# What were you THINKING? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532 "2023-10-13T19:36:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 390
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8171 "2026-09-18T13:16:48Z")
Yeah. I’ve done user support. The user needs to give a little help. “I did that” is not helpful. “I rebooted the computer” might be helpful. “There’s nothing wrong with the cable” is not helpful. “I think the cable and computer usb port are okay because i unplugged the printer and plugged in a mouse and the mouse worked fine” might be helpful. (And, “hey, i tried doing this and the mouse didn’t work either” is definitely helpful.) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8172 "2026-09-18T13:23:58Z")
I’ve done IT support for years, and I could tell stories. “My printer doesn’t print” or “My internet is down” can mean anything from a loose cable, a burning office up to global thermonuclear war. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8173 "2026-09-18T13:27:03Z")
That’s **usually** how my support requests start. Multiple times a day. 😫 I ask so many questions and sometimes have to keep asking them. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8174 "2026-09-18T13:27:40Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I mean, how else can a Doper demonstrate how highbrow and cultured they are than by posting their disdainful ignorance? Well, there’s… - Virtue signalling - Moral superiority - Fatuous pedantry - Sententious finger wagging To say nothing of condiment snobbery… We’re not just one trick ponies. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8175 "2026-09-18T13:33:01Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > That’s **usually** how my support requests start. Multiple times a day. > > 😫 > > I ask so many questions and sometimes have to keep asking them. That’s why I’m glad I’m retired. I still do some support for family and friends, but fortunately they’re all bright enough to give me significant information. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8176 "2026-09-18T13:42:48Z")
You left out proudly arrogant Luddism. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8177 "2026-09-18T13:59:27Z")
I just want to drive a proper car, not a digital appliance. Get off my back. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8178 "2026-09-18T14:19:28Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > On the slim chance they hadn’t actually heard anything about this, they could have googled his name in the time it took them to brag to everyone how they don’t pay any attention to celebrities. This And then spent considerable time hunting up everything he’s said and done on the subject over the last ten years; in order to make a vote in a non-political thread, which vote would have zero impact on anything. The question wasn’t just about what he said at that specific event. Comments in that thread saying that somebody doesn’t know enough about something to vote, on a wide variety of subjects, are entirely normal. Nobody knows all about everything. If, in that thread, they were to be considered threadshitting, there’d have been hundreds of modnotes all the way through both parts of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8179 "2026-09-18T14:37:17Z")
Yes probably the poll post would have been best served by an option for “Who? What?” - and how many haven’t had the subject on their awareness radar at all would have been of some interest. But seriously, if you don’t know what any poll list or OP is talking about then maybe the question or subject isn’t for you? You don’t need to be the target participant of everything! Just don’t answer. Whining that you are not the target for an OP or a poll is just narcissistic. That so many here are that big of narcissists as baseline is just the way it is though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8180 "2026-09-18T15:03:56Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > “My internet is down” What I hate is when some texts me from work saying “The wifi isn’t working” and then I look like a nitpicky asshole when I call them back and say “The wifi isn’t working or the _internet_ isn’t working because those are two different things”, to which they nearly always respond with a panicked “can you just come here and fix it”. And then I drive there just to spend 30 seconds troubleshooting and tell them it’s the internet and it’s an outage and there’s nothing I can do and I could’ve told you that from home if you would’ve just done the most basic of checks (most of our computers are wired so you just need to see if you can google something). It’s one of the many reasons why I love being able to remote into my work network. It makes finding out if the internet is down trivially easy (and I can fix a lot of problems from home). ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8181 "2026-09-18T15:10:05Z")
I didn’t vote in those polls, but would have if “not sure, don’t much care” had been an option. Taking serious issues seriously doesn’t require you to do a deep dive into every silly tabloid controversy. To me, the relevant question to poll would have been “Is it OK for billionaires to have veto power over the free speech rights of artists?” and the correct answer is “hell no”. It’s completely beside the point IMO to argue about whether Macklemore personally is a good or wise person; people at the center of free speech controversies often are not. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8182 "2026-09-18T15:10:17Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Comments in that thread saying that somebody doesn’t know enough about something to vote, on a wide variety of subjects, are entirely normal. There’s a difference between “I don’t know about that topic” and “I don’t care about that topic.” And the latter comes across as even worse when it’s a heavy topic that is very important to a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8183 "2026-09-18T15:47:28Z")
The SDMB board is about fighting ignorance. If someone doesn’t know about something, the correct response is to teach them about it. It’s silly to complain that another poster is too lazy to look up something while we are too lazy to just tell them. Actually fight the ignorance instead of griping about it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8184 "2026-09-18T15:53:33Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Not when it’s phrased as some “Mackle-who?” snark. That is a pet peeve of mine. Like you’re proud that you never heard of a famous person? Or you’re discounting their opinion because they aren’t famous enough for you? It’s weak af. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8185 "2026-09-18T15:54:43Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > It’s silly to complain that another poster is too lazy to look up something while we are too lazy to just tell them. And yet we’ve had multiple threads about whether or not people should spend the extra few seconds explaining what an acronym means before using it. I’m always surprised when people come right out and say that the reader should go look it up on their own (and IIRC some posters even went further to say that if you don’t know what it means, you shouldn’t be participating in the thread). ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8186 "2026-09-18T16:13:33Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > up to global thermonuclear war. “Have you tried switching the world off and then back on?” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8187 "2026-09-18T16:23:23Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > The SDMB board is about fighting ignorance. If someone doesn’t know about something, the correct response is to teach them about it. It’s silly to complain that another poster is too lazy to look up something while we are too lazy to just tell them. > > Actually fight the ignorance instead of griping about it. Posters who reply “Mackle-who?” have _zero_ interest in actually learning who that is. It’s simply a dismissive way for them to pretend they are so much better than the common people who know such silly things like the names of celebrities. They think their ignorance is a virtue, not something they want fought. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8188 "2026-09-18T16:25:14Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > It’s silly to complain that another poster is too lazy to look up something while we are too lazy to just tell them. As with so many things, it depends. I’m not going to type out a page of stuff for them to probably not read, but I am often willing to provide an explanatory link (which whey will also probably not read). Or if a sentence or two will do the job, I’ll do that. I think the folks who think that that poll should not have been in that thread are right. There is too much to unpack for anyone who isn’t familiar with it. And just incidentally, I still have no real idea who Macklemore is but I have heard of Ed Sheeran and the controversy about one of his opening acts being canceled and the other opening acts dropping out in sympathy or anger. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8189 "2026-09-18T16:26:11Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Posters who reply “Mackle-who?” have _zero_ interest in actually learning who that is. Yep. And, still it’s better for us to supply knowledge instead of lowering ourselves to snarking. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532/8190 "2026-09-18T16:26:12Z")
I’m actually impressed they somehow never heard Thrift Shop. Man, that song was everywhere! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=389) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-you-thinking/991532.md?page=391)