Going forward on Fluther, is ridicule an acceptable response to a loaded question?

Generally not. If it’s truly a loaded question, flag it as ‘flame-bait’.

Auggie has spoken; nevertheless, it has been done successfully.

I might, if it’s in social, and I can figure out how to do it without it being an attack on the OP. But I’m not a nice person. ;)

Not if the question is posed in General.

Even in general, loaded questions are so stupid. Excuse my noob-ness…is augustlan the dad of the website?

@augustlan is the Community Manager.

Loaded questions are pretty subjective – I rarely see anything where the loaded nature can’t be ignored.

I just assume that the OP doesn’t have any intent until that intent is obvious, and respond accordingly. If the question promotes discussion, who cares if it was loaded?

I can’t believe anyone hasn’t said what a one-sided, flame-baiting piece of toad crud this question is.

…is augustlan the dad of the website?

She’s the mom.

Loaded questions for me are cat-nip and I can’t help myself when they show up. One of the reasons I like Fluther is apparently I am not alone in this tendency and IMO we need more loaded questions!!!

I am with @Cruiser on this one. In the end, it kind of goes to my free speech beliefs. When a bad idea is put out into the market – and truly loaded questions are often based on someone’s assumption about the answer, and often, therefore, lopsided – we get to judge them and respond to the issues with them.

Hopefully, we get to show anyone who might have believed the rhetoric in a loaded question, even if not the OP, at least to think from a different side.

Loaded questions fire blanks. Or not, i’m not sure….

Generally, if you respond in kind to this kind of question in the ‘General’ section, no matter how stupid, one-sided, loaded or illogical, or in any way that the OP can make a case for ‘unhelpful’ and flag to a Mod, then it’ll be pulled. (Sometimes those responses are pulled without a flag even being applied—I lose some of my best quips that way.)

However, if you’re subtle I’m learning tons about subtlety then you can sandwich such a response between slices of ‘what the OP expects’, and it’ll survive a challenge, and maybe not even be challenged at all. And if it’s in Social, then nearly anything short of personal attacks is tolerated.

Read the Guidelines and tell me if there’s anything good in there.

And don’t piss off the mods, or you’ll be toast. Don’t ask how I know.

This answer of mine received 17 GAs so I think it can be done:

“I seem to need only one answer today so I’ll use it again: Questions like this are so loaded with false assumptions that they don’t deserve serious debate.”

@janbb But that was in Social.

@bob_ – That doesn’t preclude them from being subject to serious debate. And since the topic was political/legal/religious, it would tend to lean towards serious debate.

The only difference is that had it been in General, @janbb probably would have been modded (properly so, though you know I got nothing but love for ya, @janbb).

@bob_ @iamthemob True dat, although I think it is a valid response to a “loaded” debate question even in General. However, I do accept modation when it is deemed necessary.

Totally valid – though perhaps “unhelpful” ;-).

PS – I haven’t seen the word “modation” before. If it’s a new creation – nice neologizing!

@iamthemob Well, no, but, um… you’re kind of making my argument for me :P

@bob_ – Dammit. You are correct. Friggin hate it when that happens.

@iamthemob A small invention, but mine own.

@janbb Is it a coincidence that it rhymes with damnation?

I don’t know, let’s see…you try it and we’ll flag it

@bob_ You said that, not me.

modation is the type of damnation I find both valid and acceptable

I’ve submitted the suggestion.

as @CyanoticWasp said, subtlety is the key. Or even not so subtle, as long as you put in enough serous response to outweigh the jokes.

However, if you have knives to deploy, it’s pretty easy to carve up a loaded question by pointing out all the places where it is misleading and/or fraudulent (good words to use when you don’t want to call someone a liar).

Now, to make fun, you need to add metaphors. This assumption that all democrats are whores is like assuming that all rocks have IQs of 80 or less. Which would you rather be? A Democrat or a rock? See? Relevent. Not a personal attack, yet absurd and suggestive.

So? Which is it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Could I be any kind of rock?

How about a Democrat who rocks?

@CyanoticWasp any kind, I’m afraid, but hard rock!

In that case, I think I would choose to be basalt. I could be basalt of the earth, which I know @janbb will like. Or you could take me for granite. I would lurve to be lava. It would be beachy to be sandstone. I could never be limestone. I know a lot of lime bastards, and I’m not too much like them.

On the other hand, I’m already pretty well marbled… although people think I have lost a few.

Sedimentary, my dear @CyanoticWasp !

That’s it! I quit! No more fluther for me! This is absolutely pundiculous!

Someone. Please. Pass the smelling salts.

@wundayatta Sounds like you’re between Iraq and a hard place.

Ore I could just tuff it out as a human. I would have to be igneous to survive in that world. Chalk it up to experience. If I couldn’t play fair, then I’d have to gypsum.

Make…it…stop…

No, but I will comment on the fact that it is a loaded question and I have done so in the past. Recently I simply responded with “loaded question” and nothing else to a certain loaded question here and got 3 GA’s for that. If it’s painfully obvious and makes false assumptions and forces you to accept a faulty premise, don’t expect good answers to the question.

You’re really mining the depths, @CW!

This is what we get for asking loded questions.

I knew we could bring @iamthemob down to our level, @janbb.

Shale I continue?

I love it but the other pebbles might object!

On the other hand, what could they do? Stone us?

Of quartz they can’t!

They might scree, but since no one holds a gravel, I don’t give a schist.

@iamthemob You are a diamond in the rough!

@CyanoticWasp Pun wars with an expert in geology? Too hard!

No, just an open window into Wikipedia. You didn’t think I could afford to play fair with you in this type of thing, did you?

Curse you, Skeletor; I’ll get you next time!

Yeah, @CyanoticWasp has it right. It’s not that tuff.

Just chalk it up to ingenuity!

that one isn’t even a pun, is it?

No, but it passed a mineral test of acceptability.

I’m sending you all the doctor bills, you, you…. you’re all guilty of basalt and battery. It’s just not gneiss!

@wundayatta Is the load too heavy for you, my friend?

“One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.” – H. L. Mencken, 1924

Mencken keeps coming up in my life. Strange.

Absolutely. For example when all the Obama assassination questions started to pop up. Why spare Sarah Palin? Would be ridiculous.