Yahoo Answers Spammers

Claymation

Aug 6th 2008, 2:26 pm

All day I have been trying to answer questions on Yahoo Answers and get the following:
We're taking a breather...

Yahoo! Answers is taking a coffee break. We appreciate your patience while it recharges! We apologize for any inconvenience. Here are some things you can do while you wait:

* Read more at the Yahoo! Answers Blog
* Yahoo! Avatars
* Go to the Yahoo! Homepage

Thank you for using Yahoo! Answers.
In the meantime, there are questions and answers flying all over- except for me.
Has this ever happened to you after posting links in your answers? (Be honest!).
I've dropped relevant links to my blogs from time to time, but always leave well-thought-out responses.
If this is their way of determining spam, there is something wrong with that there....

Syfonic

Aug 6th 2008, 2:40 pm

This has happened to me before. Have many questions have you answered/asked?

Emie.

Aug 6th 2008, 2:47 pm

I get that a lot when I'm using Yahoo Answers.

If they think you're a spammer you'll get an error message a lot, so maybe they were really "taking a breather".

Headshot0123

Aug 6th 2008, 2:54 pm

It happened to me once before but once I got to level 2 it never happened again. Now I'm a level five and have a 50% best answer and top contributor ranking.

Trusted Writer

Aug 6th 2008, 3:01 pm

I spent almost an hour replying to someone in detail past Monday and then getting that message over and over for another two or three hours.

I believe this behavior is happening because they are having a site's facelift with a very simplistic interface and a supposedly cool spell checking tool bothering when you are not requesting any help, in example, when you are aware of wrong typing and use the backspace key to correct yourself.

cheekui

Aug 6th 2008, 3:15 pm

Lol.. have you came across another more interesting error message (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=963055)? :p

QZoners

Aug 6th 2008, 3:39 pm

I ever using Yahoo Answer before, but there is no spam message like that. Maybe I just lucky. :)

Affilit

Aug 6th 2008, 4:08 pm

Must be Nescaffee always take ye time with that unless you got hobnobs then one dip and the coffees gone.
Send them some hobnobs.

JoseArmando

Aug 6th 2008, 4:34 pm

Btw I'm curious how's the traffic you're pulling through yahoo answers?

Is it worth it?

Trusted Writer

Aug 6th 2008, 5:07 pm

JoseArmando

Aug 6th 2008, 5:14 pm

How is traffic?

Yahoo Answers is not for driving traffic to your site for nothing, not that sort of idea floating around aiming to spam Wikipedia.

At Yahoo Answers you can build trustworthy as a writer or authority in a subject, as you also can also drive traffic to websites by providing answers with relevant links only.

Answering questions with traffic in mind can lead you to banning since Yahoo community encourages people to report irregular activity and link spamming.

Good point, I've never used yahoo answers but I've seen quite a few people say they do a bit of marketing there.
I guess it's the same as everywhere else. As long as you use common sense you should do fine.

air360

Aug 6th 2008, 5:30 pm

Yahoo answers is simply marketing if you know what you are oding. From answering other peoples questions and putting your links into your response somehow....or making your own questions with one account and then giving your own best answer a few days alter with another account that includes your links so other people will read and click....its pretty good....to an extent

Michelle Michan

Aug 6th 2008, 5:46 pm

Signing for two or more account at Yahoo Answers can also make you get banned, specially when you are providing your "modus operandi".

You can't fool Yahoo as you can't fool Google, they track your IP and even using proxy servers or online anonymous surfing tools they can track leaked information such as your country, keyboard language, operating system.

What JoseArmando says is correct, you can make of Yahoo Answers a maketing tool as long as common sense and valuable contributions take place.

kewlchat

Aug 6th 2008, 5:58 pm

Its becomming more and moe popular for people promoting stuff then it is for people actually looking for answers.

geo9x9

Aug 7th 2008, 5:16 am

Never had a problem with Yahoo Answers. But I guess I don't make a habit of answering too many irrelevant questions.

bikerbanjara

Aug 7th 2008, 5:23 am

well it havent happened to me yet, though i m at level 2 now

roynston

Aug 7th 2008, 6:04 am

Reduce your Spam rate lol, You'll be Fine.

Slincon

Aug 7th 2008, 6:05 am

Yahoo answers is good fora few things, but traffic is not one of them - most people (generalization) just read the answers and leave for the next question. Fewer actually check out the sources you provide.

holidayhoteldirect

Aug 7th 2008, 6:16 am

people are using now for links that not good thing.

