I was spending some time today in Yahoo Answers . I had heard it was popular, the leader of the Q&A genre, so wanted to explore why that would be.
I was suprised to realize that there is a lot of discussion going on in Yahoo Answers. People pose fairly broad questions, ranging from topics about civic participation How can we engage more people in the democratic process to personal topics such as how do I get my husband to introduce me in social situations?
In other words, it behaves very much like a discussion board! What is the difference? People build reputations for being good participants: posting good questions, and posting good answers. Over time, around any topic, a community of known contributors emerges. it is very much a community site. People have profiles that include a personal statement, their history of questions and answers, and their knowledge network: example
I looked at the answers in just one topical area (home and garden) and found that in 24 hours 760 questions were posted! Within half an hour they had about 2.5 answers each, and within 24 hours had about 5.2 answers each.
