This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
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This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
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This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
This goes triple if the question has caveats and specifics that are clearly articulated. That is someone who has already researched the question. You can go ahead and assume they have explored alternatives - it would be rude not to!
And if you see a question with specifics that preclude you from answering: don't get bent out of shape!
They don't owe you a question you can answer. They don't owe you the gratitude you want to receive concerning an answer that can't possibly help them.
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This goes triple if the question has caveats and specifics that are clearly articulated. That is someone who has already researched the question. You can go ahead and assume they have explored alternatives - it would be rude not to!
And if you see a question with specifics that preclude you from answering: don't get bent out of shape!
They don't owe you a question you can answer. They don't owe you the gratitude you want to receive concerning an answer that can't possibly help them.
Let it be, man. That question was not for you, and that's OK.
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Let it be, man. That question was not for you, and that's OK.
I just remembered the term 'netiquette', and I feel sad that it has fallen out of fashion.
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I just remembered the term 'netiquette', and I feel sad that it has fallen out of fashion.
I can feel some eager beaver preparing to split hairs on my language choice to find some kind of exception that makes their particular unhelpful answers OK, and to that person I just want to say: I didn't ask.
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I just remembered the term 'netiquette', and I feel sad that it has fallen out of fashion.
Thank you for the gentle reminders in this thread
️ And I’m on board to bring back netiquette!
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Thank you for the gentle reminders in this thread
️ And I’m on board to bring back netiquette!
@FlockOfCats @Rhube
Omg, yes. I haven't seen that word in at least a decade. -
I just remembered the term 'netiquette', and I feel sad that it has fallen out of fashion.
@Rhube
Same!I remember a really good book on the psychology of net behavior, back when IRC was the latest big thing and flame wars were rampant, and it was a really insightful approach to netiquette.
Not much seems to have changed, other than the velocity of flame wars and dogpiling and reply-guys
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This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
@Rhube @teotwaki i hear you, but it is ten times more difficult for extremely large—and growing—swaths of the population: what is really required is *knowing you know you don’t know the answer*.
most foolish or harmful answers are given by foolish and harmful people that honestly believe they know the answer.
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This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
@Rhube
I couldn't stand the Swedish #archaeology group on Facebook. It wasn't because people kept posting pictures of ordinary rocks they'd found in their gardens and asking if they were prehistoric artefacts. It was because other people kept giving confident, wildly inaccurate answers to those questions. I've been a professional archaeologist since 1992. -
This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
@Rhube
Thank YOU, Dr Smith, if that IS your real name. -
This is your semi-regular reminder that if you don't know the answer to a question on the Internet, it's OK not to answer.
In fact, it's polite.
This is not a situation where it's you and one other person and they asked a question and it would be weird not to say something (in which case, 'I don't know' is good!). If they are asking a non-directed question in an open forum, they are asking if anyone here has answers, not for everyone here to answer.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
