Over the years I have noticed a pattern to the responses to questions in the General Questions forum, which is chartered for discussion of questions with factual answers. Answers seem to fall into these categories:
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Hijack. A hijack is when someone goes off on a tangent unaccetapbly far removed from the point of the original post. Sometimes the hijacker attempts to get away with this by humorously identifying his post as a hijack. The social acceptability of the hijack depends on how far off topic it goes. For example, if someone asks about the shelf life of yogurt, and another poster says, “Yeah, and what about buttermilk?”, it is probably tolerable. However, if a hijacker says, “Yeah, and why is Dannon’s stock price up today?”, it is definitely a hijack.
WAG (wild-assed guess). The poster has no idea what the answer is but since he called up the thread he figured he might as well post something. The poster admits it’s a WAG.
Air of Authority. This is very similar to a WAG but the poster does not explicitly say it’s a WAG, and allows the reader to mistakenly assume that the poster might actually be knowledgable in the area.
IANAx. “I am not a ______” (usually L for Lawyer). The poster is providing a response based in some personal experience or study, but is not sufficiently expert so as to represent the response as authoritative fact. Caveat emptor.
Genuine Authority. Someone with genuine expertise in the area responds with the indisputable truth, which often contradicts the WAG, Air of Authority, and IANAx posts. Too uncommon, IMHO.
The Googler. The poster didn’t really know the answer and might not even understand it but is good enough with search engines to find definitive answers on the Internet and provide links.
The Cecil Adams Fan. This poster simply puts a link to a Straight Dope column that answers the question, generally referring to “The Master” in hushed tones.
"What He Said." The poster agrees with a prior post but adds no further information.
Simulpost. Two or more posters provide a similar response in a time frame so short that neither one realized the other was posting.
The Flame. Criticism of the OP for a naive, poorly worded, or inappropriate question, or just for no reason at all. Also less than civil criticism of other posters.
The Joker. Provides a humorous answer to the OP, or possibly a snappy comeback to the subject line, or sometimes a link to something humorous. Usually includes a smiley in case we didn’t realize it’s a joke.