Author Archive

This week’s featured user is FitGuy, a personal trainer and rehabilitation professional from Toronto, Canada. He has answered 512 questions with an impressive 398 being selected as best answer. He mainly answers questions in Diet & Fitness, but on occasion has answered a few questions regarding FIFA’s World Cup. He has helped people find the best exercise programs, locate diet friendly menus, and has even given advice for other aspiring personal trainers.

Here is what he had to say:

"My background is in Human Biology and Physical Fitness with a focus in prevention. I have more than 15 years experience as a rehabilitation professional, certified personal trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist. I currently work as such in Toronto, Canada. I absolutely love to teach people about their bodies and how they can make them do anything, from losing fat to increasing cardiovascular efficiency or gaining muscle mass. Anything is possible with the right knowledge to help you achieve your objective. There's no magic pill and there's no easy way to achieve your fitness goals without hard work. If you want the easy route to excellent physical health, you'll likely not find it in one of my answers. Now, more than ever is the time to embrace health, wellness and prevention.

The internet and places like Yahoo! Answers are incredible information portals to discover answers to some of the most simple and complex health and fitness inquiries. But, I would caution users to always check with their local health or fitness professionals before proceeding with the advice of any online user including myself, as there are always issues regarding your medical history that could be relevant in any health or exercise prescription. Thanks for improving the Yahoo! Answers interface as it has come a long way in functionality and user friendliness. I'm honored to be part of such a growing community. Always question your health, and stay fit for life."

Thanks for all your contributions!

Katie T.

Has anyone bumped into The Singing Answerman yet? I happened across his answer to the question, “What are some romantic date ideas?” and although his response may not all be “Best Answer” material, you have to give him credit for sitting down and recording himself singing the answer. 

Well, it’s more than that just singing his answers. The Singing Answerman actually turns them into full fledged songs. So far he’s tackled a total of 11 answer-based songs, and he appears to be expanding his repertoire to singing questions also. I’m not sure how long he could possibly keep going, but it’s an interesting concept.

I suppose we could think of him as the They Might Be Giants of the Yahoo! Answers community. For anyone unfamiliar with the band, their music has always had a quirky knowledge-based sensibility to it. Check out this mashup of animation clips with their song “The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas” for an idea.

I wonder how long it will take before Answerers start shooting short films and uploading them to ask and answer questions. Anyone care to give it a shot?

Mario

Click and Clack, of NPR’s automotive radio program Car Talk fame, recently took some time out to follow up with the Answers Community regarding their Ask the Planet question. Here’s what they had to say:

Who knew so many of you had the time (and stomach) to waste a perfectly good hour with us on the radio AND come back for Overtime here on Yahoo! Answers.

We were amazed to find that there were more than 3,400 answers to our question, “What's the best way to tell an aging parent that it's time to stop driving?” Now, we know for a fact that we only have six listeners. So ... at least one of you has been very, very busy!

We were pretty impressed by your answers, which we found to be very thoughtful and smart. (Anyone want a job for an hour every weekend?)

So, what's our thinking on this age-old, old-age conundrum? We agree with lgarcia, who suggested that every state should have mandatory testing of seniors. We're all for that, since it takes the burden off the kids to tell the parents when it's time to turn in the keys.

If your state doesn't have mandatory testing, set up an appointment with your mother's or father's doctor. Explain the situation. Even if your parents won't listen to you, they may listen to their doctors. (And, besides, the doctor is getting paid to be the bad guy, right?)

Many of you pointed out that driving is a right, not a privilege. That's a point worth remembering -- and reminding your parents of -- before their hair starts to turn blue. Driving is not a right. And it's especially not a right when you can't see, your reflexes are lousy, and you're endangering other people. That's just plain selfish.

We agree with Tina Armstrong, who pointed out that, "There's no pat formula: every person is different, and every situation unique." You know your old codgers best, and whether you can reason with them. If, on the other hand, they're like Tommy -- you'll have to hide the keys, deflate the tires, and beat the windshield with a sledge hammer when the day comes.

Finally, if you're in this predicament with an older parent right now, we encourage you to take action immediately. Don't put it off. We've heard too many stories of kids who waited one day too long, with tragic results. Do yourself a favor.  Sit down and have that conversation now. You'll be glad you did.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi
Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers

Iron Dragon. Invertigo. Riddler’s Revenge. During my childhood, the thought of riding on these speedy, death-defying roller coasters thrilled me. I would marvel at those, like my parents, who were fearful of roller coasters.

On my latest trip to an amusement park, however, I found myself with butterflies in my stomach – and they weren’t the giddy with excitement kind. Now that I’m older, it seems I’ve lost my nerve to experience the rides.

As I’m determined to regain my love of roller coasters, I turned to Answers for help. It turns out that your-humble-servant had the perfect answer for overcoming fears. Learning how coasters work was also helpful, as was coasterjen’s opinions on what makes them dangerous.

Armed with the knowledge I need to enjoy thrill rides again, I now feel ready for my next venture to a theme park. I even picked up an extra tip that roller coaster loving Answerers might also find useful.

