The problem with Yahoo Answers is that they got the incentives all wrong. People found they could get more points with a bunch of bad answers than a few good ones.

Google Answers was awesome for answer quality, if you were willing to pay. Unfortunately, they no longer exist. I haven't found anything that fills the void they left.

What about Uclue? I haven't used it myself, but it looks like a pretty good replacement for Google Answers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uclue

http://uclue.com/

No, the problem is having incentives at all!

The only viable option is for it to be a part of a larger self-policed community, with no 'points' that count for anything: http://ask.metafilter.com

Google Answers had incentives and was much better for it.

Yeah, Google Answers was great. I still miss it.

You should check out http://www.fluther.com.

We built it to exactly fit that niche: smart people, good incentives, and free.