Things that well-meaning A2Kers do that I find horribly rude

Many people are very offended by the thought of a silly prankster posting about horrible personal problems and getting a kick out of the sympathy it elicits.

It's a dirty thing to do and understandably irksome but think about it for a minute. If you are right, and you do not bring up what harm is done? Perhaps some idiot gets some twisted kicks, but that's not nearly as bad as opining on your doubt if you are wrong.

Some personal problems are greatly exacerbated by having people doubt them. I recently was working with a girl who'd been abused by her step dad and whose step mother refused to believe her. She left home at a young age and is understandably very very sensitive to any doubt about her allegations since her own family wrote it off and attacked her character instead of facing the harder truth of having a pervert dad.

I can't imagine any of you doing this in person so why do you do it online? Callous doubt can be very painful. Why risk it when being right carries no upside?

And here's another one: the anti-homework crusade. Asking for help on a forum is a skill that modern education is greatly aided by. Instead of chiding people if they are asking lazy questions why not engage them and help them be less lazy? Why drive them away with rudeness? If you are legitimately concerned with them from an academic standpoint being abrasive is not the best way to help them and if you aren't legitimately concerned with helping them why bother to go out of your way to scold them?

And here is another one related to the homework: the "search google" answer. If they are on this forum they usually got here by a search engine (given that we don't advertise) anyway so they know what a search engine is. Maybe they aren't using the right words and in that case you could be more helpful suggesting keyword refinements (knowing what to search for is a skill since search engines don't understand language as much as try to match it to their semantic algorithms). Furthermore, when you answer even the most obvious question you are adding another answer to the internet and subsequently the search engines.

In case you haven't noticed searching google won't return any answers if it hasn't already been posted online. Even if the answer is already online maybe you will get it online with new keywords and help future people find information.

If you can't help people, why waste your time and theirs trying to make them feel bad about their question? And if they are being legitimately lazy why not try to constructively steer them towards a better way of going about it?

I know I've been guilty of these things myself, and my intention isn't to make people feel bad about their well-meaning gaffes so much as to try to point out factors they might not have been aware of that might cause them to try to respond more constructively.

Anyway, this is my rant for the day, and I must end it here because I feel rude enough as it is for the day. ;-)