Do you think Yahoo! Answers qualifies as a "social network"? Why or why not?

[Shawn Gilles]

According to some statistical information I read from a while ago, Yahoo! Answers ranks 5th as far as active users per month is concerned in the "social network" category of websites. Do you think Yahoo! Answers qualifies as a "social network"? Why or why not?

[JellyFish]

Unless you can socially interact with each other though text messages and email it cannot be called a social network!

[Mastersail458]

No, you cannot socialise with people through Yahoo! Answers. It is a violation of the rules.

[HappyCommander588]

Yes, Yahoo Answers is a social network.

We can have Contacts and Fans.
We answer each others questions.
We can email and IM with each other.

I've met some wonderful people here. Some of them, I consider to be my good friends.

When I found Y!A, I was down-and-out and lonely. Y!A and the people on it saved my life!
I started to feel good again because of the Social interaction I discovered here.

Definitely a social network. :-)

[oklatonola]

You really should go back and reread those articles AGFAIN. YAHOO is the fifth most popular social networking site, NOY Yahoo ANSWERS. Yahoo IS a social networking web site in the broad generic sense. Yahoo hosts more than 1700 email chat groups and many online games. In the broad, generic sense YA IS a social networking site, but in the strict sense it is not, because YA has a STRICT question-answer format. YA is NOT a "chat" group except in the broader , generic sense. Knowledge is exchanged in nany different ways, Chatting is just the oldest method of exchanging knowledge. Knowledge was transmitted orally LONG before the printing press, electricity and telegraphs, teletypes or telephones or communications satellites existed.

Reread those articles AGAIN. They did NOT say that Yahoo ANSWERS is a social networking site. Don't play word games with me. You will just hang yourself on the petard of your own sarcasm.

Sarcasm FAIL.

CHECKMATE!!!!!!!!! LOL!

[Double Trouble]

It's a tricky one to answer because it's not marketed as being a social network (ie in terms of it being a knowledge seeking question & answer site) and you can answer in isolation without having any contacts, fans or communication.

On the other hand a lot of categories build up groups of regulars that interact by email, chat and some people meet in real life so they would argue that the social aspect of Answers is very real.

I'm not a big fan of Twitter, FB etc but I've wound up in communication with some really great people on Answers. For me personally it's the perfect middle man. I don't feel that I'm playing the "who is the most popular kid on the block" thing that twitter, FB etc rely on, but I can choose to interact with people if I so wish to.

======

@ Ms "You really should go back and reread those articles AGFAIN. YAHOO is the fifth most popular social networking site, NOY Yahoo ANSWERS"

Actually you will find once again that it is you who needs to do the re-reading and get your facts in order.
> The Y!A Team confirm that it is Y!A not Y! that is mentioned as being in 5th place
"Yahoo! Answers Ranked 5th Largest Social Media Network"
http://yanswersblog.com/index.php/archiv...a-network/
> You can read a source from their blog:
"Other sites such as Yahoo! Answers, Tagged and Google+ are garnering millions of visitors"
http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/blog/s...sites.html

Before you berate other users it might be wise to check things first so as to avoid looking pretty silly.

[brian 2010]

No. Answers is a Q&A site and never a place to socialize with other users. Users have been tagged with chat violations all the time here. That's all to it.

[?]

i do think Yahoo Answers qualifies as a social network because we are allowed to add contacts and communicate through IM and email. Many people do develop relations through their participation on Y!A. i have someone who i chat with frequently that i met through answering thier questions. He wants us to meet up and have sex but that ain't gonna happen. i've had others contact me through this site too. They want to meet, they want to Skype, they want me to send them my panties, they want to talk about our mutual admiration for rubber gloves. Yeah. For some reason there are a lot of rubber glove afficionatoes on this site. i'm actually not one of them. i just pretend to be so i can lead them on. Tee-hee.

But i've read of other people who made real friendships through this site too. Since we are allowed to communicate privately through IM and email and we meet each other through these boards, it is a social networking site. i know it's intended to be a Q&A site and it is primarily a Q&A site but it is a social networking site secondary.