Why is it people here give so much misinformation, and what is the point of this site, REALLY?

Question

For instance, someone who is allegedly a creative writing teacher and claims a list of credits, tells a poster that William Faulkner wrote East of Eden! He DID NOT WRITE IT! John Steinbeck wrote the book, and then this person further enables the poster to be lazy by telling them the plot of the book! Why not tell the person to actually READ the material?! It seems people on this site want to impress everyone with what they perceive as their vast knowledge, and over half the time they give the wrong answers! In addition, it seems most of the questions here can be easily answered by Googling or going to Wikipedia. What gives with this site as a reference point? Again, most answers could be ACCURATELY answered by Googling instead of asking people who don't know what they are talking about!

Uh, Jennifer (or whatever), the "answers" to opinion questions are different (sheesh!) as they CANNOT be found on Google, because they are OPINIONS! You sound like a little snot!

Relax, Persephone, it was an honest error and no one will place it on your permanent record. If I bore you, why even answer? Looks like you spend all your tome here, but whatever.

And yes, I mean't "time." Sheesh!

Husker, stop being so self-righteous and offended. I have seen some of the stuff YOU have posted and believe me, calling someone a snot (when they have given a snotty answer) is the LEAST of what YOU have posted. Come down off your high horse and get real!

Answer 1

Finally someone sensible.

I have come to the conclusion that most people who regularly use this site and expect the information they receive to be 100% accurate and reliable must be mildly brain damaged.... and it fascinates me.


There is no way of knowing for sure if the person your receiving information from really knows what their talking about or is qualified as they say they are.

I have experienced the same thing. There are numerous questions being ask which should be directed at a professional.

"I'm bleeding from the head, what should I do?" Eat marsh mellows.......Go to the doctor dumb ****!

"My cat is sick, should I give it honey?" How about calling a vet, did that idea ever cross your mind?!

I just use this site for general stuff like travel tips and other experiential stuff like that. I would never rely on this site for any serious information.

Even then it's unreliable. 40% say yes, 30% say No and 30% say bake it for 25minutes on high.

I always reference any infromation I give out but yet again there's now way to prove im reliable either.

I don't intend to insult anyone and I whole heartedly appreciate to helpful information people have provided, but I research any information i have been given before taking action on it.

Answer 2

You are correct in stating that there is a lot of misinformation floating around. One thing I see quite frequently on this particular forum is titles being attributed to the wrong authors. As an example, the other night someone stated that they didn't like "Of Mice and Men" (another great Steinbeck book), and that the only book they ever liked by the author was "The Old Man and the Sea" (Ernest Hemingway, anyone?).

Where we must diverge on opinions is on the value of this site. I would much prefer to talk about novels and ideas, but I find that a great deal of what ends up happening on this particular forum has to do with explaining homework assignments. I don't know if teachers aren't doing a good job of explaining, or if kids aren't paying attention. All I know is that I end up reading the assignments and giving guidance quite frequently. And I do give answers, as well. Sometimes I do it because I am bored, sometimes I do it because I like the question. My motivations, however, are my own, and I don't think they should be judged by others.

And you are right about the fact that a lot of the information requested on this site is basic factual information. I often marvel at the fact that someone will take time to type a question about something when they can get an accurate answer very quickly by simply doing basic research. It makes me wonder if we, meaning society, aren't doing some sort of great disservice to people when we give them the means of accessing loads of information but don't make sure first that they actually know how to use it.

Naturally, all I have written above deals with items which are factual. For opinions, this site is absolutely excellent. If I want to know who wrote "The Kite Runner", I should be able to find that out on my own. If I want to know what people thought of it, this is an excellent place to ask my question.

And just so you know, perhaps I am naive, but I don't think that the majority of people get on here to try and impress everyone with their vast knowledge. The great thing about Y!A is that if you are looking for someone who really knows their stuff on a certain subject, you can usually hook up with them here. Yes, there are some people who are so obscenely vain that they boggle the mind, but they are in the minority. Most folks are simply here to help. I frequently think of it as a large classroom, where we all have the benefit of learning from one another.

