If You Don’t Have Something Helpful to Say...

... then please don't offer any “help.”

I don’t know about you (seems like I say that a lot, doesn’t it?) but I spend what seems like a significant amount of time “googling” for technical information. I work with a lot of Free and Open Source Software, which means a lot of the support is “community support” – i.e., you get your support from other users and historical postings in technical forums.

I just love (meaning “hate”) running into things like this.

I have substituted {translations} in place of the technical details, because this situation is far from unique.

First Guy:

I want to {set up a system a certain way} and I am wondering if {this particular thing goes wrong, later}... {this bad thing occur}?

Simple. Answering the question.

Second Guy (responding to First Guy):

“I don’t see why you would want to {do what was asked above}… Why not just {do this obvious thing which incidentally is completely the opposite and will not accomplish what you want, which I assume you are too stupid to realize} because {my idea is a better idea.} Your choice...”

Jerk. Why? Why!? Why does this guy think this message is worth posting?

The answer to the question, of course, is “yes, if {thing goes wrong}, then {result you predict is correct}.” Optionally, if the respondent really felt the need, he could have offered constructive alternatives... of course, the {opposite thing} he proffered was in no way helpful, because, as I mentioned, it was truly the opposite thing, and was obviously what First Guy wanted to avoid.

Is Second Guy a know-it-all, a second-guesser, an arrogant egomaniac...?

That those are the words that come to mind.

It wasn’t helpful to First Guy, and it wasn’t helpful to me (although my question was different, anyway, and not addressed in this particular thread).

This kind of crap clutters the forum with irritation and nonsense. Clearly, First Guy had some reason for considering his alternatives, other than to be told his idea was stupid, would you not assume?

Adding injury to insult, (yes, that’s backwards, but also apropos), you’ll notice that Second Guy didn’t even bother answer the first guy’s question!

Insulting First Guy, and wasting my time.

I have a migraine. Srsly. Maybe that’s why I’m so chipper about this whole thing.