Do Bad Questions Deserve Bad answers?

I found this in another forum:
Quote:
Does a bad (or badly worded) question automatically deserve a bad, vague, or sarcastic answer? Would no answer be a better alternative?
Does a quality question guarantee a quality response?
Is Google an adequate substitute for a person with hands-on experience?
Endquote

What do CEans feel about this?

Replies

  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    Expect questions to be stupid but always answer to be wise,practising silence is situational,since silence produces assumptions
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Badly worded may have different meanings. Sometimes, the question does not make any sense and assumes the reader to know everything. For example, "sir, shud i join infy or tcs?" makes it so difficult to answer (sensibly) that such questions do not get any responses.

    Do they deserve bad answers? I think no; though I admit that I've posted bad/sarcastic answers to such threads. It's a big mistake, actually. But the thing is, such questions add absolutely no value and go waste. Google does not like them, nor do the people.
  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    But bad questions will be raised since everyone thinks differently & all are not worldly wise,you cannot neglect them
  • Ramani Aswath
    Ramani Aswath
    sauravgoswami
    But bad questions will be raised since everyone thinks differently & all are not worldly wise,you cannot neglect them
    It may not be a case of worldly wise but 'wordly wise'. For most engineers in the world English may not be their native language. If we know that the question is wonky for this reason, the response perhaps should be considerate.
    Probably we should help a student in trouble even with home work if it can be demonstrated that effort was put in and help asked for as a last resort.
    If not a slightly sarcastic answer may not be all that bad.
  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    Sir, you are loosing the plot,you cannot expect a person to ALWAYS ask wise questions,in that event,you have failed to appeal to all sections & thus loosing different point of view. I see if someone is asking question that person is interested and only an interested person can be made understood and taught.
    You pinpointed my typing error,thank you very much for that,expert comments are welcomed
  • Anil Jain
    Anil Jain
    bioramani
    I found this in another forum:
    Quote:
    Does a bad (or badly worded) question automatically deserve a bad, vague, or sarcastic answer? Would no answer be a better alternative?
    My opinion, if some one can be slapped sarcastically, no need to answer in a bad or vague manner. We need to make sure, if we get a series of bad questions from someone, it becomes important to make the person realize about that.

    However, On forum, bad or hard answer may cause forum flames. This is lesson learned on CE, and we missed an immensely potential CEan.

    bioramani
    Does a quality question guarantee a quality response?
    No,
    Person asking the quality question shouldn't expect the ideal world. On forum you may get few spams, bad and funny answers.

    You HAVE TO live with that.
    bioramani
    Is Google an adequate substitute for a person with hands-on experience?
    What do CEans feel about this?
    Google or any other search engine is MUST for any hands-on experience.

    -CB
  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    Asking bad questions doesnt mean sarcasm or purposefull irritation,it may happen we may not be able to understand the subject properly.We need to reason before taking our stand.Following the crowd will not help

    My opinion, if some one can be slapped sarcastically, no need to answer in a bad or vague manner. We need to make sure, if we get a series of bad questions from someone, it becomes important to make the person realize about that.
  • Ramani Aswath
    Ramani Aswath
    sauravgoswami
    You pinpointed my typing error,thank you very much for that,expert comments are welcomed
    I did not think that it was a typo. I took it at face value. A worldly wise person asking a 'bad' question may invite a sarcastic response, while a badly worded genuine question does deserve a reasoned response.
  • Jeffrey Arulraj
    Jeffrey Arulraj
    It is better to tell them in private than to slap them in public cause not all are ready for a change in their attitude

    some find this as an end to their tech discussions
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Asking wise questions is a different issue and asking question in a wise way is different. Most of the times, I see no efforts being taken into asking questions. It's just common sense and nothing in this world can teach you. When we had opened a thread to collect questions for the 'Creator of C++ programming language', we got at least 10 questions which were asking for 'sir, tell me about project ideas' or 'sir tell me about relays'. Give me a break! You're asking questions to the creator of C++ programming language and not to your lecturer!

    Such question piss me off. I don't think I've ever commented sarcastically on anyone's below-average English skills; because I'm not confident about my own English skills as well. What I've always stressed on is that people shouldn't be lazy in typing and that's why I'm sometimes very hard on those who use sms lingo or do not format their posts properly.
  • Jeffrey Arulraj
    Jeffrey Arulraj
    yup The issue pointed By #-Link-Snipped-# is really a matter of concern

    the post like them reduce the image of any tech discussion people who go through the title are more anxious of getting some thing different find a lot of crap in the post and turn their faces in disgust
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Yes, this site has suffered a lot (I repeat, a LOT) because of poorly typed questions, titles and the way of asking questions. I've seen lot of talented people depart from the site because they did not receive a simple 'thank you' in return.

    My biggest fear / concern is to see our most talented and regular contributors go away because of this; but it really feels great to see our most active and regular members continue to be a part of CE through its ups and downs.
  • Jeffrey Arulraj
    Jeffrey Arulraj
    In any initiative there are stumblers and rumblers which are to be crossed

    sme times the rumblers like this are really hard to pass on with out noticing
  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    bioramani
    I did not think that it was a typo. I took it at face value. A worldly wise person asking a 'bad' question may invite a sarcastic response, while a badly worded genuine question does deserve a reasoned response.
    But questions arise from 2-way communication
  • sauravgoswami
    sauravgoswami
    I am many a times amused when poeple think from ONLY there point of view,we all have asked bad questions right from elderdy once to toddlers and continue to do so, a sarcastic comment or judging someone when not needed is sign of pessimistic or superior complex.Which will never earn a respect as well as admiration.
    There's always an alternative,if you find my question bad I also find your c=reply to me equally bad.
  • Jeffrey Arulraj
    Jeffrey Arulraj
    Some times their point of view be the solution to your problem but the way they express it is more significant
  • pratap singh, upendra
    pratap singh, upendra
    see every individual present on earth is unique with characteristic thinking capabilities and if that fellow asks something that appears a bad question to you it might not be the same case with the fellow seeking the answer. Maybe he has thought the subject from different prospective or he remained innocent to the material. So if such a question comes up and if you in authority to answer a question you should always see it as a question; you must not classify it as a good question or a bad question.

    It might be the case that what you consider to be a bad question actually emerges as a superscale technology in the near future. So try to remain patient enough to listen to the question, and then use logical reasoning to deal with it. You would definitely find this answering beficial...

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