Do you answer questions on Fluther just to rain on the parade so to speak?

I never rain on someone’s parade for kicks.
But if I think the question warrants it,
I will bust out my best rain-dancing moves.

Was this inspired by my answer to this question?
I hope not. I certainly did not intend to rain on their parade.

@Nimis Haha, no definitely not that, it’s not me personally, its from a lot of other questions I’ve read.

Gadzooks, I feel every answer should be made in the spirit of the intent the OP asked it. However, that doesn’t happen as often as it should. The answer need not be smart-alecky to rain on the parade, it can be one that tried to debunk the question or the premise of the question, nit pick the grammar, or spelling, but not attempt to answer the question. It is like going into a restaurant not to eat but to complain about the music, the table settings, the actions of the wait staff, etc and not there to order any food. If people really do not care or believe in the question they should do as I do and pass it up as to not muddy the question and hijack it to some debate that wasn’t even the question. I can’t count how many questions I read over, decided I had nothing I could ask in the spirit of the question so I passed them up. It isn’t that hard.

What sort of a question is this? Is this what Fluther is made for? These kinda questions? Damn it all to heck! This has to be one of my least favourite questions. Hey everyone lets talk about our least favourite questions. ~

To answer your question, no.

No. I don’t try to rain on anyone’s parade. But, sometimes I do leave a one word answer. I don’t think those answers change the direction of the thread. The “smart” answers or very sarcastic ones sometimes are annoying because they don’t add anything, is that what you are talking about? Sometimes they are a little funny. If it changes the direction of the Q that is the fault of the other participants as well as the smart ass. Why gice that spoiler so much power?

On the contrary, I answer a majority of the questions I do on Fluther because I honestly believe I have something constructive and meaningful to offer. There are some questions now and again that are begging for humor and sarcasm and even those I can’t resist now and again but I will never intentionally ’rain on someone’s parade’ or submit responses that might derail a question or ruin the tone of the conversation.

I prefer the term “pissing on their happy fire”, and I’ve been known to do it occasionally, when it seems the question warrants that sort of response. :P

No, I don’t.

Wait, does that count? :P

Actual humor seems to be in short supply here. I do what I can in the spirit of… well, whatever seems to be called for. Better carry an umbrella.

If I have, it was unintended. I favor more trombones and less rain for the parades.

@CWOTUS you can stand under my umbrella…

ella
ella…..

@harple lol4rl

@dreamwolf Phew.

Nope.

No.It takes too much energy. I do sometimes suggest that a question may be murky, unclear, confused, or slanted towards an unsaid expectation, and occasionally the misuse of “it’s“vs.“its” sends me into an irrational frenzy.

No, I don’t think I have ever done that. I am more likely to ignore the question. I have participated in taking threads off course on occasion.

I hope not. It wouldn’t be intentional.

An ongoing topic, this.

I, just cant, imaggine why misuse of apostrophe’s, and such send’s @gailcalled into an irrational frenzy. It seems perfectly rational too me.

Nah, I just answer with what I think is appropriate. If that happens to spoil others’ fun, that sucks, but what’ll you do?

I don’t come on here to piss on people’s parades. I do admit, sometimes my comments are just crass and lame, but at the time I’m pretty sure I thought I was being funny or something.
But no, pissing off folks is never my intent when I answer something.

I figure people are smart enough to understand the different categories of questions here. If they don’t want little jokes, they can put it in General. If they put it in Social, it’s ok to make a joke response.

I don’t believe the question belongs to the asker. It belongs to all of us. So when people derail my questions, I don’t complain. I may ask them to redirect towards why I wanted to know, but I realize people have their own agendas, and that some of them really don’t give a shit about the reason I ask a question. They just want to talk about what they want to talk about.

I’m cool with that. I figure most people are smart enough to see what’s going on. In any case, it’s just a question. It’s not that important in the larger scheme of things and usually these types of things come from people who have already spent a lot of time trying to earn my disrespect. Sue me for obliging them.

Even though there are kids here, I still think this is a playground for big boys and girls. If we want to play here, that means we think we can handle the high hard ones (baseball metaphor). If you can’t dance to the chin music (another baseball metaphor), then maybe you should head off to the baby pool (swimming metaphor), or cricket pitch (archery metaphor).

If the short, witty reply is accurate…what’s the problem?

@Blackberry I don’t mind that they are short, witty or accurate. I feel like some people do aim for that kind of answer only, and sometimes it comes off on the short end of the stick quality wise. I also feel like people do aim for the short, witty answer just for the sake of points when really a good question in my opinion can be thought provoking. I’m pretty sure there are tons just clicking on every question looking to be cool. There’s nothing wrong with cool, but I’d really hope a place like Fluther is more a qualitative state of forum other than cool, other wise I would’ve just joined Yahoo.

