Don't you hate rhetorical questions on Fluther?

No, because Fluther’s scope is bigger than just information, obviously. We are a community bouncing ideas off each other and learning about others’ paradigms. If you don’t like rhetorical qs, ask qs that are specific and you’ll get answers too. I don’t see why we can’t have many functions here on Fluther. Besides, what you think is genuine is subjective and others may disagree.

ironyyyyyy

@uberbatman LOL, I know right.

If you don’t want to answer a question you don’t have to.

@Judi Even if it’s a “Question for you”? i thought those were compulsory?

I prefer questions that are genuine or those that want to start a discussion rather than flog a point of view.

edit: I changed my question from, “Don’t you hate it when people ask rhetorical questions on Fluther ” to simply “Don’t you hate rhetorical questions on Fluther”. (Meaning questions posted, of course, not questions that appear in responses.)

I don’t mind them. Some of them are really thought provoking and fun to participate in, others I ignore because I don’t feel like answering them.

@mrentrophy; I delete MOST of those questions!

lol @uberbatman lol!

Good one, but I still appreciate the question.

A lot of Fluther “questions” are really just affirmations, fishing for echoes. Or flamebait. They are less interesting than genuine questions.

Imaginary examples:
“Did you know Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya?”
“Do you understand the healthful properties of broccoli?”
Etc.

Just as much as statements disguised as questions and…aw fuck it, what @uberbatman said.

Thanks for your answers. Irony aside, I really did wonder what people thought of those questions. There are so many fora and blogs where people can go if they want to joust with ideological opponents. A forum is a much better format for that kind of thing. I don’t see the need for it here, and get annoyed when I see those questions taking up space in my feed. But I’m new here, so if that’s part of the prevailing community practice, I guess I’ll just have to put up with it.

Also, this was my first question. I asked it partly to see how questions worked.

I try to approach all the questions as if they were actual attempts to gain a variety of opinions on the subject, mostly for the reasons @Simone_De_Beauvoir already stated. I’ve had questions I’ve posted interpreted with an intent that was completely unintentional – or at least totally subconscious.

The only time I get uppity about it is when the OP hops into the thread to criticize answers that clearly aren’t the ones that he or she was trying to get. Then I’m all like, “Look, if you think you already know the answer…why are you even asking the question?”

I don’t think, @submariner, that questions taking up your feed-space are a huge imposition. I do, however, understand your frustration generally – but I don’t think that it’s a prevailing practice, and if you’re seeing it, you may be reading too much motivation into the OP. Just address the question as is. Should you be proven right in your original assumption, I don’t think you should feel bad about bringing the hammer down, so to speak.

Do you have an example of the kind of rhetorical question that you don’t like?

@lillycoyote Here’s one:

Is Obama leadiing (sic) America to destruction?

Asked by watchman220 (410 points ) October 28th, 2008

“Is Obama leading America into the realm of global leadership? Will we secede our rights as a sovereign nation for the “greater good” of the people of earth?”

@submariner – that doesn’t seem rhetorical at all. It’s severe, but it easily calls for answers from either side. The details regarding sovereignty are designed to prompt a whole lot of good discussion, and in fact any biased nature you could read into the OP’s intention will more than likely motivate a whole lot of people on the “no” side of the spectrum to answer.

What you see as rhetorical may be a necessary, though unfortunate, tactic to get people to notice your question on the internet. I’ve phrased questions in a “Hey! Look at this” manner in order to get more people to respond, and in the details fleshed things out in a more neutral way. It has it’s benefits and drawbacks…but it doesn’t make the question itself or the responses received any less valuable.

Of course it’s rhetorical. It’s rhetorical because the asker is simply stating his position in the form of a question. The fact that people might disagree with his position and debate it doesn’t mean that the question isn’t rhetorical. The asker has already made up his mind on this issue. It is not a genuine question.

In that case it was. But it might not have been. And so what? When we’re talking about bigger discussion question, whether or not the OP has made up his or her mind doesn’t change the fact that people in the discussion might enter with one opinion and leave with another, and those reading might do the same.

As you’ll learn, this site can be as much about the community discussing an issue with the other members and using the OP as a jumping off point as it is getting an answer for the OP. The question you mentioned had 99 posts – the first two of which were “no” responses. So regardless of the intent, there was a discussion where both sides were presented.

I’ll just bring up the irony here again, as that last post makes me think you don’t recognize it. You asked: “Don’t you hate rhetorical questions on fluther?” As a leading question, it is in fact more rhetorical than the example you give…it suggests that the answer should be “Yes.” Your most recent response claims that the asker of the other question has made up his or her mind on the issue and therefore the question is not genuine, so of course it is rhetorical, and of course it’s not a good question. But that statement compounds the irony of your question as it shows that you seem to have already formed your opinion, and that your question is not genuine, and you think people should agree with you and are trying to make a point rather than create a discussion.

Don’t rhetorical answers bug you even more?