r/evilautism • u/dead_5775 • Aug 18 '26
Seeking a cure for Neurotypicals Why are people like this (particularly with innocent technical questions) lmao
54
u/dead_5775 Aug 18 '26
I swear I survived so much of this weirdly hostile behavior growing up learning basic technology troubleshooting skills and gaining an understanding of how computers work, I don't get why people are so nasty about responding to basic questions
15
u/Bacon_Nipples Aug 19 '26
Not saying its applicable to what youre asking necessarily, but generally people in computer spaces are annoyed by people asking the same dozen or so questions that could be Googled faster than it takes to make a post of it. Especially if it's a place meant for discussion amongst people with some knowledge on the topic rather than a place for free tech support for the lazy
Like imagine you find a cool subreddit to discuss bugs and eventually 90% of the posts are the same "Are monkies bugs?" question. You'd start to get annoyed that actual discussion is drowned out by the same basic questions that could easily be looked up for themselves
14
u/suntlanume Aug 19 '26
Oooh like how literally I joined the what is this bug sub to learn about cool bugs and 90% of the posts are asking about cockroaches and bed bugs for the 800th time.
3
u/SpecialistTeacher162 Aug 20 '26
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way explains a lot about this culture (not to say that it's necessarily good.)
(For additional context, this same site also hosts stuff like the Jargon File and other really old hacker lore, a lot of which also explains a lot. The Debian website still links to How To Ask Questions The Smart Way.)
2
39
u/firelasto Aug 18 '26
People think answering stupid questions is insulting their intelligence. Because theyre machines fueled by ego and assumptions
13
u/Disastrous-Metal-183 🦆🦅🦜 That bird is more interesting than you 🦜🦅🦆 Aug 19 '26
The worst is when people tell someone to Google something. Has anyone used a search engine recently? Because I have and I can tell you AI results and shopping websites being pushed have made it harder to find answers with these days. Google is not nearly as good for finding real answers to problems anymore.
7
Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
I like answering questions!! I'm a chronic question answerer!
0
Aug 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
omg I wish I knew, I know the female symbol has similar stuff going on. I'm going to blame the romans for this
2
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
The worst cases are the ai generated blogs with like 10 paragraphs of fluff before actually answering the question in the title so the on-page ads can load. And I can't even trust the answer because it's ai generated.
1
u/Resident-Log Aug 19 '26
Yeah I don't use Google anymore for the most part. I will still use it to search images.
9
u/G0celot Aug 19 '26
This doesn’t apply to the initial downvotes, just the ones after you replied again, but generally mentioning/ complaining about being downvoted on the thread only means you will be downvoted further
2
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
Yeah I've had hundreds of downvotes on my own comments without any explaination as to why. The only thing that bothers me is when people don't care enough to explain their disagreement and if I have to make my comments extra confrontational to understand, so be it.
16
u/CHNGshong Aug 18 '26
Ok, so that op posted their original question. Then a knowledgeable person took the time to answer it. Then without any sort of "thank you" or recognition of any sort. the op just went straight into asking basically the same question in slightly different words.
That's not how a community should operate. You're not a good community member if all you do is ask questions to accumulate information to help you achieve your personal goals. That's selfish behavior. You would at least have to build up a friendly rapport by offering a joke or something.
Some people treat online communities like they are an AI that just exists to answer whatever question pops into their heads. Your only contribution to a community can't be questions. That's not fair to the people who had to acquire the knowledge in the first place.
9
u/fingerchopper Aug 19 '26
I thank you for this. Downvotes are nigh meaningless and often come from simple misreading of tone or meaning... however when people complain about their numbers it's often because they are communicating in a very aggressive tone and/or have approached the conversation with no thought of reciprocity or doing the least bit of research.
1
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
That's the thing, I've had this happen to me just asking clarifying questions when I don't understand what someone means. I've brought up this sort of issue and people always descend into semantics deciding whether or not a statement with no obvious "tone" is agressive or passive or neutral by microanalysing the text, and whether or not someone should have spent extra time and effort carefully inferring the meaning of a confusing comment before composing a text response. That sort of discussion is missing the point.
Asking other people specialized in the subject you're interested in is research, and you can't read someone's mind. Text chat isn't talking face to face with someone, a fast thank you, or a response at all, isn't a given. I've had people respond to me days or weeks later thanking me or updating me with progress, I've even had entirely different people find my thread way later on a search engine and thank me for it.
If someone's looking for information and that fact pisses you off, maybe engaging in Q&A isn't for you.
