Who determines Answers should be hidden? It appears there is no rhyme or reason. Is YA becoming a LEFT wing seminary with censorship?

On the who determines Answers should be hidden, and that there's no no rhyme or reason, it not something that's left wing or right wing censorship. It's how they coded Yahoo Answers to react, so the way it is can be laid at the feet of whomever decided that this would be a benefit to users in deciding the best answer. It is as has been pointed out based on keywords used in the answer.

It has nothing to do with being reported. Supposedly those using the keywords rank higher. However the programming is seriously flawed, in that I've seen some excellent answers that used no keywords, end up hidden. Ten in other cases in the process of hunting spammers I've come across answers, that in no way answer the question yet contain a keyword or two, by spammers. I suspect in part, that part of the reason was to help hide the spammers activities. However that in some sections (such as Diet and Fitness),m has proven to be false. It's also created a pain for those who hunt spammers, in that it means that hidden answers have to be made visible. It's one of those ideas that in the end under circumstances is great in theory, but in terms of actual practicality and in actual practice doesn't work.

Who determines Answers should be hidden? It appears there is no rhyme or reason. Is YA becoming a LEFT wing seminary with censorship? It makes no difference to me

You ask:

Who determines Answers should be hidden? It appears there is no rhyme or reason. Is YA becoming a LEFT wing seminary with censorship?

I answer:

HOwever many words from the question you repeat in the answer determines how high up you are.....no similar words, Y!A says your answer deserves to be hidden.

Actually there is a reason. Not that I like it, mind you, but it's not about leftist censorship. The order answers are shown in is because they are now using technology that ranks answers based on "relevance" to the question. So if you just answer "yes", for instance, you're going to be at the bottom of the stack and it will probably be hidden. However if you make a point of using as many key words in your answer as possible, then you'll be towards the top. I don't know if this is the ONLY reason, but it's a big one.

BTW, If you get a bunch of answers, I'm betting my answer will work it's way up to first or at least in the top 2 or 3 because I used key words... LOL.

Answers are hidden in order to boost the number of clicks performed by the average visitor on Y!A. The number of clicks is a statistic that Yahoo can cite to its advertisers.

It has nothing to do with the quality of answers. If Yahoo cared about the quality of answers, it would provide some mechanism for the community to peer review and select the best answer--like it used to.

The YA relevancy filter determines what answers are hidden.

You can change the filter by clicking on the "Relevance" down arrow below and to the right of the question.

You SHOULD be able to choose what filter you want to use in general, but of course that is not an option. So if you don't like the relevancy filter you have to choose each time you open a question.

A lot of times, they aren't hidden at all. The system is so screwed up, if you try refreshing the page, sometimes you will get the question or sometimes you have to go back to the question page and click on it again. It's happened to me once already this morning.

Yahoo stinks!

I don't know but I do notice that the shorter answers get hidden more. The person who designed this was smart enough to know that trolls, like criminals, are usually lazy. I imagine they are still trying to research and perfect the system. I would suggest that answers that appear to have common vernacular misspellings and considerable duplication with other posts be suspect of trolling as well.

Yes. Censorship is encouraged.

My answers are hidden a fair amount of the time. Maybe because I am concise with my comments. It is a stupid if not retarded system.