I downvote a lot of posts here because I don’t think they’re questions appropriate for this community. They’re either loaded questions, opinions, obvious bait, or asklemmy material.
If this community is supposed to be the Lemmy version of r/nostupidquestions, the questions should be things that you think should know but don’t. Things that might make you feel stupid asking.
A good question for this sub is “How often do I actually have to wash a hoodie?”
A bad question is “Why is [company] doing [something anti consumer]”
We get a LOT more of the latter here.
Ah, I wasn’t familiar with the subreddit, so I was just taking it as a free for all, so no question is out of place. Especially as lemmy is smaller, and lacks enough traffic in niche communities, it makes sense to have a bigger community for just answering whatever comes to mind.
But obviously there’s issues with that, if the community was swamped it would make sense to have a stricter guideline.
I mean if this is gonna be a catch-all for every question ever, why do we need it when asklemmy exists?
Guidelines make communities unique. And why did we remake the sub if we weren’t going to continue the spirit of it?
A similar problem would happen on r/ELI5 that drove me nuts. Originally the kinds of questions you were supposed to ask were things like “the origins of the Gulf war” or “the rules on how to play poker”. But instead there were too many questions that were like “what’s going on in my stomach when it growls”.
“Can someone explain [complicated geopolitical conflict] to me like I’m 5?” were my least favorite. At least pretend you tried to get the answer yourself
There should be a rule where someone actually has to explain it as if they were explaining it to a 5-year-old.
That’s how the sub started. Answers were broken down into the most basic of analogies, it was great. But like most big subs, the rules got lax and it lost what made it special.
In my opinion, stricter posting rules make for a better community…as long as they’re not arbitrary.
That might not be the best counter example. Now I’m interested in why exactly my stomach growls, and would probably need it explained in simple terms since I’m not a doctor.
perhaps you need a refresher… NO. STUPID. QUESTIONS.
Perhaps you completely missed the point if that’s what you choose to reply with
The asklemmy ones are the annoying ones. It’s less a question and more a conversation starter
There’s one up now that’s basically “can someone recommend some songs to me?”
And rarely, very rarely, the question is fine but OP straight up dislikes answers and gets argumentative.
When I see those, I downvote the topic. If you don’t want answers, you don’t deserve the chance to ask.
I appreciate your work. (sincerely)
I just wish it did anything lol
Okay but like, how often do I actually have to wash a hoodie?
Sometimes.
You should wash your hoodies (and jeans) when they are soiled, sweaty, or smelly; if they’ve been wet; if they have any sort of chemical on them.
Your situation will vary, and thus you must rely on your own judgement.
And basically always if someone you meet says you need to wash it.
Well yeah, if you go around people. If you don’t know how to wash a hoodie, you’re probably not a social butterfly. I do know how to wash a hoodie and I’m not a social butterfly, so I can’t imagine what it’s like not knowing and still trying to speak to someone.
I’ve been a teacher who had to tell their student it was time to wash their clothes, even if they weren’t a social butterfly
I was just making a bad joke which correlated social skills to hoodie washing ability
Mate, that read exactly like a typical title on r/lifeprotips.
It’s that good or bad?
It was a funny reminder of how mundane the typical “Life Pro-Tips” were.
LPT: always wash your clothes if they stink!
Ah, gotcha
I don’t know!!! Someone should pose the question in a post
Could be a lot of people see it on their feed but don’t know what community it’s from, and they don’t want to see it so they downvote. Especially when people are browsing local or all.
I know lemmynsfw.com had that issue where people would downvote stuff on local that they didn’t like, even though it was a good post for the community it was posted to
Yes.
If an answer was downvoted on NoStupidQuestions, was it too stupid or a serious reply to a joke question?
Or it might just be offensive or a dog whistle.
ive wanted to make an alt account and name it something like dog, and just bark at comments that hurt my ears
Do it
What’s a dog whistle?
urban dictionary Dog whistle is a type of strategy of communication that sends a message that the general population will take a certain meaning from, but a certain group that is “in the know” will take away the secret, intended message. Often involves code words. Republicans say they want to make civil rights for gays a state issue, which is really just a dog whistle strategy for saying that they will refuse to grant equal rights on a federal level.
That’s such a bad example for a good definition
Hmm I wonder why muscilunge said 88 million in this tweet? It could have been any number, right? Why 88?
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1596439328338890752
What do you think, dog?
Just a dog: bark bark bark bark bark bark bark bark
Erhm… Could you explain what that means?
Bark bark bark bark bark bark
Great. Now I’m going to have to name my next dog Half_Built_Pyramids and explain that he barks at dog whistles.
In case this is genuine asking, here’s the coded logic dogwhistle:
H is the 8th letter of the alphabet So 88 = HH, which was used in WW2 communications by the Nazis for Heil Hitler.