Lydia

This week’s featured user is Kevin, number one in Arts & Humanities on the leader board! He has answered and amazing 7740 questions, with 3987 being picked as best answer. From Programming & Design, to Books & Authors, and even Movies; he has answered questions in a variety of categories. Some of his favorite answers include facts on American history, legendary guitar players, computer magazines, collectible books, and even the spring constant of DNA.

Here is what he had to say:

Contrary to popular belief, I actually do a have a real life outside of Answers.  I have a lovely wife and am the very proud father of beautiful 4- year old identical twin girls.  All three of my girls keep me very occupied as a husband and father. I've been around computers since my father built a Heathkit computer running CP/M in the '70's.  I have more than 20 years of professional experience in the computer industry (man, that makes me just ancient!).  During the day, my official title is "Mid-Atlantic Architecture & Engineering Technical Lead" for a Fortune 50 company.  (blah blah blah)   Basically, I help design, build, and support servers, systems, and solutions for a multi-national FDA-regulated business.  A little computer forensics gets thrown in just to keep things interesting.

I started my Answering on January 30th and have been hopelessly hooked ever since.  I enjoy answering a wide variety of questions from various categories.  They include basic Answers info in Yahoo! Products (points, limits, violations), toddler and twin information in Parenting & Pregnancy (sleeping, potty training, fraternal vs. identical), to the more esoteric in any category (DOS batch scripting, movie trivia, history trivia).

I have enjoyed the discussions and debate in the Answers forum focusing on how to make the site better.  It's a great idea to have the managers, developers, and moderators so closely integrated with the users of the product.  The most valuable part of Answers for me are the online friends that I have made who come from all parts of the globe.  The friendly and heartfelt correspondence with these people has been a welcome surprise to my participation on the Answers site.”

Thanks for all of your contributions!

Katie T.

We made some updates to the product today, and many of the suggestions came straight from you. Let us know what you think!

Get your feedback on your answers quicker 
To get a quicker turnaround on the answers you provide, we made the following changes to encourage askers to act quicker on the answers he or she receives:

• Resolve questions after 4 hours - Instead of having to wait 24 hours to pick a best answer, you can now do it in 4 hours--many of you pointed out that it was easy to forget to resolve your question if you had to wait an entire day.
• Questions open for 4 days - Questions will be open for 4 days instead of 7.
• Question extension lasts 4 days - When you extend the open period for a question, you now get 4 extra days instead of 7.
• Voting period lasts 2 days - The voting period will last 2 days instead of 7.

10-point deduction for abuse
We would like to discourage questions, answers and comments that do not follow the community guidelines. We know not everyone is influenced by points, but for those that care about them, we now deduct 10 points instead of just 2 points for every post that is deleted as a violation of the community guidelines.

Bug fixes
The following is a few of the bugs we fixed:

• Best answer bug - Some of you reported that the number of best answers listed on your profile page was incorrect, and some of your best answers were not marked as such.
• Sorting bug - Some of you reported that when you tried to sort by descending order on the category pages, the results were incorrect.
• Tiebreaker bug - Some of you reported that a few questions in tiebreaker status had an answer with more votes than the others.
• Rating bug - Some of you reported being unable to rate best answers even though you haven't reached your daily limit.

That's it for now! If you'd like to discuss these changes, feel free to chime in on the forum.

Amy

It just occurred to me that the San Diego Comic-Con starts this week, and I’m going to miss it … again. Rather than sit here and cry about my woes, I decided to hop onto Answers and see what I could find in the realm of comics, comic collecting, and conventions in general.

I found dpxcomics’ explanation of why comics from the 90s have such a bad reputation to be thoughtful and poignant. The shift in emphasis from story to art and the attitude toward collections as investments that occurred during that time period nearly killed the industry. Some Answerers feel that the industry has abandoned continuity by telling stories that conflict with arcs from characters’ past adventures.

Speaking of collecting, many are in search of better ways to store their prized comics. I’ve always avoided stacking my boxes, so it was interesting to find someone else suggesting the opposite.  Another popular subject is breaking into the business by either becoming a comic creator or opening a comic shop. What better way to learn the ins and outs of the business than attending conventions, where you can rub elbows with store owners and industry talent alike? If Comic-Con is going to be your first comic convention, make sure you read over jawajames’ excellent suggestions for first time con attendees.

Is anyone out there in Answers-ville planning a trip to Comic-Con this year? If so, what panel are you looking forward to most?

Mario

Ever since I posted about the Singing Answerman the urge to use video to answer questions has been gnawing away in the back of my mind. So with a little time on my hands, I started searching for ways that video could be used to help clarify answers. Yesterday, I came across vtdolphin03’s question, “How do you pronounce Cape Verde?” and decided to put the idea to a test.

The concept is pretty compelling, and it looks like I’m not the only one who thinks so. Here is another, arguably better, use of video to provide an answer. I found this one in response to a question about phrases spoken in Hindi.

So is anyone willing to try? There are plenty of questions out there that could benefit from a video answer including how to make lasagna, how to style hair to avoid water fountain woes, and how to do card tricks. In hopes of pre-answering a question about uploading your video, here is a tutorial put together by the Yahoo! Video Team to help out.