People who ask easily answered questions in the forums

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knighttour2

Part question, part rant: why do people ask questions in the forums when the answers could easily be found elsewhere?  Things like: how does en passant work? How does the 50 move rule work? etc.

I see questions like this pretty regularly in the forums.  The weird thing is, the answers to questions like these can easily be found online, using google, wikipedia, or chess.com's tutorials.  It makes no sense for people to ask these questions when the answers are easily available elsewhere.  The obvious answer is "the people asking are lazy", but that doesn't really make sense.  It's much easier to do a quick search and find the answer rather than post in the forum, check back regularly, determine which answers are correct, deal with trolls/insults, etc.  Plus the answers may be wrong or contradictory, leaving the OP with no real answer.  It may just be that some people are stupid, but I'm hoping for something a little more satisfying.

 

kindaspongey

People like to interact with each other.

Lone_Bird960

Some people would like to see funny answers to their easy questions.

Ninjakiwi17

People usually don't ask about the en passant rule, most people think their opponent is cheating

ilikewindmills
Everyone is cheating
blueemu
knighttour2 wrote:

Part question, part rant: why do people ask questions in the forums when the answers could easily be found elsewhere?  Things like: how does en passant work? How does the 50 move rule work? etc.

 

Why complain? Questions like that give you a chance to flaunt your deep understanding of the game, and also offer you somebody to feel superior to. It's win-win!

jonesmikechess

Since you did the same thing, ask yourself.

Prachi8101

so that their thread becomes popular.

Furosemide
Ninjakiwi17 wrote:

People usually don't ask about the en passant rule, most people think their opponent is cheating

I smiled at that. 

DrSpudnik

It seems stupidity is rampant.

There is no known cure.

SAGM001

Yes , No cure 

Ziggy_Zugzwang

I'm thinking of posting on what the etiquette is with regard to rematches..

shawn53

guys  when i am playing live chess sometimes it is saying another login has been detected.its very irritating.does anyone have any idea why it is happening??

BronsteinPawn

It has been demonstrated that spending 5 minutes or more per day at bagofnails.com will increase your level of stupidity by 5%.

llama
knighttour2 wrote:

why do people ask [trivial] questions in the forums

 

It's one of the keys to making a successful troll topic, the other being to make the topic controversial.

If they leave out the controversial part, then I'd say they're attention seekers, but aren't very good at it yet.

See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality

If you additionally make use of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

You can get titles like:

"Proof that Bobby Fischer was the best homosexual chess player?"

and perhaps generate 100 posts in 24 hours.

---

Edit:
Here's a good example
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/is-an-en-passant-capture-unsportsmanlike

macer75
Telestu wrote:
knighttour2 wrote:

why do people ask [trivial] questions in the forums

 

It's one of the keys to making a successful troll topic, the other being to make the topic controversial.

If they leave out the controversial part, then I'd say they're attention seekers, but aren't very good at it yet.

See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_triviality

If you additionally make use of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

You can get titles like:

"Proof that Bobby Fischer was the best homosexual chess player?"

and perhaps generate 100 posts in 24 hours.

---

Edit:
Here's a good example
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/is-an-en-passant-capture-unsportsmanlike

I doubt that's the same thing the OP is talking about. It sounds like he's referring to threads like "When does the World Rapid Championship start?" which aren't in any way meant to be controversial, but which can be easily answered with an online search.

llama
macer75 wrote:

I doubt that's the same thing the OP is talking about. It sounds like he's referring to threads like "When does the World Rapid Championship start?" which aren't in any way meant to be controversial, but which can be easily answered with an online search.

That's what I mean though, when they aren't controversial they're not really trolls, but they do want attention.

knighttour2

Macer: correct.  That's exactly what I'm asking about.  It makes no sense to ask such a question in the forums.  I'm not asking about trolls or topics that getting brought up again and again (like rematch etiquette, when to resign, etc) but questions with definitive answers that can easily be found elsewhere 

llama

I think these guys nailed it

kindaspongey wrote:

People like to interact with each other.

 

kaynight wrote:

They are lonely.

 

 

knighttour2

Telestu: I don't think these people are trolls or want attention.  I can sort of understand trolls trying to make people mad or ask stupid questions, but when people ask about the 50 move rule and get directed to the wikipedia page it doesn't seems to meet the wants of a troll