I know it’s been done before … but why do some posters have to reply when they don’t know the answer?

[Rosesandbee]

A few weeks ago I had a fairly niche question relating to my line of work, clearly indicated in the post title. I had several replies loftily informing me I could not do what I was planning to do from posters who did not work in my job. Other posters were clearly correcting them and providing links showing this. But they were not perturbed by this and continued telling me and others how right they were and how wrong we were.

And you see it on threads relating to other countries - posters who live there will say ‘nope that’s not quite right’ and still they insist they are. Or benefits, or housing, or just about anything!

Do they just feel the need to say something, anything? Like annoying kids who raise their hands when they don’t know the answer just because they like hearing a voice? Or do they genuinely believe their knowledge encompasses everyone else’s?

That's interesting what you said about not declaring being a lawyer on a thread @BlueDinoRawr and the very good reasons for it. It will make me far less believing of those who do, now!

I think some people just get gripped by the dilemma/problem/situation and want to make themselves part of it, so say whatever bollocks they think founds just about plausible to get right into the midst.

Yep.see also.children with disabilities and or special needs ,I.have seen posters ,post in quite desperate situations ,and other posters replying who.although they mean well clearly have no.clue how the system works and advise to.demand respite ( you can demand all.you want but its a slow process with limitations)
Or say things like have you thought about a residential.school.( I see this a lot ) ,its not as simple as asking for a residential school a child being given a place .

I've often wondered the same. It puzzles me even more when a poster does start an answer with 'I have no legal knowledge whatsoever' and then goes on to give their opinion on some legal process or point of law. I wonder why they even bothered to open the thread in the first place when the title made it clear the poster was after specific legal advice. It's really bizarre.

I work in Debt Advice. The bollocks that get spouted on money worries/debt threads is astounding.

The only 'advice' I offer (other than correcting factually incorrect statements) is GO AND GET SOME DEBT ADVICE.

And, breathe.....

I know but I'm not telling because my knowledge is so specialised that it would be so outing.

I think the most classic comment was on the student finance thread. One poster was insisting I'd get student finance when I didn't think I would. I started ignoring her. In the end she put something like "I don't know why you are wasting your time posting here when I've categorically told you that you will get student finance"

I rang SFE the next day, they confirmed I wasn't eligible. I added that to the thread and surprise surprise no comment from that poster 🫢

I actually do have some very specific knowledge about something that I agree would be very outing! I sometimes name change and try and give my perspective but usually get ignored anyway 🙃

The most frustrating ones are " medical.advice"
I have seen so.much dangerous advice around things like constipation for example ,the only advice that should be given is see your GP,or get advice from.a pharmacist.
.

This is a big part of it.
Covid showed just how bad this phenomenon can be. Every man and his dog was suddenly entitled to argue with genuine experts on infectious disease, immunology, virology, vaccines, epidemiology, and PPE. A lot of people believed that their opinion was as valid as actual research findings and data.

Yeah I have seen that on the legal.board ( I go on sometimes to.have a nosy even though I have no.lrgsl.knowledge whatsoever ) There are a couple of lawyers who.regularly post giving generic advise about child arrangements sometimes I see that their advice is ignored because its not what the Op.wants to.hear and the Op will instead listen to.the posters who are just giving their opinion .

@FuckOffTom

They then get asked for evidence to back up their claims and say things like “why should I?” Or “there’s too much to type out”

Or they tell you the evidence is out there you can find it yourself.

The thing that frustrates me with MN is a lot of posters writing the exact same response. That's not how you would have a discussion in real life. It's like ask the audience on who wants to be a millionaire!

Worse when the discussion has moved on but someone feels the need to write the same reply on page 6 that was already posted on page 1 three times.

I've wasted plenty of time reading what could have been an interesting thread only to find nothing was added after the initial comments.

I have a Facebook friend who does this. She'll tell me she has no idea what I'm on about. Right. It wasn't aimed at her so why reply?

And then there's those who when I ask "is anyone free to guide me at parkrun on such a date please?" There's always someone replying with "I'm not there that week. Maybe the weekend after". Helpful.

They do it in real life too. FIL had mates like this who would tell him he was entitled to x or y help/benefit.
Every time we could show him government/council websites/charity that showed him otherwise but he would shout us down every time because his gobby mate had said so. Then he would go and have a flaming row with the social worker/benefit person who "clearly doesn't know their job/ just doesn't want to give whatever out to save money". Then phone us ranting about the "jobsworth".
Every Single Time.

People who don't read the the thread are infuriating but can also be unintentionally funny.

A recent poster wanted advice on where to buy a house convenient for his/her work in north London. This produced a shoal of impractical suggestions including Woodbridge in Suffolk & Morpeth in Northumberland.

i have two bugbears:

”my dh says…”

and the anecdata brigade.

”well my aunt Ethel smoked til she was 93 and never got cancer so it’s not true that smoking means you will get cancer”

No! It’s a semi-quaver.

This is so frustrating and exacerbated by the fact posters never concede graciously they might be wrong but get very angry at you ignoring helpful advice!

I had a pile on when I was paid my maternity pay in one lump sum. I had so many aggressive posts telling me it was my poor financial management that was at fault. Despite me and some other posters trying to explain over and over that there is a monthly threshold for national insurance of £520 so if you get paid in one lump everything above 520 has NI applied (in equal instalments your threshold will effectively be 4680 so i has lost 11% of 4160.) It basically meant I was down more than 2k when money was already tight, but I was apparently totally unreasonable and needed to manage money better.

no! It’s a semi quaver

(forgot to quote previously)

I watched a parody comedy skit on this come through TikTok about boomer parents. Was very well observed 🤣

Kristen Marie the comedians name is. I think she’s on Instagram.

Urgh yes, this grinds my gears too. Someone always pipes up that they had an elderly relative who smoked 150 a day and lived on whiskey who lived until 100 or washed their face with bleach every night and had "no wrinkles whatsoever at age 99" or never wore sunscreen, covered themselves in lard and baked in the sun for 8 hours a day and never got skin cancer, doesnt mean its a good or sensible thing to do for the majority of people!

Hah, I've had that with the country thing.

Somebody started a thread asking about XYZ aspect of visiting my home country...
At first the replies were sensible advice from various posters who had holidayed there...
Then this one very insistent poster popped up who said they were especially qualified (because they had visited for work) and XYZ was completely impossible because she said so...
This poster kept coming back to the thread to tell the OP to ignore every other poster's comments because they didn't know the country as well as she did...
Strangely enough the poster disappeared without trace when I posted that not only was XYZ completely fine, but I was in my home country at the time and doing XYZ

I hate this too! People genuinely cannot understand the difference between a sample size of one and actual, population level data. It infuriates me.

I just wish people entered debates in good spirit. Keep an open mind, respect those that disagree but put your points across - you might learn something! It’s all about ego, people would rather hold on to their views than grow and learn.

It happens in the product question section of Amazon too. You'll ask a question and out of five answers, three will be idiots saying they don't own this item.