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Jun 28 2011

How I got Banned from Yahoo! Answers


fwzqron2I like to frequent forums and help people and I have spent a lot of time in the Windows Live Movie Maker and the Windows Live Writer forums as well; so, you can visit the forums and see where I make an attempt help users fix their issues with those types of issues.

Out of curiousity, I visited upon Yahoo! Answers around the 16th of June. The feel of the forum seemed just tacky enough to be interesting. Anyone could ask any question and have anyone answer it. The user chooses the best response/answer based on the feedback they get, and the question is posted as open for X amount of time or until the person who asked the question decides the answer has already been provided [and closes the ticket].

I decided to jump in the waters and start putting efforts in to helping others with these two topics, for Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Movie Maker, and everything seemed to be going fine until I got an email from Yahoo saying I had violated their terms of service and forum guidelines.

This is the email with the subject ‘Your answer has been reported by the Yahoo! Answers community’  from Yahoo about my answer…

Important

Hi Larry,

The answer you gave on Yahoo! Answers was reported by the Answers community:

“find it on YouTube and then use an audio application to rip it… If you need a outstanding audio editor, I’d make the suggestion of free/open source application called Audacity. Audacity is free, multi-operating system and very comprehensive; handles multiple tracks of audio and effects. It can do everything you need to do with audio you need to… And it has a ‘timeline’ to compose tracks perfectly. Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ I hope this helps… Take care, Larry Henry Jr.”

This answer has been removed. You may not have realized this, but all answers submitted on Yahoo! Answers must comply with the Answers Community Guidelines.

If you believe that your answer does not violate the Answers Community Guidelines, and would like to appeal the removal of your answer, you can have your case reviewed by Answers Customer Care. You have 7 days to submit your appeal.

Thanks,
Yahoo! Answers Team

I was floored! Someone had reported my answer as abusive to the terms of the forum… Wow. And to be perfectly honest, my answer was better than any one elses. But the key here is that any other member of Yahoo answers can report another member of Yahoo answers if they want to…

So, it asked if I wanted to ‘appeal’ the decision; well Hell yeah I did… This was bullcrap. I read the term and conditions of the forum and didn’t find anything wrong with anything I had left as an answer. And it was really nothing you wouldn’t have already found in the Windows Live support forums…

So, I made my appeal…

Guys,
What’s the deal with your system? I haven’t done anything, no cussing, no language or crap references or offending anyone; no copyright issues… Where’s the problem? I have read your guidelines and I’m not seeing a violation. I’m trying to help people and I’m [I thought] was giving some darn good answers.
So, what’s the problem?

Thank you,
Larry Henry Jr.
LEHSYS.com

 

My call for understanding and common sense was heard. The answer was found legit and the answer restored and then…

Then I got another one!

Important

Hi Larry,

The answer you gave on Yahoo! Answers was reported by the Answers community:

“If you cleaned up the audio and you were over lapping it with Windows Live Movie Maker; use the audio mixer from Windows Live Movie Maker and remove the original audio completely. Sounds like the rest is a cake walk. I hope this helps… Chao for now, Larry Henry Jr.”

This answer has been removed. You may not have realized this, but all answers submitted on Yahoo! Answers must comply with the Answers Community Guidelines.

If you believe that your answer does not violate the Answers Community Guidelines, and would like to appeal the removal of your answer, you can have your case reviewed by Answers Customer Care. You have 7 days to submit your appeal.

Thanks,
Yahoo! Answers Team

 

Again, I appealed…

Again, my answer was over turned, and the answer was posted and it was also voted as the answer by the person who asked the question. This process was getting kind of obtuse. I thought to myself if this keeps up, I won’t be enjoying this as much…

But by the 22nd of June Yahoo! Answers sent me another eMail… I was suspended from their forums…

Important

Suspension…  (KMM130573158V5498L0KM)

Hello ?(lehenryjr)

You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.

If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.

Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care

 

So, by this point, I had two entries reported and overturned… and 17 entries marked as the best answer. None of which I can offer a link for because Yahoo! Has removed all the questions submitted [ I checked them all; all were removed from the forums].

I was again just floored at this… I’ve never been banned from any forum… I thought it was outrageous.

First, I read the terms of service again, then I read the forum guidelines again; confident I had done nothing wrong, I contacted their ‘customer service’; what a farse!

Here’s what I wrote Yahoo! Answers [feeling I was being picked on]…

Really. For what? So me. specifically, what I did wrong? People ask questions, i gave the answers… nothing was offensive or illegal… and they are the same answers from the Microsoft support forums… clarification please. LEHSYS Larry

 

Their reply was anything but helpful…

Important Hello Larry, Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers Customer Care. We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers. You have posted content in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended from Yahoo! Answers and you will no longer be able to access this service. Community Guidelines help to keep Yahoo! Answers a safe and useful community, so we appreciate your consideration of its rules. Your access to other Yahoo services is not affected. However, if your use of your Yahoo! account is brought to our attention again, and we believe that such use violates our Yahoo! Terms of Service, then your account may be terminated without further notice. Please refer to the Answers Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service for further information on participating in Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Terms of Service: http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines: http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers Customer Care. Regards, Anthony Curtis Yahoo! Answers Customer Care 84520477 For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/

 

This is what I’ve been saying about corporate support— it stinks. It’s nothing but a bunch of canned responses and mental rejects that can’t read, or they’re just searching for keywords and then just reply with some dimwitted jibberish.

