How is Yahoo Answers different from Facebook, Twitter and other social sites?

[BREEZEY 7 (((HUGS))) for rainy days]

Is it not becoming more and more like all other social sites?
I'm looking.. and seeing...
Followers... Following... messages... check out the new format...
OKAY.... "so and so" followed your question, "so and so" rated your answer, "so and so" answered your question...
Is that not "Twitterlike"?

[Laredo]

No I would not say that this site is like Facebook etc. On this site 'chatting' is not allowed and all questions asked are supposed to gain knowledge because it is a question and answer site. The other social network sites are about making friends and chatting.

[Chetak.]

No it isn't a Social Site strictly Questions and Answers and no interaction of chat about them
You ask questions we answer
We ask question you answer
That's that
Chetak

[Gabriel Monzagi]

Yes

[massivestep872]

While the rating and following do make it appear more like social networking, the foundation of the site is essentially different. The "following" is not necessarily to maintain social contact, nor is the rating saying one likes or dislikes a person. Following may be done to more easily find and answer questions by a particular person, or check out their answers to see what one can learn from them. The thumbs up rating is meant to indicate that one agrees with an answer or believes the answer to be essentially correct; the thumbs down is meant to indicate that an answer is incorrect, inappropriate or otherwise not good. While some users do thumbs down simply because they disagree or don't like the response, that is NOT the intent of it.

The other fundamental difference of the site is that the rules are fairly strict and they govern the actual content posted in questions and answers. That content is intended to be useful, with the intent to gain knowledge or information that others can also find use from. Therefore, silly chatting questions like you find on twitter, ask.fm or other sites like that - have no place here.

Personally, I think YA took a step in the wrong direction by giving in to the pressure to make the site more social, but that is what the advertisers are looking for, so I understand the reasoning behind it.

[FemaleLotRfan]

It's different because it's not supposed to be a social site, it's a question and answer site where users can get answers from real people

[Daniel]

Its Different Because YA Is Not a Social Networking Site Twitter and Facebook Is a Social Networking Site

YA is a Question Asking and Answering Site

[éµ²]

Mostly the difference is that Yahoo actively discourages any kind of social interaction by a combination of their rules and the plethora of wowsers and report monkeys who use them to stamp out any sort of socializing.

[Beasticus Tofudii]

Yahoo had a decent social site in Yahoo 360, but they killed it off rather than build on it. Answers was never mean as a social site, yet its social potential is great. Too bad overzealous and unchecked reporting drives away so many people.

[lowjellyfish182]

I've never been suspended from those other sites, for starters.

Additionally, they've never deleted my content.

those other sites treat you like you're more or less adults, and you can deal with the fallout of your decisions (be they good or bad) on your own, without them smacking you on the knuckles with a ruler like some cranky old nun in Catholic school.