Do you think before you answer??

Question

Generally when someone posts a question (and it's a serious one) they are truly looking for advice & on many occassions are already upset about what they are asking advice for.

I recently asked a question on here & some of the responses I received could seriously drive an unstable person to suicide. They definately drove me to tears until I thought about it & realized that the people being so mean didn't have a clue about me & they must be lashing out at someone like me to cover something wrong in their own life.

Why would someone want to pass judgement on you when you are just looking for a little advice??

So, please consider your answers prior to typing them. You never know the mental state of the person you are bashing. I work with depressed individuals on a daily basis & I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if one of them asked my question instead of me.

Answer 1

I know exactly what you mean. I have seen children on here as young as 10 ask for help with social pressures and people bashing even THEM! There was one situation where this guys answer to a question was to jump off a bridge and kill himself.
This really upset me awhlie back and I posted a question much like yours.
I've decided that when there's an answer that is really disturbing, I just click on the "report abuse" and tell Yahoo! about it.
When you do that, the person recives an email from Yahoo! and hopefullly, if they revcieve enough negative feedback in their inbox, they'll either shape up, quit comming to ANSWERS, or perhaps Yahoo! will delete their account.
There really are alot of sensitive subjects on here and they deserve to be treated with respectful answers. Most people I think do try and answer questions the best that they can.
There's always a few lonely idiots out there who feel like they've got to run people into the ground.
My best advise to you, is take the time when you see someone saying hurtful things to others is report, report and report again.
Yes, it takes an extra minute of two, but we've got to send the message to these people that their behavior is not appropriate.
Somebody's gotta do it.

Answer 2

I agree with you. I think if you are on here to be fun and have a good time with your questions you should run over to entertainment, poles and serveys, Jokes and riddles. Those places would be appropriate to have a bit of fun, but not in some of the catagories.

I am a joking person, but when I get on here, I consider the catagory I am in. I am not in it for the points although they are fun, I am here to help and be helped if I need it.

Not only that I had asked a question about toilet training a 7 year old Autistic child and I was told by a couple people I was being abusive keeping him in pull-ups, but they did not know the full story. They did not even read the paragraph all the way through. I was not so angry, because I think sometimes, these people that answer the way they do are usually young teenagers, but I do agree that some people are not nice enough for my likings.

Answer 3

I personally do research when I answer questions and try to give the best advice possible, but I've seen a lot of answers that are dangerous. Some people probably think their answers are cute and/or pithy, but they can be damaging others without realizing it. I take every question on here seriously and often edit my answers to ensure that I'm not leading someone astray.

Especially with a medium such as the Internet, it's easy to hurt or confuse someone unintentionally. So when someone purposefully makes a written attack of an asker, the results can be devastating.

It's easy for people to make attacks anonymously from the safety of their homes. If they could fathom the results of their insensitive attacks, I wonder if they could still be so cruel?

Answer 4

some of the questions ask on here are obvious that the asker did not think things through before the question was ask. That type of question seems to get bashed more than a serious question. I think that there are some people on here that are just trying to be comedians. A person asking the question has to learn how to not be offended be the lack of respect that some can show. Good luck and have a better day

Answer 5

Yes I always think before I answer a question. In fact I think I've only made 2 sarcastic answers to questions in my Answers history. One was one of those "what kind of panties are you wearing today" and the other was a really stupid "just looking for a reaction" type of question. You really have to take what people say with a grain of salt. Obviously, some people here are only here for points, some for personal entertainment, some just to p!ss people off. The one thing I can't STAND here is when people ask a serious question and the responder makes very mean and hateful uncalled for personal comments. Drives me insane!!!!

Answer 6

I guess everyone should take answers with a grain of salt. We are not professionals here, we are not qualified to give advice on many topics, especially depression. There are even adolescents on here, you can't expect them to give sound advice. I've gotten lots of insensitive responses - many of them even from grown up parents judging me based on my question about my kids. I'm never rude to someone who is asking a serious or emotional question.

Also, I hate it when you ask a question like : "does anybody have a cat?" and people feel the need to tell you they don't or say something ridiculous like "i don't and I never will, cats are bad!"
That annoys me, I didn't ask an opinion or for just anyone who doesn't apply to my answer to answer my question!

Answer 7

Well in my opinion..some people that ask questions on this board..expect way way way too much. This is the Internet honey, you can't expect people to give you professional or even sensible and serious advice. Most people are just here to waste their own time as well as other peoples time, including me lol. Don't ever take other peoples answers on this forum too seriously. It's good to find out some general stuff and discuss it. But serious or emotional questions as well as answers have no chance here at all. And also...nobody will care if you kill yourself just because they gave you a ridiculous answer just to pass their time or have a good laugh.

Answer 8

I've had a few personal attacks too. Some people don't read the entire question and jump to conclusions. Some people are insane themselves. If you want to see people get really ugly, go to the politics section. People get nasty! I like to put wise *ss responses to see what happens. It's cheap entertainment! Which what you need to remember, this isn't really a legit question and answer forum. People are offering advice with no professional background. Sometimes you need to take the answers lightly.

Answer 9

i agree with what you say, but you should take into account that here there are many unstable people too, and they also have the right to answer a question, although I know their answers won't be the most accurate, but that's why we use the thumbs up and down for, so the next time you look for an answer pay attention to the rating before you read it!
Anyway, I try not to be cruel with my answers at least it is a question as can i eat cat's meat? or something like that! :)

Answer 10

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Consider the source! I think there are just as many rude, unkind people as there are polite, sweet ones. Unfortunately these rude morons have computers and Internet access! I understand what you mean and hope you will ignore the rude, ugly remarks and focus on the answers that were kind. Rude, mean people just want to put you down to make themselves feel better.

You can use Google to get real answers without having to filter through the ugly remarks, too.