Y!A and YouTube comments are two of life’s mysteries to me. I don’t understand either of them and it hurts my soul to even try.

I think Y/A hasn’t necessarily caused people to mentally deteriorate, but I do think that it has become undesirable. I used to devote large amounts of time to Y/A, but once a few of my carefully researched responses (yes, I actually researched some of my answers) were “reported” by trolls and deleted by Y/A moderators, with my appeal denied, I realized the place was a stupid joke.

I quit participating and I’m sure a lot of others quit after having similar experiences.

I havent dusted off my account. It seems to be run, and over run with teenagers.

I like to visit the french Y!A. I think it’s ok.

I have never joined it. I had a look once but it looked like a site for young children trying to ask older children’s questions!

I drifted away from it over the last several years. Either I’m too old or the users too young. As for foolishness and rudeness there are far worse sites (such as the one I recently abandoned). The only other site that I have any active presence on now, other than Fluther is Cramster.com which is pure tutoring with no social pretensions.

I never was a Y! A person, but I have stumbled across the blog Y! Answer Fail (which should be Y! Question Fail IMHO) and it’s hysterical. I actually thought Y! A was a joke. I guess it’s just turned into one. If you guys ever want to remind yourself of why you left check it out at yahooanswerfail.com .

I had an account a while ago… Sometimes, now, if I’m googling I’ll find the answer in a year or two old question. A while ago, it was alright. I think just because there’s so many people on there that it gets terrible.

I have spent time on Y!A before. The LGBT section isn’t bad, there are some very intelligent people there and mostly, it’s just young kids who are beginning to realize they’re not straight and asking for help. In fact, some of the most helpful people there were my age. Some of the stuff I see there actually gives me faith in humanity. But I will admit that that’s pretty much the only section of Y!A I’ve ever been to. I have visited the Politics section and well, that’s a completely different story…I’ve never seen so many tools hardcore conservatives in my life.

And also, just to let you know, people troll on Y!A all the time. All the time. I was with my friends while they posted a troll question there. It was something like “I just found out my son is gay, should I beat him to death?” and people took it seriously. So, I’d reckon a lot of the stuff you guys come across is trolling. Then there was that other one they posted about donkey punching…I mean, total complete jokes, but people took the questions seriously.

I lost faith in humanity before the Internet even became popular. It’s just that sites like Y!A made the stupidity more publicized.

I lost my faith in humanity when I noticed how stupid the people on Facebook are (except me and my friends – we don’t do this!). I hate it how people keep using the “comment” feature on group/fan pages statuses as free ads for their fan page or group. And then there’s the “bobs” and gun dudes killing the “bobs” and the “I wasn’t pretty enough” girl and the “do this 3 times do this 5 times and pasted this into another comment and you will find your true love” things….

No, I don’t think they necessairly reduce users’ ability to ask coherent questions. Instead, I think they drive those who want to ask serious questions and hold serious discussions that away, leaving little but the cruft that isn’t bothered by the level of discourse there.

Humanity, by and large, is overrated. I like and admire certain individuals and belong to very few groups. I feel Fluther is a place where the kind of people I like predominant. I can ignore the exceptions.

I would not willingly join Humanity, if I had the choice. I don’t plan to abandon my life in order to withdraw from it however!

I participate in Yahoo!Answers daily, just like I have ever since the Beta was launched in December 2005. I have been on nearly every day since then. Since I stick to the crafts and Travel categories, and give helpful answers to the same questions, over and over, I find it an interesting diversion.