I had already told them I had read the term of service and the forum guidelines and they turn around and send me the same crap again. I asked them for the specific reason I was being treated this way; what had I done to warrant this action?

I replied again…

Yahoo,
You didn’t answer my question; not even close. your canned response does me absolutely no good. You have provided me nothing more than what I got when I received the notice. I have told you over and over I have reviewed your guidelines and seen nothing that I’ve done wrong. I have provided better answers than anyone on any of the questions that have been asked.
I need clarification…
I thought this was customer service; where is a human being to talk to?
Thanks for your time…
Thank you,
Larry Henry Jr.
LEHSYS.com

 

And the day after I sent that [June 24th], I got another notice that another answer I had provided, that was ‘reported’ was now approved and visible to all users again.

The chaos going on over at Yahoo is staggering… So I reply…

I’m not understanding, my account is suspended, but my answers that were being ‘reported’, are now being approved, and you still have my account suspended. You apologize to me [via eMail] tell me that the ones who reported me are now not as influential, but my account is still suspended. This is the most obtuse process I’ve ever seen. I’m being penalized by people at random, that want points, you guys seem to be honoring those reports and then approve the same answers, but my account is still locked…
How can you justify this? Why am I the bad guy here?
Thank you,
Larry Henry Jr.
LEHSYS.com

Again, no response…

 

Humorusly enough, Yahoo asked me for my opinion of their ‘service’— I had to stop and think about their level of ‘service’… Normally, if a survey is asked of me I just kind of pass it up and don’t bother with completing it, but considering how unhospitable and obtuse Yahoo was being and just being so impressed with their ‘service’; I went ahead and filled it out.

As part of the survey process, if you say that Yahoo didn’t contact you; in a kind of ‘thumb in your face’ way they pull up the last eMail to you and say something to the fact ‘do you want to revise your issue?’ 

image

I found this funny…

But, Yeah, you guessed it; yeah—  their level of service is far below of where it should be… and I put that on my survey. I hope they get that. I hope that earns me a phone call or an email with a real person. I’m not overly impressed with any of their efforts thus far.

And the point of this post, is to point out that there are some vindictive people out there, that all they want to do is be mean, and that there’s also people out there [in corporate circles as well] that are just as dumb as a post. Unable to answer the simplest questions; and the people that pay for these lacking areas, is you.

If I don’t get my Yahoo account back; I could care less, but mygoal and my overall goal was to find out why— which they have never provided. I just wanted to say big thanks to Yahoo for doing such a great job!

 

Thank you,
Larry Henry Jr.
LEHSYS.com

 

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  • tubblog

    Wow – Corporate Support gone crazy. Poor show from Yahoo.

  • @webdad3

    so did you lose all access to your yahoo account (i.e. mail)? Man that stinks. I hope you get it back, I guess don't use the Yahoo forums as they don't seem to want quality answers. But to be honest, I'm not sure how long Yahoo will be around. The company is being run into the ground and they have fallen way behind…

    • I didn\’t lose all access to Yahoo, but what they did was pretty tomfoolery and the customer service they offered was even worse.

      Thanks for your time…
      Thank you,
      Larry Henry Jr.
      LEHSYS.com

  • iuvetravel

    when you're no. 4 on alexa you can do what the f… you want…
    same problem happend to me, but after reading your story, I kinda let it go… best regards..:)

  • iuvetravel

    I've found out what answer was the "problem"… question: where can I pray in Barcelona (a muslim guy)… my answer was voted and BANG!… NSA, CIA, FBI, etc….hahahahaha….freedom!!!!

  • GregDavis_Webroot

    Larry,

    I know this is a while back for you but I just had my account suspended and Yahoo still has not provided me with a reason as to where I violated the TOS. What is really sad is that it seems very arbitrary in terms of someone marking (in my case my last 6 posts) as containing a violation and when I asked “who” and “why” they will not tell me. Given that I support our software on Yahoo Answers and have a great record of best Answer i find it hard to believe that the app0eal process is basically total BS. Did you by chance ever find out anything more about your suspension?

    • No. Very disappointed on this… I went to Yahoo repeatedly, and they didn’t do anything. It’s like Google’s adsense violations; there’s a customer support, but it’s non-existent. It’s a joke.

      And I checked and tried to explain that I didn’t do anything wrong; someone just reported me I guess.
      They have a flawed system.

      Thanks for contacting me…

      Later,
      Larry

  • Adam

    Yahoo is definitely incompetent these days. I’ve experienced similar “customer service” from them numerous times with regards to Answers and the nonsense they have you jump through. As for the suspension appeal I suspect they don’t bother to read the appeal and just auto-deny. I liked Answers a lot when it first came out, it has eroded into a censorship network where real voices are muted and Yahoo’s views are amplified. Since that time, I’ve abandoned all Yahoo services completely for other networks.

    You’re in good company,
    Adam

  • Briant

    I have definitely been reported a few times and appealed with no success. It was the questions’ I answered fault – many of them were removed or deleted anyway. Now I get reported sometimes still and I have no way of appealing because it just takes me back to the home page with the crap new yahoo answers interface.

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