Yahoo! Answers is unique in that the Asker or the Answers community can pick the best answer to a question. Think of it as something between a message board and a user-generated information repository like Wikipedia. When a question is asked, it initially remains open to receive answers for 4 days, but can be extended at any time to remain open for a total of 8 days.

• If one or more answers are collected, the Asker can either pick the best answer after 1 hour or extend the open period for four additional days to allow more time for answers to be posted. If the Asker takes no action to resolve the question, the answers are automatically put to a vote by the community, along with a No Best Answer choice.
• If a question doesn't receive any answers, the question expires and is deleted.

A question becomes a Resolved Question when a Best Answer is chosen. After a question becomes Resolved it stays in Yahoo! Answers and is available for searching and browsing*. The Best Answer remains open to receive comments and ratings from the community.

Because questions don't remain open for answers indefinitely, a Best Answer will represent only the “best” of those answers posted during the 8-day period as determined by the Asker or the community vote, and may not be a complete or accurate answer. It's important to remember that Resolved Questions are written by Yahoo! users, not experts hired by Yahoo!. (Please see our Answers disclaimer.)

*Resolved questions can still be reported and deleted if the question or the Best Answer is in violation of the Community Guidelines or the Terms of Service.