Did i pointgame (or cheat) when i deleted my Answers?

Not sure how deleting your own answers could be considered pointgaming since you didn't gain any POINTS by doing so (you lost 2 points you'd earned as well as 10+ potential points for any answers which may have been voted BA!) -- or cheating, since the site was (still is) set up to allow for it.

There are some good points already made in previous answers. Yes you did 'manipulate the system' to get a higher BA%, but as already noted, there's no 'prize' for a high BA% -- so you didn't actually GAIN anything.

Something no one has mentioned (at least not yet) is that your practice of deleting answers on questions which had other answers actually benefited those users by giving their answers a better chance at the BA (and points). There IS an actual 'prize' for total number of Best Answers in a category. It's that total which determines the users who are on the Top Answerers board for that category.

(Whizzz's answer refers to how that was manipulated somewhat underhandedly through voting, though not *technically* by cheating, in this category. No one was fooled by what was happening there, certainly not me!)

You didn't cheat, pointgame, or gain any REAL advantage by deleting your answers. The 50+ comment string arguing to the contrary (yes I saw it and was not even slightly surprised by it) was just that -- an argument that devolved into an accusatory screed. Nothing of substance to it, so don't give it any credence at all.

Would your best answer percentage have been the same if you hadn't deleted all your answers as you did? I doubt it.

Whether it's cheating or not, I tire of people who continuously delete their answers and don't want them answering my questions. Makes me feel something isn't quite right....

Edit: to give others thumbs down for seeing things differently is so narrow minded. Maybe some don't see it as cheating, but others will and do.

What is cheating... exactly? Not playing by the rules everyone else is playing by? Not playing the same way everyone else is expecting?

When you change how something is done to make it work in your favor and raise your level or points or answers percentage...it's got to be a bit (dishonest)? (at least in some people's eyes)

I just quit trusting someone who continuously deletes answers.

No you did not, when you delete an answer you lose points so nothing gained there.

We are allowed to delete our answers and we were allowed to vote for our answers too so no cheating there.

I saw that comments mess going on and the one person will argue with anyone and has done so on many questions.

They think all level 7 users cheated to get there and think anyone who reports violations has a Barney Fife attitude.

It was worse but still not actually cheating that some users would seek out questions about to go to voting with 0 answers and post a 3 word answer so they could get best answer with a self vote, even managed to get on the top 10 answers list doing just that.

There are users who will answer questions hours after perfectly good answers are posted every day and just copy parts of the good answers as theirs but again although it is tacky to do even that is not cheating. Those who know you would know that cheating is not your style so don't let one person make you doubt yourself. You are not the first he has accused.

Ok I know I often do refer to the pointgaining that went on in the past so figured I'd best give my tuppence worth to this question :)

I refer to the crappy answer crew that used to pick questions that were going into voting and then lay down a 'just about, barely passible but tantamount to useless answer' and then vote for themselves to get the BA. The kinds of answers I mean are the "maybe" "I guess so" "if you want" kind of useless answers which clearly spelled out that they hasn't really even read the question and were not answering to give any kind of help, but purely to get the points/BA

As I've said it was technically not a violation.... but I always could;t help thinking that it went against the ethos of the site which was about helping users to find answers, and not just collecting points/badges/leaderboard places which were just rewards for answering well (but of course as it's impossible to measure quality then were accured for anything but quality answers most of the time).

I don't recall your answers personally, but I do recall your comments on the old SB and so would imagine they were better than the above examples.

Deleting answers when it is almost certain that you won't get the BA? Well I've seen others say they do it as well. Personally I wouldn't bother but each to their own on that score.

Well I think you kind of miss the point of Yahoo Answers since there's no tangible advantage to having a high BA percentage, and it rather goes against the community spirit to delete your answers just out of spite for someone not picking you as BA. Even if we don't get BA, all our answers are preserved on YA as an important database of information for future googlers. I'm not sure I'd call it "cheating" necessarily, since YA isn't a game that you can win or lose at, but it is a little strange and spiteful.

No, it was not cheating. Nor are you the only one who did this; one of my contacts did that also and has a 93% BA. I would agree with the assessment that it was a manipulation of the system, but not one that is cheating or even unethical, just simply an aspect of Answers that you focused on and chose to pursue. To each their own. Some people used to collect stars on their questions, others get hung up on points, and others concentrate on TC badges,