Yahoo Answers to Enter Read-Only Mode on April 20 and Shut Down on May 4
- Yahoo Answers is shutting down in about a month and will enter read-only mode soon.
- The platform was reportedly not generating enough interest and traffic to stay afloat.
- Q&A platforms are in a period of demise, as there are better sources of information available today.
Verizon has decided to pull the plug on ‘Yahoo Answers,’ a Q&A website that was launched all the way back in June 2005 and one of the most successful of its kind. On April 20, 2021, the website will switch to read-only mode, so the users won’t be able to submit new questions or post new answers - and on May 4, 2021, the website will irreversibly cease operations. The official reason given is that the platform’s popularity has gradually waned, so it isn't used by as many people as Yahoo would have wanted in order for it to remain profitable.
If you are a member of the Q&A platform and you care about downloading and keeping your content, you will be able to do that until June 30, 2021. After that date, everything will be wiped, so the context will no longer be accessible, retrievable, and downloadable. This includes only your questions, answers, and any images that you have uploaded onto the platform. If you’re interested in other users’ content, the only way to archive that is by taking screenshots.
Your Yahoo Account or any other Yahoo services will remain unaffected by this development, so there’s nothing to worry about on that part. If you still have any questions or want to share your feedback with Yahoo on this decision, feel free to send it to yahoo_answers_sunset@verizonmedia.com. We wouldn’t expect anything to change or any decisions to be reversed no matter what happens in the inbox of that address, though.
It is only natural for users of the platform to feel sad about this sudden and short-notice deprivation of their favorite online corner, as these Q&A websites have a secondary social media role too. The truth is, though, that with the rise of other “more specialized” websites, Q&A spaces have become somewhat obsolete. The internet has gone a very long way since 2005, and if you’re looking for answers on virtually any topic, there are better and more reliable resources to find them.
If you just can’t live without a dedicated Q&A space, maybe you would like to explore some alternatives. Quora and Reddit could help you scratch that itch, although they’re not following the same approach. Maybe Answerbag or Fluther are closer to the style of YA, offering a more collective-style and generally relaxed feeling.