Why is the Y!Answers mascot a hamster?
Here’s the story, according to what I learned while YA was still in the first (beta) stages, and also to the wisdom of other users who actually met the original YA Team: When YA first started in December of 2005, their avatar (in the official 360 blog) was a photograph of a Karate Hamster toy, similar to this one: According to the accounts of original Team members, this toy was actually on the desk of the YA team leader and he would switch it on when he wanted to summon the team members. So when YA was launched, a snapshot of the hamster was adopted as an informal mascot and Team avatar on the official YA 360 blog. It began to be known as the Karate Hamster, Ninja Hamster, Kung Fu Hamster, or Yamster (extensively, the members of the YA Team – and sometimes all the YA users – became the YAmsters). This toy was used as the Team avatar until somebody commented in the forum that this was a real toy that surely had a manufacturer and a copyright somewhere. Soon after this comment was posted
