Doomsday 2012, astrology...?

Those of us who teach in the sciences have an inbuilt compulsion to do our best to alleviate ignorance. It is sometimes very difficult and frustrating, but nevertheless we try, and I suspect, will continue to try.

Most who do hang around this category have experienced the same frustrations. We who have been around this category for a while have echoed these sentiments 4 and 5 years ago already. Once you do hang around for a while you realize sooner or later the defects of yahooanswers. You also soon realize that attempts to refine and improve yahooanswers falls upon deaf ears. While we who are interested in science may attempt to educate others, yahooanswers is not the best avenue for that. The majority of questions still go up for voting which makes the chosen answer unreliable at best. I have seen many great answerers drop out of the yahooanswer system due to the many problems it has. I myself only come back rarely anymore.

I think we need to think of yahooanswers as a form of mild entertainment. This category will always be inundated with FAQs similar I would imagine to the philosophy section being asked What is the meaning of life? or the religion category being asked Is there a god?

While yahooanswers may at one time have had the potential to be of great service to users, the many failings have made it nothing more than a gimmick for yahoo to get itself into search engine answers as a form of self promotion. It's best not to think that your brilliant answers will be held as enigmatic for future generations.

For those who understand hoaxes and in particular end-of-the-world hoaxes we know that 2012 was not the first and will not be the last. We as a culture have a 30% high school drop out rate. Poor education equates with a rise in paranormal and pseudoscience beliefs. Beliefs which become more important than facts. It is this which you are fighting against and I would contend that it is a futile battle.

Accept that there is and probably always will be a percentage of the population which is poorly educated. While we may see some of those come here and sincerely ask for guidance, we will mostly see those who are set in their ways of ignorance. It is those who are not looking for any answer as much as they are seeking those few who agree with them as a way to confirm their beliefs and thus legitimize their lack of knowledge.

I agree with an above answer. You will not get those who are grabbing for 2 points any way that they can to stop answering these types of questions. I would also include to stop answering homework questions but you still get those who seek the 2 points. The best way to notice a troll is to place your mouse over their avatar to see when they joined. Yet few do and fewer know how to report a troll.

So yahooanswers is what it is - an entertainment system - and it is not what it is not - a reliable educational tool.

As far as doom in 2012 questions are concerned, you cannot distinguish the idiot trolls and poes from the idiot frightened kids. I have about 6 different answers in a Word file and I just copy and paste. In a lot of cases recently I have just used Ctrl+v repeatedly. 2 points every time and sometimes 10.

There has already been one suicide of a 16 year old girl in England over the 2012 fraud. That's why I always answer these questions.

We don't see that many Moon hoax questions. I sometimes answer, but not always. I'd report them as spam, but there is not a lot of use in it if only one person does it.

Well, it was predicted by the Mayans on their calendar that the world would end 12/12/12. Their calendar has been accurate so far, but it may or may not be true. However, there is supposed to be a solar maximum that year...

I like your idea to completely ignore the moronic questions.

They are getting tedious, and its like the kid with his finger in the dyke with more leaks happening and he's running out of fingers.

Or at most we just answer the 2012 questions with nothing except the link to http://www.2012hoax.org/

one of the moon landings were hoaxes, several other countries can confirm that we did land on the moon.Even Russia who hated us for it.

as for the 2012 doomsday thing. it is based on a modern interpritation of why the ancient mayans ended their long count calender (one of many calenders they came up with) on dec 21 2012.I'll bet anyone any amount of money that it's not a doomsday, (if I loose how are you going to collect ha ha ha).Did any believers ever think that a few thousands years ahead was enough for the ancient mayans and they stopped working on it at some random point? I mean they couldn't keep working on it forever could they? So wouldn't Dec 21 2012 be as good as any other date to end it?

Nope, I want my 2 points.

Yes,stupid will beget stupid.There is no antidote.

http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/index;_ylt=AuG7SiK49H...