Claymation

Aug 7th 2008, 2:53 pm

Seems many people are getting the same error message!
http://yanswersblog.com/index.php/archives/2008/08/07/are-we-really-on-a-coffee-break/

cheekui

Aug 7th 2008, 3:29 pm

lol Claymation, thanks for sharing..

I like this comment :

You guys take to many coffee breaks. This site sucks anyways. Quit updating it because it just makes it worse. Like that stupid pencil for a spellcheck. This site sucks. I wish google had a answer section or I would be there.
Comment posted on August 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pm by Bob

That is so mean! Lol. I love Yahoo Answers, ok? :P

canam

Aug 7th 2008, 4:02 pm

isnt yahoo answers nofollow too, so the link is not valuable unless for traffic, but someone said traffic is not good either, so why do you take the time?

cheekui

Aug 7th 2008, 6:45 pm

Yahoo doesn't care about No-follow, so, why should u?

canam

Aug 7th 2008, 6:49 pm

Yahoo doesn't care about No-follow, so, why should u?

if they don't care about nofollow, then why do they use it??? :confused:

Michelle Michan

Aug 7th 2008, 7:00 pm

people are using now for links that not good thing.

Yahoo answers is good fora few things, but traffic is not one of them - most people (generalization) just read the answers and leave for the next question. Fewer actually check out the sources you provide.

Depends on the question and how you handle this. Leaving a link as it is would probably has not major response while a link providing the specific information the poster asked for sure is followed.

Nonsense links are the favorite food of Yahoo Spam-Busters who are willing to catch any of these to report them because that activity leads you to extra rewards building trustworthy.

Most spammers are not looking for people clicking on links, but back links through search engines towards pagerank.

cheekui

Aug 7th 2008, 7:43 pm

Ok, don't assume what I say on this one is right: Maybe it's because that's the standard feature that they have. Like what Wordpress have for their blog comments.. Something like that?

if they don't care about nofollow, then why do they use it??? :confused:

flacon

Aug 7th 2008, 7:52 pm

i have seen many stupid answers only for promoting their websites.

because these cases are increasing, yahoo may be taking some steps to atlease reduce that.

seoorganizers

Aug 7th 2008, 9:18 pm

people are using yahoo answers and many other SN sites for driving a initial traffic for sites which are new. yahoo as tha capability to show the yahoo answers pages in top SERP, it is the theme people are spamming htem.

Trusted Writer

Aug 7th 2008, 9:43 pm

i have seen many stupid answers only for promoting their websites.

because these cases are increasing, yahoo may be taking some steps to atlease reduce that.

The step to reduce it is reporting people who abuse the system.

Their spam threads are immediately removed shortly after, although subject to review.

If someone report a member for no reason, then such report reverts on you.

DomainGamer

Aug 7th 2008, 9:55 pm

I'm interested in posting on Yahoo Answers, if anyone has any great tips PM me.

shihtzu

Aug 9th 2008, 9:12 am

Yahoo! Answers are nofollow, no use for SEO and tbh it's boring to see the same people answering over and over again spamming own links.

digitalpassion

Aug 9th 2008, 9:20 am

Thats true, nofollow links are not useful for SEO, but people use to advertise their site - I have seen many promoting their affiliate links (which i think is not supposed to be be posted).

Maybe this breather thing, is to keep voracious posters under check - there aren't believing anyone [:)]

holidayhoteldirect

Aug 9th 2008, 9:42 am

Its happen in Yahoo answers as there is no security to prevant spam

tehmina11

Aug 9th 2008, 10:24 am

I was also facing the same situation and then analyzed what caused this.

Following were my findings

--This happens when I post the same link again and again in a day( more than 15 answers)
Just like Google sandbox the yahoo bot put the link which we are posting again and again in the sandbox and when ever we try again to post that link we get the message. Some time I got message for three days and was unable to post the link.

I managed to resolve the problem by posting the answer omitting the same url which is giving me that message or alternatively I did the following

Suppose your site address is http://www.abc.com , make a blog http://abc.blogspot.com and post the link alternatively this will help you in avoiding the message the coffee break message or other wise post the answer without the link there coffee break will finish.

Regards

Tehmina

gregdavidson

Aug 9th 2008, 10:30 am

Only respond to questions that are related to your website. When you leave your link add it to your "Sources" box and only have "http://www.yourdomain" without anything else above it. Making your sources look like an ad could get you flagged for spamming.

yinka

Aug 10th 2008, 3:38 pm

I've received this same message before. I've answered probably about 10 questions, but all answers were pertinent to the question and it was over a 3 month period of answering. However, the answers all pointed back to a particular URL, so I wonder if SPAM may be in question, but I was not trying to SPAM, I was just answering questions which allowed me to talk about my product.

