Answer for: Tips for Grupthink Newbies
#5 We Don't Care What You "Don't" Do
If someone asks "What Is Your Favorite Cookie", "I Don't Eat Cookies" is not a valid answer. If you indeed do not eat cookies, please keep it to yourself.
A constructive outlet for all of your "I Don't" needs can be found here:
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/2485
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This should be our company motto.
unless...
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/2485
The path to Grupthink Enlightenment is perilous and fraught with contradictions.
since when doesn't red run?
If someone asks you questions like "Do you always walk backwards or jump on your left leg?", I don't see anything wrong in answering "I don't, I usually walk".
We've gone through this before. It would be like going to a polling center and voting for "Not Bush." It simply doesn't make sense or accomplish what the poll is asking.
Who has such a hard-on to answer a question that they will answer questions they no nothing about/have no participation in. Just move on to the next poll, little man! You'll find something to vote on...
I'm convinced we could make a fortune by running a parallel site that would be the "Automated Argument Machine" site. It's really what many people are all too busy clogging Grupthink with: Foisting their faulty argument strategies on anyone who doesn't want the struggle of dealing with a rabid pollster's daddy and/or virginity issues.
I don't think we even need to have people chat with each other, just automate a few bots that burp out "Bush" or "Christianity" every now and again and to give the hacks plenty of fuel to spit out their faulty logic. We could take the data aggregated and do with it what we do now: laugh quietly at the hillbilly with the internet connection.
www.noyoureallyarethesmartestpersonintheworld.com
Coming soon.
1. It's not polls, it's questions/answers
2. It doesn't do any harm to have more answers to a question. If they are silly, they will simply end up on the bottom of the list.
And calm down already. There's no logic in dragging accusations and argument that's got nothing to do with what I said.
I think this points to the basic fallacy:
1. It IS polls, not questions and answers. If you're looking for questions and answers, maybe you need to go to Ask Yahoo.
2. It does do harm because its superfluous data. I don't really care about *your individual opinion.* I care about the aggregated poll results to the question being polled. Even if a dozen lemmings follow a negative answer, it's STILL superfluous. Otherwise I'D be at Ask Yahoo.
And again, I ask you check yourself, lest you wreck yourself. You've got piss poor boundaries, lad. Your "logic" has been my "unsolicited cockshot." Tread lightly.
While a single errant "I Don't" answer doesn't seem like a big deal, it's incredibly annoying when you ask any sort of niche question, someone adds this answer, and it becomes #1.
Multiply by 1000x, and you may be able to see where we're coming from.
>It IS polls, not questions and answers. If you're > looking for questions and answers, maybe
> you need to go to Ask Yahoo.
It IS questions and answers. If you're looking for polls, maybe you need to go to Ask Slashdot. Or we could compromise, and agree that it's both polls and questions/answers at the same time.
> 2. It does do harm because its superfluous
> data. I don't really care about *your individual
> opinion.*
I don' really care about your individual opintion either.
> I care about the aggregated poll
> results to the question being polled. Even if a
> dozen lemmings follow a negative answer, it's
> STILL superfluous. Otherwise I'D be at Ask
> Yahoo.
I don' really care about your individual opintion either. Take your own advice, and visit a different website.
> And again, I ask you check yourself, lest you
> wreck yourself.
Hah
> You've got piss poor boundaries, lad. Your
> "logic" has been my "unsolicited cockshot."
> Tread lightly.
Hey, I don't like you either, dickhead.
I think what he's trying to say is that he doesn't like you, patrick.
I have been wrong before, though.
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/2849
Perhaps he'll go back to trolling Christian chatrooms looking for that special, toothless someone...
S.T.D.F.Y.M.:
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/1460
@patricklevell
I've never been to a Christian chatroom. You're toothless enough for me.
okay, back on topic
@holotone
If the #1 answer is disliked by the one asking the question, what do you suggest? Censorship of answers by the one asking a question? I think that if an answer is that popular, it can't be wrong (to include on the list) in the setting of a democratic internet-society, regardless of any irritation it may cause.
@famousperson
Equally unkown acronym: WDYC ?
@skritch
Thanks for the "don't"s and unicorns :-)
This raises a bit of a question to me ... "Not Bush" is clearly unacceptable on a ballot, but what about "Fuck Bush?"
"If the #1 answer is disliked by the one asking the question, what do you suggest? Censorship of answers by the one asking a question? I think that if an answer is that popular, it can't be wrong (to include on the list) in the setting of a democratic internet-society, regardless of any irritation it may cause."
I suggest making it clear that adding "Don't" answers goes against Grupthink common courtesy. The problem is, it's not that it bothers me that the number one answer is one that I disagree with, it's that the number one answer is completely freaking irrelevant. To top it off, it's only going to be the number one answer on questions that have any sort of niche. For example, Ms. Muffins comes in and asks "What Is Your Favorite Cross-Stitching Pattern?" - As I would imagine most people on GT don't cross stitch, as soon as some point-whore adds "I Don't Cross-Stitch", it immediately becomes the most "popular" answer - In the process, this degrades the QUALITY of results for Ms. Muffins.
Beyond that, as I doubt there is a cross-stitching pattern called "I Don't Cross-Stitch", it doesn't even answer the gadnumbed question. I may as well answer with "Fruity Pebbles Are Good".
@holotone
Thanks for a good explanation! You convinced me that this can actually be a problem.
However, I'm not sure that educating and/or flaming newbies is the right approach, as Grupthink already have a point-system to reward constructive behavior. In my opinion, the case of "I don't cross-stitch" should be handled by a mechanism in Grupthink, not by self-sensorship or other social arrangements.
One solution could be if answers that started with "I don't..." automatically got 1% of the points it would otherwise have. Or if Ms. Muffins could reward the good answers in some way.
Whatever scheme may appear, I think it will be far better than expecting humans not to behave like humans does, namely adding answers that starts with "I don't...".
I personally think that negative feedback is an inseparable part of the whole feedback process, and the negligence of such a substantial amount of opinions is not a good strategy.
As holotone explained, it could be totally irrelevant (as for the 'Ms. Muffins' case), but I look at it from a more *statistical* approach, the point in asking questions is having answers, the negative answer in this case would be 'I Don't Cross-Stitch', So, perhaps 'Ms. Muffins' should simple rephrase her question instead, explicitly asking people to only reply with positive feedback, while asserting the quality of the answer.
A potential rephrase of the question would be 'If you Cross-Stitch, What Is Your Favorite Cross-Stitching Pattern?'
that doesn't prevent people from putting the "I don't..." answer though, voodooattack. may i direct your attention to questions such as: http://www.grupthink.com/topic/2908 which is specifically targetted at WOMEN yet the "I am not a woman" answer has already been added.
Oh lawd, why must I bump?
The same reason we all do... some people just don't listen, or care, or both.
Just once it would be nice to log on to GTand not have that overwhelming urge to dig for this topic so you can BUMP it.
I like the "I don't" answers once in awhile when I think being contrary is a relevant response -- otherwise you're taking an inaccurate sample. If the nature of the question defines the sample demographic, then the "I don't" answer is likely inapppropriate. On the other hand, if the question is something akin to, "Are you voting for McCain, Guiliani or Romney," the imposition of the "none of the above" - which is really no different than "I don't" - is necessary.
does this look like a bump to you?