Avatars and/or Yamsters must be submitted to Flickr by 9am on Monday, November 2nd
- All images must be in compliance with Yahoo’s TOS, Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines, Flickr’s Community Guidelines, and, must not contain mature or adult content
- Submitted images may only be that of Avatar or of the Yamster—no actual photographs will be accepted or considered
- No real value is given to this prize: winner(s) will receive 100 bonus points on Yahoo! Answers