# Why, davidmich? Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 29, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856 "2014-08-29T13:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/41 "2014-08-30T17:09:21Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I do not buy the idea that English is not his first language. His name is thoroughly Anglo, and there is nothing actually wrong with his grammar or vocabulary. It is just his “tone” that is odd - inoffensive and even rather endearing, but odd. Assuming that “Mich” happens to be his lastname, how is that “thoroughly Anglo”? And as for David, you do realize it’s a Biblical name and spelled exactly like that in a lot of languages, right? ---
**Author:** ![hansel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6bbea6/32.png) [@hansel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hansel)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/42 "2014-08-30T17:10:42Z")
I think the tone issue twigs some troll sensors because it’s the same very cautious “I just want to hear what you have to say” tone that others use to lay traps. It has an “innocent question” air about it that’s used by trolls sometimes. Offhandedly dropping conservapedia links also feels like a subtle tell. Which is likely our problem, not his, because that tone is also struck by people who actually are acting innocent questions, and we’re primed by years and years of rhetorical maneuvering by trolls and provocateurs trying to stir the shit. I don’t think anything needs to be done about him, or that he needs to be confronted. If he is a troll, we’ll know soon enough. Until then, he actually is spawning good, informative threads in GQ. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/43 "2014-08-30T17:19:44Z")
> [@hansel](#): > > If he is a troll, we’ll know soon enough. Given that he’s been a member since May 2012 and has more than 700 posts, he’s certainly taking his time about it. I’ve never seen the slightest hint that he might be trolling. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/44 "2014-08-30T19:55:19Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Assuming that “Mich” happens to be his lastname, how is that “thoroughly Anglo”? And as for David, you do realize it’s a Biblical name and spelled exactly like that in a lot of languages, right? Plus, Mich could easily be the common contraction for “Michel” in French, as in Place St-Mich, in Paris. Overall, this “pitting” is very weak tea. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/45 "2014-08-30T22:56:04Z")
I reckon he’s doing research for a very long and deeply weird novel he’s writing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. His most recent thread is asking about contact between Imperial Rome and China, a prospect that has never occurred to me before. Maybe he could have found the cites so far presented himself, but it’s an interesting topic to bring up regardless. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/46 "2014-08-30T23:12:09Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I reckon he’s doing research for a very long and deeply weird novel he’s writing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. > > His most recent thread is asking about contact between Imperial Rome and China, a prospect that has never occurred to me before. Maybe he could have found the cites so far presented himself, but it’s an interesting topic to bring up regardless. Maybe he’s helping to edit and coordinate [Chung Kuo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Kuo_(novel_series)#Re-release)’s re-release. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/47 "2014-08-30T23:37:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **david** just posted a question in GQ that leads me to believe he just might be French-speaking. Given [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=731284), that seems unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/48 "2014-08-31T00:41:05Z")
OK, so he’s an illiterate French speaker. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/49 "2014-08-31T03:32:17Z")
I completely disagree with this pitting. He asks a lot of interesting questions and I read most of them because they’re generally questions which have never occurred to me but which intrigue me nevertheless. Ask on, **davidmich**. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/50 "2014-08-31T09:32:31Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I reckon he’s doing research for a very long and deeply weird novel he’s writing, and there’s nothing wrong with that. > > His most recent thread is asking about contact between Imperial Rome and China, a prospect that has never occurred to me before. Maybe he could have found the cites so far presented himself, but it’s an interesting topic to bring up regardless. Well that post is actually an instance of offering context. And some people in this thread must have a truly weird definition of trolling … unless they think it’s remotely possible someone posts hundreds of “ordinary” questions over months and years but don’t actually care about the answers. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/51 "2014-08-31T09:36:23Z")
His questions have always struck me as homework help style. Some of them are interesting, nevertheless, and I (as well as, hopefully, **davidmich** ) tend to learn something from them, so oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/52 "2014-08-31T13:41:15Z")
I think this is a pathetic pitting. How can someone be attacked for asking questions on GQ? And even if something can be found via research, asking on a place like this often uncovers extra detail, interesting viewpoints and insights, and occasionally a questioning of the accepted answer that research would have revealed. Also, his name reminds me of one of my favourite funny guys David Mitchell, so I read davidmich’s posts in David Mitchell’s voice, which I kind of enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/53 "2014-09-01T06:05:54Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > His questions have always struck me as homework help style. Some of them are interesting, nevertheless, and I (as well as, hopefully, **davidmich** ) tend to learn something from them, so oh well. If they are homework help, he must be taking a very wide range of advanced-level courses. I know what you mean though. There is often a naïvety to the questions that is at odds with their often quite specialized subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2014, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/54 "2014-10-06T22:20:21Z")
He’s clearly an extraterrestrial alien, or a robot. No human could be that clueless of all those figures of speech he asks about on a daily basis. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/55 "2014-10-07T02:11:23Z")
I’ve always suspected that he runs an answer column either online or for a newspaper, and we are his unpaid researchers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/56 "2014-10-07T02:38:23Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > He’s clearly an extraterrestrial alien, or a robot. > No human could be that clueless of all those figures of speech he asks about on a daily basis. He’s obviously not a native English speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/57 "2014-10-07T02:48:42Z")
I find myself torn between the “writing a novel”/“unpaid research staff” theories. I am undecided on the native English speaker. I admit to a niggling of annoyance that so many of the questions posed do seem to be things that the Google could answer and I don’t think that I’ve seen any lead to discussion threads. I understand why the the Pit thread was started. I just tend to skip his threads myself. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/58 "2014-10-07T06:02:37Z")
I’m kind of glad someone made this thread. I’ve got nothing against **davidmich** , and the contents of many of his threads have been interesting, but I do get the feeling that he asks out of more than just curiosity, and something - maybe just wholly unjustifiable nosiness - makes me feel he ought to give some context. If he is regularly using GQ for research, full disclosure seems fair. As for his name, maybe it tells us nothing about his location at all, but something about his feelings on Renaissance sculpture. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/59 "2014-10-07T07:14:28Z")
And tiny weenies. Ya know, I just looked at the Wiki for _[David](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo-David_JB01.JPG)_. I don’t know if it’s the angle or what, but his hands seem _really_ large. Especially if you contrast the size of his right hand with his right thigh. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856/60 "2014-10-07T12:01:26Z")
I have absolutely no problem with davidmich posting general questions in General Questions, but he does puzzle me. A load of his threads go like this: Post #1 - davidmich: question. Post #2 (five minutes later) - davidmich: answer. Post #3 (ten minutes later) - someone else: alternative/additional answer. Post #4 (five minutes later) - davidmich: Thanks, both of you! Post #5 - davidmich: more answer. …and so on. It feels like there are half a dozen people using that ID and none of them have noticed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-davidmich-why/696856.md?page=4)