Ok or Offensive?
As we strive for high quality content on Answers, we also encourage freedom of expression and discussions on any topic. However, you can sometimes stumble upon questions or answers that seem to blur the line between strong opinions and a violation of the community guidelines, plagiarism or copyright infringement.
Strong opinion vs. violation
Everyone has opinions, and these are what makes Answers vibrant and fun. Respectfully expressed opinions that contribute to useful knowledge for the community are accepted on Yahoo! Answers. However, anyone who promotes hate speech, uses slurs to refer to groups of people, insults other members, and act in a belligerent manner towards others should be reported.
What is considered offensive?
It is not ok to report someone because you disagree with that person’s opinion. If you see something that is personally offensive to you but does not violate Community Guidelines, please do not report it. Their opinions may contradict your own, but please consider whether or not they are actually in violation. Do you think it contains slurs? Do they insult other participants? Do you think it is obscene or illegal? Remember that people are entitled to their own opinions, and it is up to everyone to express them in a respectful and constructive manner.
To be responsible, report only those opinions that violate the rules of our community. (Please find the Community Guidelines here) In fact, you will become less empowered to remove abuse from the site in the future if it is determined that the people you report are not in violation.
What is plagiarism?
Intellectual property infringement is a reportable offense on Yahoo! Answers, but the process is a little different from ordinary community guidelines violations. If you believe your intellectual property has been infringed upon and would like to file a complaint, please see our Copyright/IP policy.
Have more questions? Let us know
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Thanks for this blog. I think freedom of expression has its limits because some trolls promote racism and hate. I agree that opinions should be expressed in a respectful way but use common sense too people1
I find it funny how you say “sometimes” it is NOT sometimes, it is the answers for every question. I cant remember the last time that I saw a question that did not have rude, disrepectful, insulting, and offensive answers. I am actually starting to hate coming on here because it is just one rude, disrepectful, insulting person after another.
an offensive maneuver is to attack the opponent, a questioner is not an opponent like in football, if one tosses an question into the field, many players may try to catch the phrase, some will fumble, yet only the one answerer with good catching skills will get the touchdown, yet it is the questioner that requires the score of relief in the defense against themselves,
expressing an opinion or idea for the question may be reasonable, but discussions does not appear clear as it relates to chatting
fool-hearty quips for answers may be fun and all, yet these are not resolving true answers as that is apparent in polls & surveys, no harm done,
as for slurs to refer to groups, that could be both blurry, and unilaterally equating, humans from all over the planet see not what others speak, and know not what is correct in meaning, when the wording has no opposing components, that is to the one questioner, vs. the 7 billion answerers,
sometimes the questioner tricks users with icons, and vaild questions, only to change image, gender, and choose best answers, and leave rude comments after the fact in voting comment, some users do not go back and check comments, and too late get stuck in posted infinities of the web,
to plagiarize, is to copy another’s as ones own, though some answers refer to others answers with intent to further narrow down best answer, not copy, some also timingly use similar answers at the same time, but only one of the few gets posted first via time zone, some trolls con others to delete good answer, only to copy and post themselves, be careful, and a lot of links are references not meant to be taken away, merely re-stated, or regurgitated from other repeated post from web clones, some even are rss feeds from answers and unknowingly reposted back as answers, thats weird,
getting cool out, halloween round the corner, and “wild turkey surprise,” (<bugs bunny) on the rise,
QEII
The only thing I find often nowadays is the confusion between a strong opinion and racism. People often confuse opinions which happen to disagree with a culture’s ways, which in my view is completely okay, and automatically consider it racist. I hate it this enormously. Pulling the race card is the most insulting thing society does these days, and it only makes *them* racist.
Same goes for people with “strong opinions” which just so happen to insult a specific way of life, an event, or a religion. People belonging to the group immediately take it as an insult and make a complete fool out of themselves.
I suppose that’s humanity now. If you burst someone’s bubble, they’ll do anything to push you out of their way and blow another.
Essentially to sum up, you must express your opinions without directly insulting any particular person or group.
“I don’t agree with the Jewish faith because of X and Y” would be acceptable because it states a respectful opinion, even if it might offend certain Jewish people.
“Jews are cheap bastards” would be unacceptable because it reflects a rude and untruthful stereotype that many people find offensive, even they aren’t themselves Jewish.
Of course calling someone “a piece of sh*t” or the like is also unacceptable, even if you use the “*” in place of an “i” like I did, because it’s blatant and pointless vulgarity. It’s a personal attack known to the online community as “flaming”.
This is a very good topic for discussion and certainly deserves more attention, so thank you for posting this blog entry.
Since joining the Yahoo Answers community at the beginning of September my experiences with the site have been good for the most part. I’ve provided several Best Answers and although I’ve yet to ask any questions myself, I know that I will receive many helpful responses from other members when I do.
A couple of weeks ago, I responded to a question asked by the Yahoo Answers Team and they chose mine as the Best Answer. Close to 100 people have now left comments full of flaming, trolling, and racism directed towards me and my answer. I have reported two of the most offensive members, but have decided to take the high road regarding the others.
All in all, I think that far too much abuse takes place in the more politically, religiously, and emotionally charged categories on this site. I think that new measures need to be developed to monitor them in order to prevent discrimination from certain members against others.
Can one disagree without becoming so disagreeable? Opinions – everyone has a couple – they are like armpits and oftentimes, do stink.
The mark of the superior mind is to attack the issue oppossed to attacking the person stating the answer.
Most people allow their own, personal predjudices to become a barrier to any truth, which in turn, leaves quite a lot to be desired.
it doesn’t really matter what the guidelines are… all it takes is two or three report monkeys and your post is toast — and appeals simple don’t work, it seems they are not even read!
my latest to go was on the jewish holiday purim, see http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm
it says, “We are also commanded to eat, drink and be merry. According to the Talmud, a person is required to drink until he cannot tell the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordecai,” though opinions differ as to exactly how drunk that is.”
i asked how much one needs to drink…. and i get a violation notice and denied appeal!
this is now trolls are made folks
Strong opinions vs being offensive: Honestly, I do think that people are entitled to their opinions. However, contrary to popular beliefs, you don’t necessarily have to voice your opinion everywhere like you please to anyone you might encounter or might read you.
I am black and I don’t care if somebody doesn’t like black people. But don’t come scream it in my face assuming that you have the right to make me feel that you hate people from my racial group. Although I might not feel concerned because I don’t know you, don’t assume that I don’t have the same point of view about your racial group, because I don’t throw it to your face.
The same goes for Yahoo Answers. People come here to vent their frustrations and write to the whole Yahoo community their so-called opinions. When it promotes hate for no reason or doesn’t even answer the question, just refrene from answering because this is not freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is the right to express oneself but also the right to decide what kind of message you want to hear/read/learn from what is expressed. Imposing your “strong opinion” to others is denying a part of their freedom of expression.
The most disrespectful answers and sometimes questions even, tend to come from the politics and religion sections.
Its good to see that people are on top of things of the meticulous nature of hate and difference of opinion. Dr. Suess hit the nail on the head with his story about the Zax and how the world didnt stop for these two in a world without defined shape (as of yet) Patience is the judge between what is stupid and what be moronic. A stupid person eventually learns, may even need a guide to help them through, but a moron will never get it, no matter how many times they been through it. However, difference of opinion gave the majority the incentive to determine the idiotic who in the above story mentioned…had to have everyone build around them. It should be classified as a mental illness and people who wont acknowledge their inferiority complexities, should be re-educated in politics, religion, social problems in a mental facility. And if they just arent that bright, it should be explained to them why men have nipples and women sometimes grow moustaches.
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