Not a complaint about the moderation or rules or anything else, but a comment about a type of post that I don’t find helpful.
Sometimes a poster posts a question in which a potential answer or possible answers are suggested in the OP. The purpose of the question is to find some basis for supporting one or another answer, or providing a third answer if such might exist. It does not add anything for a poster to simply declare an answer that’s already been suggested to be true.
For example, suppose the OP is “why does such-and-such happen? I’m thinking it could be A or B.” Appropriate answers, which add value, include:
[ul]
[li]Here’s a reason for thinking it’s A.[/li][li]Here’s a cite/evidence which suggests/proves that it’s A.[/li][li]I am an expert and/or have experience in this field and I think it’s A.[/li][li]I think it’s actually C.[/li][/ul]
All of these are positive contributions. By contrast
[ul]
[li]It’s A[/li][/ul]
Is not much of a contribution at all. (Although it does bump the thread, I’ll give it that.)
Signal to noise is actually pretty good here relative to the remainder of the internet, but yes, a lot of posts are pretty empty. When I launch a thread I cheer myself up by noting that hijacks et al keep the thread alive.
Kudos to Fotheringay-Phipps for considering the other side in the OP (i.e. bumping). I second the call for more examples. I’ll note that the OP provides a variant of this general principle: Unsubstantiated claims, whether true or false, are almost entirely useless. Information is typically actionable only if it’s reliable and it’s reliable only if its validity can be established.
It’s true a blind assertion that one of the list is the correct answer without any explanation is not really helpful. Better answers provide either a rationale or a statement of the source for that answer (i.e. a cite).
So what are you suggesting? Are you just trying to bring this issue to light and make the point, so hopefully other posters will take it into consideration and try harder? Or do you expect someone to do something official about it?
I don’t want to get bogged down in discussing specifics of individual posts, and I’m certainly not trying to attack any other posters over this. But the first response to this thread would probably qualify as an example.
I don’t think that example fits. What hajario said is the same thing even sven said, just much more concisely. The issue is not spousal support, it is splitting marital assets. Though there is a larger issue that hajario didn’t address, he did answer the question and not just restate one of the options in the OP.
I’m sure there are examples of what you mean. I don’t think that really is one.