Taking the OP at face value, maybe I should have titled it “In some cases, partially right is totally wrong”, because that would better fit what I am talking about.
I’m sorry, I thought the title of this thread was “Partilly right is totally wrong.”
I provided an example where I gave very specific “facts” as I remembered them. The answer was partially right based on the “facts.” As it turns out the answer was not totally wrong, but was instead totally correct. Turns out my “facts” were close enough that the first (non joke) answer was correct even though it did not match several of the “facts” that I provided.
As far as “Is it right for people to correct me when I don’t know jack shit?”… that is my assumption in the majority of the threads… which is why we provide answers that may be only partially correct.
ETA… your post above wasn’t there when I started typing. If it would have been titled that it would have been correct and we wouldn’t be on page 2 now… and how much fun would that have been?
The problem is, we can’t know if your memory was incorrect before we show it to be incorrect. In White SIFL’s example, how would someone know that his memory of the comedian being “a big guy with wispy blonde hair” was incorrect before someone gave the correct answer? If no one had posted unless they had an answer that fulfilled all the criteria, the question would never have been answered.
I believe that in your post you said
It might still be possible that you did have all your facts correct, there is a movie out there the even better fits your description, and that Justin_Bailey didn’t give you what you were looking for. We don’t know for sure until you confirm it by watching at least partially.
Well, it seems the OP is partially right, which by his own standard, makes him totally wrong.
You know who else was totally wrong?
In my first example, where a person of a certain height, certain hair color and certain profession was asked for, the hypothetical answer given was for someone with red hair. Now, if my memory is so faulty that I am mistaken as to his general height and job description, then there’s a good chance that I got the hair color wrong too, leaving us where, exactly?
Hitler?
With no answer, which is exactly where you are if no one replies at all.
Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982. Except he’s Navy, not Air Force.
Or maybe you were thinking of Flashdance 1983, except it’s dancing, not flying jets, nobody is literally swept of their feet, leotard instead of uniform, not that tall, and he’s a she. But the date’s about right.
I hope that’s helpful.
So one’s first assumption is that the person asking the question doesn’t know what she/he really wants, making any answer acceptable? I have already stated that proposing that some elements of the question might be in error would be alright. Is giving any answer better than giving no answer at all, or does it encourage others to do the same thing?
No, too short. Guy I’m thinking of is tall with a little tiny mustache on his upper lip.
What makes you think it hasn’t been sought out? Would it appease you if people instead started their posts by saying “Hm, I can’t think of anything that’s an exact match. But how about…”?
Hah… this is hilarious… that is actually the movie with the scene I was thinking of, but I thought it was Top Gun. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of either and haven’t seen them since they originally aired.
Just shows that “close guesses” are in fact helpful.
Yeah, An Officer and a Gentleman is clearly the right answer as it ends the way you describe with the full dress uniform and the carrying out. But every other detail matches both films.
I think it’s accepting the possibility that memory is faulty at times and if you have an answer that’s close it’s worth shot. It’s not assuming the person “doesn’t know what he really wants”, but including the possibility the person might be a bit wrong in some detail and if the your answer is wrong, no harm, no foul.
ETA: Of course, if the person is offering an answer in which the majority of the events don’t fit or are waaaay of base, that is a different issue. I think the appropriateness of the slightly wrong answer is found in the degree of “wrongness”.
Well, I think people ought to give the best answer they can think of, not just any answer. What constitutes a “best” answer is going to vary according to the abilities of the person answering the question, of course, but even a poor answer can help spark additional memories about the original subject, inspire interesting side discussions, or at the very least keep the thread alive a little bit longer, increasing the chances that a person who has the correct answer will see it. The example you posited in your OP is hard to defend, but then, you also went out of your way to construct the worst possible example of this kind of response. If you only want to argue from your hyperbole, that’s up to you, but I don’t think very useful discussions come when you only argue from the extremes.
I thought you might have intentionally put in a false clue (Air Force instead of Navy) to conflate Top Gun and Officer and a Gentleman, so as to provide a subtle counterexample to Czarcasm’s hypothetical. The fact that you did so accidentally is an even better example that Czarcasm’s assumption – questioners know exactly what they are looking for – is faulty.
So the correct answer to your query would have been that there is no such film. But that wouldn’t have been a helpful answer. *An Officer and a Gentleman * is the answer you were looking for, even if it wasn’t the answer to the question you actually asked.
Except the Air Force/Navy thing, and the fact that Tom Cruise is not tall: 5’ 7". (Although, as it happens, Gere is only average, at 5’ 10".)
Similar example from a couple days ago, looking for a babyfaced actor who plays big tough bad guys, non-major roles.
One of the clarifications in post #3 after rejecting a suggestion is that he has “kind of a perfect circle face.”
The answer? An extremely long/oval-faced guy.
Whatever their official designation, Top Gun had jets and that means Air Force.