I actually went and skimmed over a bunch of threads he’s created and he definitely isn’t that kind of poster. The vast majority of his threads are in GQ and he’s often careful to thank people who post answers in them.
Most of his GQ questions are very specific (honestly, many would be better suited to more focused forums rather than a general knowledge board like ours), and so only got a few replies. So - two factors: staying almost entirely in GQ and almost exclusively starting “one and done” question and answer threads, which tend to have less snark than longer discussions.
I think Ficer67 should come back and keep asking questions - he just needs to remember that he’s going to occasionally catch some good-natured smart-assery from time to time: even in GQ.
Despite the high level of snark (which AFAICT has always been present in GQ) I think sensitive issues normally are discussed sensitively. If someone were to ask, for example, “How much does it cost for* in vitro* fertilization?” anyone who came in with a smart-ass answer would be rightfully hooted out of the thread, and perhaps right off the board.
It’s the legitimate but not earth-shatteringly serious questions that are snark bait. Unfortunately for** Ficer67** that’s exactly the category “ways to deal with a PDF” falls into.
Yeah, that’s true. It’s been stated before that misogynistic replies and other answers of that sort won’t be tolerated and will be dealt with by the mods.
Me too, for quite a few years. And that was absolutely *not *the answer I would have given. I don’t understand how it could come across as anything other than sarcastic and condescending.
It may be that you could have phrased the same answer, in substance, in such a way that it didn’t come across that way. Or that your organization is a bit looser than my employer.
As was mentioned up there, wiseneimer remarks are part of the charm of this place.
Was how many books from the Straight Dope columns you have read? Are you familiar with the newspaper column itself or who Cecil Adam’s is?
The much beloved MAD magazine used to have an ongoing series articles called " snappy answers to stupid questions" . It predates The Straight Dope by decades.
If you are fond of that kind of humor than you have found a home.
If you are irritated by it you might want to veer over to reddit !
The participants thought the remark was too stupid to report. They handled it themselves.
What I want to know is why someone who’s been on the board since 2002 apparently doesn’t know what it’s like and how it works but blows up suddenly. Whatever.
Oh no. That doesn’t prevent people from doing that. You can explicitly state something like I did, and you’ll still get responses suggesting you do what you have already rejected.
There are lots of posters who give stupid advice or opinions. Right now in GQ, there’s a thread about Chinese using English names which is filled with irrelevant personal anecdotes and bad speculation. If the OP were to take it personally he would be throwing his computer out the window by now.
You just need to have thicker skin. Considering the other thread started by this OP, it seems they have a pretty thin skin in general.
I think I’ll break ranks here and say I prefer not to see the kind of first response that the PDF thread received.
(assuming there is no back story from other threads…a dangerous assumption to make at times)
It was a mildly funny workaround given with a bit of a condescending tone that didn’t actually tell the OP anything new.
The response didn’t say any form of “unfortunately there is no way to do that” or “it is difficult because of X, Y, and Z”. Rather it was just a funny post for the sake of being clever. It is certain the OP already knew this workaround.
But I freely admit that I am more conservative than most when it comes to the “keep the first response straight” guideline.
The thing is that we don’t know what the OP knows. Sometimes the obvious solution hasn’t occurred to them or they forgot. Unless the OP tells us what they have tried, we are likely to suggest something “obvious” like that.
Nothing wrong with suggesting something obvious. That wasn’t my point.
I don’t read the first response to that thread as an honest helpful response–it’s more of a joke post. That’s just my opinion, and as I alluded to I realize many feel this kind of snark is part of the culture here and enjoy it.
I really didn’t read it as a joke post. It seemed an entirely sincere suggestion. I really don’t see how the OP and others thought there was snark there.
Now, I did initially read it as a joke post, hence my lamenting joke answers in GQ. I’ve since been shown that it was most likely a legit answer, of a sort anyway, and that rather disarms my criticism. But it does strike me as an ‘answer lite’.