Michelle Michan

Aug 10th 2008, 3:42 pm

Spammers are reported and eventually banned, but the message that appears randomly, along with the 999 error page, are up to service downtime or any other technical issue.

I have very few answered questions, all kept in context and without promoting any link, even then I have seen those Yahoo messages coming up.

confusion

Aug 10th 2008, 3:43 pm

I have been getting that message a lot lately. I'm nearly level 6, so I don't think it has much to do with level. It has been my experience that the message shows up on individual questions. So, it seems to me that the question gets flagged.

I submit an answer and get that message. If I go back and resubmit, I get the message again. If I go back to the question, click the answer button, reenter the answer and resubmit, I get that message. If I go to a new question, I don't get the message. Go back to the first question, still getting the message.

Michelle Michan

Aug 10th 2008, 3:46 pm

I have reported spamming questions and they are removed immediately, as I have tried to answer questions that are not flagged but deleted because a message saying "question deleted" comes up.

After reporting spammers, these disappear, but que question not... who knows, maybe those questions are put into a sort of moderation queue :rolleyes:

avonlee1983

Aug 10th 2008, 7:36 pm

I think I've only got that message like two or three times. I try to only answer a few questions at a time (with links in the resource box) and then visit again throughout the day.

aditne

Aug 11th 2008, 11:52 am

Never got a problem with yahoo answers. It is good.

Trusted Writer

Aug 11th 2008, 11:58 am

Yes, the service is not bad but I belive all of us are wondering what is exaclty the key factor triggering that weird message some of us have received.

It seems to me associated to the nature of the question asked.

The day I spent an hour replying was someone who asked a chronological review on punk lifestyle and music requesting avoid posting links to Wikipedia or using its information as source for the answer.

pcz

Aug 11th 2008, 2:02 pm

it happened to me as well

SatishCodes

Aug 11th 2008, 2:26 pm

i used to go to yahoo answers and still do and give answers and tell pple that i found answer on this site and give them my site's link :O lmao

whirlybird20

Aug 11th 2008, 2:34 pm

I have never got this message before. But I don't use yahoo answers much anyway.

Qualudes & Whiskey

Aug 14th 2008, 9:42 pm

I got the same thing, it went away, hooray!

homebizseo

Aug 14th 2008, 9:45 pm

they may have a problem with the database

Daniel Cassidy

Aug 17th 2008, 8:29 pm

Depending on your level at Answers your only allowed to post a certain number of questions and answers a day. You'll need to move up to the next level to post more. Once your reach the highest level you can answer and ask unlimited amounts of questions.

kekada

Aug 18th 2008, 11:04 am

it generally occurs with me when i exceed my daily answers limit..

coolboy88

Oct 10th 2008, 11:35 pm

YAHOO ANSWER Blocked me....? Today am recieving 1 million Coffee Breaks , the site wont allowing me to log..
Whats going on? Y/A Banned me?

Am on Level 6! omg am scared

please help me out..

hemroids

Oct 11th 2008, 1:38 am

I got the same reply.

greenliveforever

Oct 11th 2008, 2:50 am

Maybe i got lucky for level 2, and i hope could give relevant answer as i can.
Traffic? trustworthy? is just another story.

lifeplayer

Oct 11th 2008, 8:28 am

That's normal. You try it after a day and you will able to answer again

www.buxincome.com

Oct 11th 2008, 8:30 am

Yahoo answers is a great source of traffic and targeted traffic if used properly.

urbn

Oct 27th 2008, 5:11 am

I have never had any problems with getting error messages. I have received the message that I had met my maximum number of answers for a day but that was it.

But I also have a 10 year old yahoo account, am nearly at level 3 and only answer questions revelent to what I am "promoting". That way its not link spamming at all, infact it is better then most backlinks as you will most likely get 1 very specific person going to your site specificly because of the content you are offering. Thtas better then 10k unrelated links on spam directories imo!

Ehmad

Oct 27th 2008, 5:21 am

nope , i never rcvd this type of msg ???

flatrox

Oct 31st 2008, 12:38 pm

very few quality answer i got from yahoo answer

Claymation

Nov 9th 2008, 7:37 am

Finally got one of my accounts banned, and all of my answers were well-composed and not spammy.
That's what competitors will do by reporting your answers enough.