Answer 3

It may be that you feel someone out there cares enough to answer. The other point is, while there are some wrong answers or bad information, you could say the same about Wikipedia or many of the websites. For example, before moving to the city where I live now, I read up on it - Wikipedia first of all. But the information turned out to be way off base (and caused me to bring a whole lot of unsuitable clothes for one thing), so you have no guarantee that the web info is correct either. I personally feel it is better to ask people.

Answer 4

My mistake ... It's late and Im watching a ball game. A Rod just hit a grand slam and my attention was diverted. You are correct. And if you think I told them the whole plot of the book, then you obviously havent read it yourself. In addition to answering questions here, I get a lot of letters and I was discussing Faulkner with someone earlier. So shoot me. I will change it.

Do you know why I didnt just tell the person to just READ the material themselves? Because when you do that, 9 times out of 10, the person reports you to Answers Abuse and you get a nice little letter claiming you have committed a community violation. Many people have lost accounts for just saying "do your own homework buster".

There is a section here called "homework help". This isnt it. In this section, we discuss books and authors, so discussing the plot of a book is within our guidelines.

I am tired of getting those little warning letters for saying "look it up yourself" and it happens to be a book I love and dont mind discussing. Tell me honestly - do you consider Wikipedia to be a more accurate source than this? That is a joke. Obviously you dont watch much Stephen Colbert.

Yes, I do know what I am talking about. I have read the book several times, though I have never taught it. I would like to. Perhaps if you had bothered to check my profile you would see that I have over 4 thousand "best answers" here and over 140 "fans". I answer every single letter I get and my credentials are available for you to see if you wish. I hold two degrees - one in English Lit and one in Interior Architecture - both summa c u m laude. My GPA was 3.83 and in both the schools of Architecture and English, I graduated first in my class. Oh and by the way, I was 47 at the time. Since then I have written four novels and my fifth is outlined and ready to go.

You know, if you had been nice, we could probably have been friends. Now you get to be the second person I put on block. Imagine - they only started letting you block people tonight and already Ive blocked two.

Enjoy your superiority. You will find it wont make you many friends around here. On the other hand, I get letters from all over the world in languages I dont even speak. It must be nice to be right all the time. Yawns. Im going back to the baseball game. You bore me. Pax - C

The name is Persiphone - with an I - just the way my father named me. And it has been changed. Adieu. Welcome to the red zone of ignore.

Answer 5

That's what the voting system is for though. Besides, some people want a straight forward answer, not eventually come to the answer after reading a whole page of information that they are not interested in. It's efficient. The only annoying thing I find is people asking the same question over & over instead of searching through the Answers archive.

Answer 6

You _will_ get bad apples in any barrel, let alone one as big as Yahoo's. It sounds like a rather harsh way to get people to do their own work, by giving at least partial misinformation, when answering.

Personally, I skip anything that sounds like a lazy kid trying to get out of actually doing a reading assignment and thinking about what they've read. I reccomend you do the same, especially if it makes you as mad as you seem to be. Life's too short.

And actually sometimes, it's possible to help someone. Kinda feels nice when that happens.

Answer 7

I like the poll type questions to get an idea of how people think. And sometimes, I think people don't know what search terms to start with. The answers they get here could be a jumping off point to look up more things.

Answer 8

Of course you can get similar answers by searching other sites, and, yes, all sites offer bad advice as often as good advice.

That's why each reader needs to check out more than one site, check the credentials of the poster, then do enough research to see what answers are most relevant to his/er question.

Answer 9

Many don't take this site that seriously, some do. I wonder how many have been harmed by bad advice, some of which makes me cringe?
The point of the site is to dispell boredom, to me, and social networking, to many. Some are desperate souls, in the wrong place.

Answer 10

In answer to your question, obviously this site is what we make it to be. I don't think rudeness, SHOUTING, ranting and insulting people ("you sound like a little snot", for example) does anything to improve it. Do you?

Perhaps you would be happier on some other site.