So people who just so happen to randomly put 88 into a random thought online are signaling to the people in the know that they’re also in the know.
Before you say “but thats stupid and childish, why would anyone go through that much effort to hide their shitty beliefs that way?” that’s exactly the purpose of dogwhistles. It’ high effort enough that normal people wouldn’t expect anyone to put that much childish effort into it, and anyone who points out the dog whistle looks crazy to the normies because of how childish it the dogwhistle is and the dogwhistlers get to feign innocence being attacked by the twitter mob over a number.
I appreciate the actual explanation. I was genuinely asking, although I thought the commenter’s reply was much funnier.
What a world we live in.
Random thought; a twitter nazi decoder ring could be a really funny novelty item
It’s a shibboleth, a way of asking a question that people who share your ideology will recognize as pushing it, while those who do not will not. This is like a dog whistle that can be heard by dogs but not by humans.
In question form it’s also often subtle propaganda, asking a question that presupposes something controversial, like “Why are trans players allowed to win so much on sports?” where the simple shibboleth might be “Should trans players be allowed in sports?” Both are confronting the same point, but the former assumes a trend that has not been demonstrated, while the latter simply assumes some reason without making it clear what the reason is.
An actual dog whistle sounds at a frequency (?) inaudible to humans but is heard by dogs. The “secret phrase” can be said out loud, but like the whistle, only the big dogs hear it - the rest of the humans don’t. Does that make sense? It’s used as an analogy.
Frequently how it shows up on “No Stupid Questions” is that they’re pushing a bigoted agenda under the guise of “I’m just asking a question and everyone’s attacking me for it.” Like if someone came to No Stupid Questions and asked (and this is just an example, not my position at all) “why is there so much trans propaganda on Lemmy?” or whatever. (And in the thread when people are like “you’re a bigot” they respond with “I didn’t say anything bigoted. I just asked a question.”)
But yeah. Like what Xtallll said, it’s more generally using language/symbols that for the in group is a reference they’ll all get but for everyone else at least retains an air of plausible deniability. Often it’s done by politicians (particularly right-wing politicians) to try to straddle the fence between the extremits and more moderates in their party. If a politician speaks in support of “states’ rights,” they’ll get the vote of the extremists who know that “states’ rights” actually means racist policies and also the moderates who still think or perhaps are still deluding themselves that it means somthing vague but more benign.
Neither. It’s because the question does not belong in the community for other reasons, such as being off-topic, or encouraging heated responses.
I’d upvote this post. It’s spot on.
People have their own reasons for downvoting. NSQ is for questions that could be considered “stupid” by people in more judgmental settings. When I downvote NSQ posts it’s because I suspect soapboxing or an agenda, not an honest question. Or, in some cases, because it seems people take “no stupid questions” as an outright challenge.
Yes
If you down a question that is actually made in bad faith, just as you’ve done here, down is completely justified.
My record for most downvoted post was when I asked how much people tip their landlord. Didn’t even get any good advice. I got a new landlord and just wanted to make sure he has enough to feed the kids and cover the mortgage.
Sounds like a philosoraptor question.
Either option is viable. Depends on the question. Usually things are either downvoted because it’s too stupid to be a legitimate question and it’s clearly just someone being inflammatory, or it’s a question that, while arguably stupid, doesn’t really fit with the idea of the community.
“What are your thoughts on photosynthesis” is a post that’s -2 right now. It’s probably getting downvoted because it’s just a fucking question. It’s kinda stupid, but only in the sense that I have no clue what they’re wanting to hear about photosynthesis. It doesn’t fit the community. Goddamnit I still instinctively type subreddit. It would work better for a general discussion community.
Sometimes there’s a rare question that’s actually incredibly stupid and clearly not someone trolling, but they give zero further information. Like “Could time start moving faster due to climate change?” How do you answer something like that without knowing how the hell they came to that conclusion? “No.” isn’t exactly a satisfying response, but it’s pretty much the only one you’ve got.
Hell, your question isn’t a particularly great example of a ‘no stupid questions’ question. It’s really more of a shower thought.
Yeah, I figured I’d get more relevant answers asking it here rather than [email protected] or anywhere else. It is a bit meta though, might have been better posted on Friday
This is why I stick with kbin. did you downvote me? would be a shame if I literally never find out.
Simple answer is : yes
The problem is everyone is going their own way with it.
If anything is heavily downvoted on Lemmy, the most likely cause is that people don’t like what it says. On rare occasions downvoting is used to correctly identify wrong information or rule breaking content, but most of the time people use it as an “I agree” or “I like this” button.
So if a question here is heavily downvoted, its probably because people don’t like the question, despite the necessity of such questions.