@dreamwolf Sometimes those answers are all that need to be said. You can ask thought provoking questions, but you also have to use tact and not use blatant, stereotypical and generalizing attacks as well.

Not everyone is going to treat every question like it hasn’t been thought about and talked to death. If someone gives an answer you’re not fulfilled with, ask more questions and they’ll explain more.

@Blackberry I just remember this one person who joined Fluther and just spammed around. Throwing what he thought was short witty and accurate in his mind. It got annoying, I’m pretty sure he was kicked off because of how erratic it was. My problem with short witty accurate answers is sometimes they are not backed by facts, on the contrary I do enjoy them when they’re thrown off the boat and actually hit the water.

@dreamwolf At the end of the day, it’s still just a website on a computer. There are so many other things to be annoyed about.

@Blackberry It is the internet, but I do go to sites that I enjoy that’s all I’m saying. It’s not like annoying where it ruins my life just annoying to have witnessed.

@dreamwolf We’re all going to see some things in life that are annoying to witness. Still, at the end of the day, it takes literally a second to read a witty sentence and move on. Literally, a second.

No, I always try to be helpful. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what the OP is looking for and ask for clarifying information. Sometimes that inadvertently rains on the parade of the OP, I suspect, but sometimes we just can’t give a good, thoughtful answer if we only have some of the information. There’s been times when the OP has given me a snarky reply to one of my very long, well thought out, thoughtful comments. Sometimes I get the feeling that people only ask questions to get this answer, “Yes you are right, keep doing the exact same thing you’ve done and everything will be A-OK” Unfortunately the real world does not work that way. People often have to change the way they’ve done things in the past, or make the hard choice to simply stop participating in a particular unhelpful activity, even though it breaks their heart to do that. Some people get really angry when you show them proof that what they’ve been doing is not useful or inherently incorrect, and can be downright harmful to them. Those people hurt my heart : (

@Blackberry I’d rather much not be involved in a community where everyone aims at witty, short accurate answers. Other wise I’d go to hipster parties every weekend here in Downtown San Diego to discuss politics.

@dreamwolf If you don’t want witty, short and as you put it correct answers, what do you want? Long winded, dull, incorrect answers?

Everybody on Fluther has a style, of how they write. Me and @Wundyatta can write very long involved answers, some of it witty, most of it accurate, and all of it heartfelt. It’s the only way we know how to be helpful. Other Jellies can say almost the exact same thing in a very succint sentence. In the end, giving a good helpful answer is the most important thing, IMO, no matter what the size of the package.

And one can write witty responses, short responses and accurate responses. They do not necessarily come in one neat package.

@dreamwolf, as one of the wordier Jellies, I have to agree with @Blackberry (and @gailcalled and @Kardamom) – sometimes less is more. As long as the short answer makes a contribution to the discussion, why is it not enough? Sometimes a simple ‘No’ is all that needs to be said.

On this site, I don’t think I ever do that. On Askville, I used to do it on a regular basis after they changed the site so drastically that all of the good conversations died out. After seeing the same 3 questions over and over (am I pregnant? Who is the father? What is the answer to my homework question?) I got really sick of it and just heckled the people who asked these asinine questions. I also resented the terrible spelling, grammar and ALLCAPS that turned the site into a sinkhole of suck. Why should I answer someone’s question seriously if they didn’t take the time to at least try to put some thought into what they wrote?

On this site, there are minimum standards allowable for a question to stay posted here. If a question doesn’t cut it, it gets culled. If someone’s question has passed muster here, I try to put as much thought into the answer as the asker put into it.

I kinda miss heckling, sometimes though. But I’ve got better things to do with my time these days.

@Kardamom ok

Never! With all the milestone parties, I would never leave the cake out in the rain.

There are the odd times, like right now, where I want to because a question leaves me so incredulous…. but I just try to breath, remember it’s “only” a website, and that I don’t have to answer those questions… then I go make a cuppa. Tea anyone?

EDIT – also, who the hell am I to be incredulous at someone else’s question! ‘Tis a free country…

@harple; Off to brew a pot, myself.

@harple I guess that’s just human nature ;P

@harple I do it with my friends all the time, and we always exchange blows at eachothers logic, but of course on the web, we try to be as curtious i guess since were not in personal relationships with others on the web, but i’d say there is a form of relationship amongst other fluther’ers and some people may or may not realize it, that this is a community and i asked the question because some of us really enjoy this place and its interesting to know the intentions of some people here :)

Hits myself over the head with my editing program.

unless the question really calls for it, then not usually. . .

No. I don’t like people like that. I try not to derail peoples’ questions, though I’ve been accused of it once or twice by being friendly and “chattty.”