What happened to your answer if it is not there anymore?

Answer 1

Occasionally, a supervisor will encounter an answer that is inappropriate for one reason or another. When it is difficult or impossible to edit the answer because little can be salvaged or the integrity of the answer is compromised, then the answer is often simply removed. More common reasons for removing answer contributions from WikiAnswers are:

• Private details in the answer - WikiAnswers does not permit the posting of any private details regrading celebrities or non-celebrities. This can include but is not limited to addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social networking addresses or user names, social media addresses or user names, gaming usernames, and last names of non-celebrities.
• The contribution does not answer the question - sometimes attempts to answer a question will not be focused or stray from the topic of the question. Only contributions that answer the question belong in the answer section. All other comments should be posted to the Discussion area.
• Nonsense or trollery - the internet like flat surfaces all over the world attract graffiti. It is inappropriate and unwelcome on WikiAnswers, so when discovered, it removed. Typically, this like other violations of WikiAnswers rules will result in warnings to registered members, and interrupts or termination of access to unregistered guests, or registered members in extreme situations or repeated instances.
• Cyberbullying - This is a serious violation of WikiAnswers rules, and illegal in many states. Any derogatory comments directed at anyone on or off the site will often result in removal of the ability to access the site.
• Spam - Another serious breach of WikiAnswers rules, spamming and soliciting are not permitted on WikiAnswers. Posting any email address or URL in answers (unless previously approved by WikiAnswers) will result in it's removal, and likely blocking of access to the site.
• Contributions that do not answer the question - While this is typically viewed as nonsense, it is a bit different. Often, guests and members will attempt to answer a question, but their efforts fall short for one reason or another. What can be salvaged often is, many times the contribution will be removed to the Discussion area. What cannot be salvaged will be simply removed.
• Debate and flame wars - neither is permitted on WikiAnswers, and when it is discovered, it is removed. Those who engage in extreme cases of either are often cautioned, warned, or their service may be interrupted or terminated.
• Copyright infringement and plagiarism - It is common for others to research a question and to be tempted to simply copy and paste the answer from some other source. Common examples of this are Wikipedia to WikiAnswers, educational testing sites, social media sites, etc. This is rarely acceptable. By and large, if source information is not under the public domain, it cannot be copied and pasted without the owner's permission, is the copyright infringement or plagiarism, and must be removed. In the case of educational assessment sites such as APEX Learning and the like, this is also an attempt to cheat. WikiAnswers does not condone nor permit cheating.

Please keep in mind two important things: nothing is ever lost on WikiAnswers (there are ways to recover contributions--some easier than others), and most importantly, WikiAnswers is a community, where acceptable community behavior is expected. There are a great number of school children who use the site from all over the world. Children, as importantly as adults, need good information and this is what WikiAnswers strives for. We hope to help other share what they know, their unpublished (and when we can find it, their published) expertise. We seek to help others. What does not help, typically does not stay.