Yahoo! Philippines Answers blog

Recently, we’ve blogged about types of low quality content that are not allowed on Answers -  avatar games, chatting and gaming questions.  Since then, a lot of questions have been asked about polling and surveys, and how these are different from chat.  Generally, polls and surveys seek advice and looks to gather a collective opinion around a subject – that’s exactly what we want to see.

Having such a large number of people in the Answers community lends itself to gauging public opinion through a poll or a survey.  Polls and surveys are allowed on Answers and this week we have some recommendations to help you get the most out of your survey:

Make use of the polls and surveys category: This may sound like we are stating the obvious but consider that placing your poll in the right category will attract responses from people looking to help.  It also makes it clear that your question is intended to garner opinion.

Keep your questions as short as possible: Long questions can lead to misinterpretation and confusion.

Be clear about the information you want: Write questions that everyone will understand in the same way.

Avoid vague and biased questions: Stick to one topic.  The question should point directly to the information that is needed.  Write questions that do not lead people to answer a particular way.

Avoid ‘yes’- ‘no’  and rating questions: It encourages games and chatting and will result in a violation.

Here you have a couple of example of good quality polls and surveys:

http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgjmtPjXsGNdHxR2yR7J9cXk5nNG;_ylv=3?qid=20091009020531AAwL5CA

http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiJcHUZdiQoOe8.JPgdpPer05nNG;_ylv=3?qid=20091009015738AAysmYx

Maybe you have some further tips, feel free to share them in the comments.

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Over the last few days, we’ve been rolling out a new design to the category pages that should help you find the questions you care about more quickly.  Starting today, these changes will be a permanent feature in your Answers experience.

Here are some of the changes that we have made:

• Easier Category Navigation: We’ve moved the list of categories and subcategories to the top of the page instead of listing down the left-hand side. This should make it easier for you to move to a different category without needing to scroll down the page.
• More Space on the Page: Just like we did with the question page last year, we wanted to offer you more space in the category page by moving to a wider page design which is optimized for a higher screen resolution.
• More Prominent Leaderboard: Who doesn’t want to be famous?  The right-hand side of the page now lists the top 10 answerers for the category or subcategory you are browsing.  We wanted to give more prominence not only to the category leader, but to rest of the top contributing answerers as well.  We also heard from you guys that when a category was being sponsored you still wanted to be able to see how you were doing in that category’s Leaderboards. The new category design allows this.
• More Prominent Question List:  You visit the category page to look for questions to answer, right?  We’ve made the question list wider and more visible to help youyou’re your answers in there faster.
• Sort by “Most Popular” Questions – We’ve added a “most popular” sort filter on the sidebar so you can see what the community is most interested in with just one click.
• Sticky Question Tabs – Open, resolved, and in voting tabs are now “sticky,” meaning that as you move between categories, your tab choice will persist for the session even as you vote for questions in different categories.

We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for you to use and participate in Answers, and we hope these changes continue to help you find the questions that may be most interesting to you.

As always (but especially when we change stuff on Answers) we would love to know what you think. So why don’t you check out the new category page and leave us a comment with your feedback?  Thanks everyone!

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