-7

If someone is asking a dumb question that could easily be figured out by googling it are we allow to send them a lmgtfy.com link? Assuming we provide an explination for why the question is not satisfactory, are we allowed to do this?

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  • 1
    Please do not completely change your question once it is posted, especially if answers have been posted. I suggest you open a new discussion if you have different questions.
    – Seth
    Jan 28, 2015 at 22:22
  • ok, I will do that next time Jan 28, 2015 at 22:23
  • 1
    And don't worry too much about the downvotes here on Meta AU. They are more of an indicator of whether people agree or disagree with your posts, not the quality of the post per se. In this case, mild disagreement, so far. Meta SE, on the other hand, is a different beast.
    – muru
    Jan 28, 2015 at 23:06
  • Yes, votes on meta are TOTALLY different than votes on main. It doesn't indicate right or wrong here. It indicates agreement or disagreement with a topic or solution. Voting down on a question here is a lot like posting a "NO" answer and seeing if it gets voted upon, except you don't have to wait. Same with upvotes. Jan 28, 2015 at 23:14
  • 3
    Allowed or not, it's quite rude. In my opinion, if we can't say something constructive, then say nothing at all.
    – chili555
    Jan 28, 2015 at 23:34
  • 4
    Sometimes I wonder where people think answers on google come from. For Ubuntu, a bunch of them are for this site, so asking google just sends them back here. Jan 29, 2015 at 1:38

2 Answers 2

11

NO.

But in all seriousness - This has been discussed before on Ban LMGTFY (let me google that for you) links

And guess what is in the second result of - http://lmgtfy.com/?q=should+you+use+LMGTFY

  • How does that feel?

Although it is not banned it is highly frowned upon, I expect answers/comments that would use it will get downvoted/flagged ect.

And as if the question is that bad... how about flagging/downvoting? As: https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/207226/185528 says:

Any question that is lazy enough to warrant a LMGTFY answer is a bad question. Bad questions should be flagged, not answered sarcastically or disrespectfully.

A.K.A it is rude.

1
  • I agree that the answer is no, and upvote. But I just had to present a small piece of the alternate case as an "In really narrow circumstances, it might not make people hate you. You just have to provide a LOT more worth than you are derisive." Jan 28, 2015 at 23:17
-1

When I get REALLY irritated about a question that is posted as either nonsense tech support or attempted vote farming, I will occasionally post a comment of "first google result: htt....whatever".

I only do it:

  1. If an OP doesn't make any attempt to solve a problem, I get to be a little rude.
  2. If an OP is vote farming, I get to be rude.

So in summary:

  1. I know it's rude when I do it.
  2. I don't do it often.
  3. I only do it when it fits the two conditions outlined above.

That said, with all my comments/questions/answers - I've done it less times than I could count on one hand. I don't encourage the behavior, but I do understand its occasional and infrequent use. We don't need to be ugly to people.

So, to put it in perspective, I might have done it as many as five times. I'm confident the real number is smaller than that one. So: 16000/5=3200. If we wanted to be on pace for snapping on someone, you'ld have another 30*rep||value multiplier to hit before it was not horrible to do it once.

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  • Cue the "but rudeness is never justified!!!11!" comments.
    – muru
    Jan 28, 2015 at 23:05
  • Oh, I expect them. And I understand them as well. I'm of a mind that I'ld rather not be a pacifist trying to stop a rolling tank. That said, I only really put it here as a devil's advocate answer, and I think I pretty much expressed that in the answer proper. Jan 28, 2015 at 23:07

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