By what criteria does an answer get "hidden" on Y/A? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the number of thumbs down.?

yahoo created a program to analyze the answers to determine if the relevant to the question.

If deemed not to be relevant they are hidden.

It is buggy though, when my answers get hidden i just ad a few words of explanation and they get un-hid. Short answers seem to get hidden more.

It's a new feature on YA called 'relevance.' Meaning the answers that have the most key words as the Q will appear at the top. All other answers will be 'hidden.'

It has nothing to do with ratings/thumbs down like the old feature did. Apparently it's All about 'key words' from said OP's question. I've also seen 'hidden' answers that had 'relevance' that were put under the hidden area. It seems they may have answered the post, but just do Not have enough relevant words from the OP's post.

You are right, the thumbs up or down have no impact. Staff is not saying what the criteria is. It seems to look for relevance in that words from the question showing in the answer seem to keep it from being hidden.

In essence, if you don't fall in line with the Yahoo stance on a subject you will be hidden.

Thumbs are too small to hide a whole entire answer. Try a frowny face instead.