We are seeing more and more New Zealand users on Yahoo!Xtra Answers every day - which is fantastic! - so we wanted to give everyone, especially the newcomers, a few tips about how to get better answers for your important questions.

It may sound blatantly obvious, but well-written, thoughtful questions tend to receive well-written, thoughtful answers.

An example of a GOOD question: What's the best piece of advice that your mother gave you? Notice that the responses tend to be written clearly, in a friendly, helpful tone, with great spelling and punctuation.

An example of a BAD question is: Hey girl u can hold one u might dream ing of? Not surprisingly, there are no answers for this question.

When you look at similar poorly written questions, you'll notice that the answers are often equally baffling and incoherent. They may be legitimate questions but because they are very generalised, or with poor spelling and grammar, they are almost destined to generate poorly-written answers or none at all.

Don't forget that there's a spell-checker just above the box where you type your question so take a few extra seconds to make sure your question is clear and understandable.

Similarly, a question that is clear and to the point is more likely to receive answers than a vague one. It's much better to write a clear question title that says (for example):

"Where can I find a good place to play paintball in Auckland?"

rather than

"Help!!! Click here!!!???" Details: "I want to play paintball in Auckland, where?"

And don't forget to choose the best answer for your question! You'll pick up 3 points just for doing it.

Lastly, Answers is NOT a chat site or personals message board - it is a Q&A site where human knowledge can be shared. Therefore, questions like "Does my pic/avatar look hot?", "Who wants to chat on IM?" and "Who wants a date with a cute guy?" will be removed. Don't leave your email address with your question or answer either as that will also guarantee your post is removed.

We hope these tips and suggestions make your Answers experience the best it can be, and don't forget to send us feedback or leave a comment to let us know what you think.

The Yahoo!Xtra Answers Team