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I understand where you're coming from, but it's often the way questions are answered that's the problem, as shown in your example. If someone's asking to put d
by olig15 11y ago
I understand where you're coming from, but it's often the way questions are answered that's the problem, as shown in your example.
If someone's asking to put diesel in their petrol car, they obviously don't know that's a bad thing to do. Just asking 'Why are you trying to do that' makes you seem like you're trying to be difficult. A better answer would be 'I think you're looking at the problem wrong - diesel won't work in your petrol car, what are you trying to achieve by putting diesel in your petrol car?'
Yes it's a bit longer, but it actually helps someone know they are wrong, rather than coming across like 'Pff you idiot, you want to do it my way'.
- adekok 11y agoThe example was just that.. an example. And a short one at that. It was intended to be illustrative, and not a definitive overview of the problem. In short, the answer you give doesn't matter. What matters is the attitude of the questioner, as shown by AndrewUnmuted, below. A good questioner can say "That's not a good response. I'm trying to do X because of Y and need help with Z." A bad questioner says "How dare you question me. Give me an answer now!" I have 17 years of experience in running an open source project. My conclusion is that the content and/or the tone of my answers are less relevant than the attitude of the questioner. People who want to solve a problem don't pay attention to the emotional content of an answer. They keep pushing for a solution, no matter how much they dislike the questioner. People who have an attitude see personal insults in technical responses. An answer of "Your question is answered at URL X" is an offensive response which is intended to personally denigrate the questioner, and insult his intelligence. The only proper response for such a questioner is to insult someone back. As I said below, the only real solution to such people is to inform them to be polite, and then to ban them. They are toxic.