I joined Yahoo Answers in May 2006, in its first full year of adoption, as it seemed an enjoyable interactive thing to participate in, and a smart savvy thing to do.
I jumped right in and became an active contributor and got my own little niche as “top answerer” in the Business/Finance, advertising/marketing section. By 2007 I had reached level 4 (there are 7 levels) and was still top answerer. But by now I was finding it a bit repetitive, with lots of vague questions and just plain un-thought-out things that just did not seem worth contributing too. I gradually drifted away and then got tired of the whole experience with some sections seeming to be the adopted place for the nutters, spammers and general dispossessed – a lot of the friendly sociable help-me-out-here interface seemed to have gone.
This year by chance I logged back in and was pleasantly surprised to see I was still in the top five. I gradually drifted back into it and then realised if I wanted to reach level 5, I had to get some more points and best answers. So during September 2011 make a concerted effort to drive up the points and answers – gradually creeped up to 4th in the “charts” and suddenly in the way that these things do I well overshot the mark and was well into the 5,000 points so now up at level 5. I’ve also been given the little orange badge as a “top contributor” so now there’s just the task of getting into the top three answerers and then seeing if I can get to be the top answerer again.
Putting this "achievement" into perspective though - The UK top contributor has over 850,000 points with 21K best answers. The global top contributor has over 1 million points and over 74K best answers. Crikey they must live there!
