What was Yahoo Answers?
That’s a good question. Yahoo Answers was a different kind of library. Libraries are often glorified as the sum of all human knowledge; Yahoo Answers was the sum of all human ignorance. Libraries are full of vetted, edited, tweaked, bought and sold words. Yahoo Answers’ words were picked straight from the vine, for better or for worse. These were the words of people who were both scared they were pregnant and unable to spell ‘pregnant’. These were the words of 3rd graders trying to get grown adults to do their homework for them, and grown adults who pridefully completed this task. These were the words of estranged aunts and uncles who no one talks to anymore. These were the words of the tired, broken, and damned.
What happened to Yahoo Answers?
On May 4th, 2021, Yahoo Answers was dissolved. On April 21, 2021 the website became read-only, meaning the final day of questioning and answering would be April 20, 2021. Internet Archivists have saved everything they could from this website, with over 4.7 terabytes on the Wayback Machine. One character takes up one byte of data, and the average English word is 4.7 characters, making 4.7 TB enough data to store one trillion words. That’s 122 words for each person alive. And that’s exactly how Yahoo Answers would’ve distributed them.
These are my 122 words:
What was the last post on Yahoo Answers?
Who was the last to read from the Library of Alexandria?
An arsonist, looking to see exactly what he incinerated?
A defeated nobleman, grasping frantically at the smoldering scrolls?
A loon, frolicking amongst the flames, delighted to be engulfed in a chaos all too familiar?
No. A weary traveler, accompanied by his family. A man who knew nothing of what came before, nor of what will come after. A man who dismounted his camel, gazed upon the magnificent fire, and picked up an already alight paper, reading the last words of some since forgotten Plato passage. And as the paper burned, the man’s focus shifted to what the flame illuminated. His wife’s beautiful hair.
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