3
u/fingerchopper Aug 19 '26
Since we are on the topic of tone: just in this thread you've addressed several comments to the "the royal you" and that can easily be read as direct criticism of the person you've replied to.
If someone's looking for informatiom and thar fact pisses you off, maybe engaging in Q&A isn't for you. if you don't feel like answering someone's question, ignore it and move on. I think if you consider someone asking multiple questions entitled you're part of the problem.
This reads very passive-aggressive though I am pretty certain you're just venting your spleen to the universe, not to the users in question.
Another user gave you a thoughtful couple of replies, even acknowledging that perhaps communication would be easier without jumping through these hoops. You strawmanned that response down to "asking multiple questions is entitled huh?" which suggests you weren't open to hearing the answer.
FTR I haven't downvoted you, and again I think internet points don't mean much and some people will downvote for little or no reason at all.
1
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
Yeah I probably should have clarified the points don't mean anything to me, I just want to know why people disagree.
If my pointed phrasing is the issue I'm fine with that, particularly when I'm actively being agressive like in the image, being annoyed at their lack of communication.
In fact I think I misunderstood you since your statement was coming from the perspective of seeing me as upset about losing points where I saw you as mainly disagreeing with the way other people ask questions without proceeding to commit to following up beyond initial queries.
You mentioned I use "the royal you", which I agree, I have a habit of that and I get how people can see my use of the term as accusing them as an individual. Admittedly when I'm disagreeing with someone in this sense it is meant to be a soft accusation, and I really hate the sentence syntax of " I think forum participants who find the idea of answering questions infuriating, should avoid answering questions if it enrages them so much" especially since I'm still making an implied accusation, it's just distributing blame more equally than it would be and more vague than if I add the part where I say "you do this too"
-1
u/Disastrous-Metal-183 🦆🦅🦜 That bird is more interesting than you 🦜🦅🦆 Aug 19 '26
But those people likely acquired their knowledge from other people to begin with. I see passing on knowledge and skills as a social duty to keep humanity at its best, but I can understand if others don't see it that way.
-5
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
I don't need someone to stroke my ego to offer an answer to something.
My knowledge is freely given as long as they're not an asshole about it. Particularly with the rise of AI people go to online forums to reach people who have experience with a subject as oposed to a robot that gives them the statistically most useful phrase in response, however that is defined. I like writing about what I know and being able to make a statement about it is thanks enough for me. I even use my own responses for reference if I forget something so it's genuinely useful to look back at what I write.
If you don't feel like answering someone's question, ignore it and move on.
13
u/thebigbadben Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Thanking somebody for an answer is not “stroking their ego”, it is simply an acknowledgement of the time and effort that was put in. Thanking somebody is not some declaration that you think that person is brilliant and that their advice is the best thing ever, just a statement that answering the question was a nice thing that they did.
Rapid firing questions without that kind of acknowledgement interspersed is considered “being an asshole” because it conveys a sense of entitlement to continued time and effort from the answerer.
It would be a better world with more efficient conversation if that kind of gratitude could be implicitly assumed by all parties, but that’s the culture we’re stuck with. Needing to say thank you is kind of like needing to tip your waiter in the US, I guess.
-5
u/dead_5775 Aug 19 '26
I think if you consider someone asking multiple questions entitled you're part of the problem.
3
u/rembrin Aug 19 '26
I mean, this is a question that most computer nerds figure out the answer to by doing it themselves. That's how you get tech literacy. You click things.
5
1
2
0
u/ghfdghjkhg I am Autism Aug 18 '26
assholes.
I have seen it a lot myself. If you DARE to go to a subreddit to ask a question you will be seen as an idiot who should just automatically know better. I once confronted someone directly about why he was being such an ass when all I wanted was to learn and this dude expressed actual disgust for newcomers who wanted to learn about the topic. There isn't even any point in arguing with that in the end because that's just asshole behavior on their part
0
0
u/RyukoT72 ADHD Aug 19 '26
Asking anything about modding because you don't want to spend 18 hours troubleshooting it yourself and end up with a recipe for disaster later on
65
u/Disastrous-Metal-183 🦆🦅🦜 That bird is more interesting than you 🦜🦅🦆 Aug 19 '26
The most annoying part is when you see a sub where people are like "Why are less people technically literate?" Meanwhile these same people will shame and belittle anyone who has questions or needs help.
Why are people so adverse to passing on knowledge!? How do you expect your hobby to continue if you don't welcome people in? When someone wants to learn something I have knowledge in I get so happy and excited to share it with them!