How does it feel about the attempts by people who alter or spin your Q in philosophy w/no attempt to A the Q?

Question

Background to my Q is this:

It happens alot here. The answerers, I have generically described try to reformulate the Q's by asking Q's that defocus the central idea in the Q. This Q is based on my having asked over 1070 Q's in two years. Is this good Q&A? Is this the kind of Q&A helpful. I would really prefer to limit my Q to Q-askers w/many Q's under their belt(hunter's metaphor), but I will consider well-formed insightful thoughts by intelligent pt-driven answerers. This Q matters to me bec I would like to see Philosophy Q&A improve here & be nontrivial & less distorted than it is. That is my motive ,so no one need speculate about that element which is irrelevant to answering my Q! IMO The Q-asker should never be the subject of the A to the Q .The ideas in the Q are fair game(another hunter's metaphor), but comments re the Q-asker, motives,defects, etc are ad hominem fallacies. Ad hominem attacks are considered, from a logial POV irrelevant & evidence of immature thoughts.

PSs I could easily supply examples from my Q&A to illustrate attempts by people who alter or spin your Q in philosophy w/no attempt to A the Q?My Q&A is open to all for a look-see. Posting specific examples seems to result in automated deletions by unjustified abuse reports. I know YAT Appeals and deletion appeals rarely work, but that is another topic and not the topic of this Q.

Reminder Q: Did you answer this Q, or did you , as some one has put it succinctly, morph the Q in your Answer? Did you really A the Q in a focused way?

See you all on the other side(ie next year) Have fun and come back to YA refreshed and happy.Be kind to all Q-askers and, if I may suggest it, ask more Q's yourself!

I'm in favor of diverse interests and diverse interests as long as they are respectfully expressed and the A is reasonably connected to the focus of the Q. The idea behind a Q is to reduce ignorance and reasoned Answers help do that. The more objective the Q&A the better! Sometimes the slant in the Q is intentional and should never be an excuse not to answer it leaving your personal spin until after you answered the Q-asked. Attacking the Q-asker is pointless and irrelevant to addressing the ideas anyway. IMHO

If you appreciate the effort I put into my Q's please star my Q. I feel that too many are being too stingy about starring the Q's, not just mine but any Q worthy of stars.

Sadly I had to close down access to my Q&A's bec I have had some of my Q's deleted for no good cause by YAT probably bec my anti-intellectual enemies misused the abuse report system!

"Are you doing this as a hobby or what?" I do it to clarify my thoughts by seeking outside input from others and it is an adjunct to my readings. I think I learn more by asking Q's and challenging my beliefs(conclusions,inferences etc.) than I do answering Q's. The Q's I ask are my Q's and the emanate or emerge from inside me based on my desire to understand myself and others. I expect to influence others and be influenced by others at the same time. Sadly, the experience so far has been mixed and I have strong opinions about the problems and deficiencies. For example, this weekend I heard a PSA that said 20% of all American highschool graduates could not locate the Pacific Ocean on a world map. That fact is unconceivable to me but it suggests serious problems for America. To locate the Pacific only takes asking the Q and seeking and listening to the A from someone else w the knowledge. Why so many do not ask the Q is mind-boggling. Some here are like that.

A truism like"everyone is entitled to his opinion" is insufficient if you want to grow philosophically which ,IMO, is about making the case for your opinions or understanding other people's opinions citing objective evidence and correct reasoning.

Answer 1

Heeltap...

I have often noticed the tendency you describe here, and it is both puzzling and frustrating. I have seen responses posted that completely ignore the specific question that has been asked.

This seems to occur most often in questions dealing with beliefs, or where the general subject (e.g., God, abortion, government) triggers strong responses in people. Responders often feel compelled to, as you said, "reformulate" the question to create a pretext to pontificate about some underlying issue that s/he sees as vaguely related to it, but that has nothing to do with precisely what was asked.

I encountered a prototypical example of this just yesterday. I had posted a response to a question in which the asker went out of his way to clarify that he was looking for a critique of the logic of an argument. The question had to do with the statement "God does not exist," and the asker wanted to know whether there was a fallacy in the LOGIC of the statement, not whether it was true, or whether one believed in God, etc. Just the logic.

The 20 or so answers posted were all over the lot, but precious few of them addressed the question that was asked. Most morphed their answers into lectures about how "logic isn't everything," and "of course, God exists," and, basically, "Read the Bible, you fool!"

What's really bizarre is that askers will sometimes select as "Best Answer" responses that plainly did not answer the question that was asked, which makes you wonder what the point of it all is.

I'm not sure what we - anyone - should do about this. I can continue to get irked when I see this, which consumes a lot of energy that ends up wasted. Or I can simply step back, shrug my shoulders and recognize it as something to be expected in a forum that is open, free-wheeling, non-academic, and welcomes all comers. After all, I remind myself, I'm not obliged to be here.

All the best to you.

EDIT:

Happy New Year to you as well, Heeltap. Thank you for your contributions in this forum, and for raising the bar for us. I appreciate your efforts. All the best!

Answer 2

Well each and everyone his own mindsets and philosophical attributes to one or the other aspects , so when itsseems to you that it related to one things i may see see it other way around . the degree of understanding too has been differential with each ones of us , hence it rather on the better part ot see that how each person has to look into the different perceptiona and perspectives

Answer 3

everyone is entitled to his opinion, there is nothing we can do about that, here at Phl. section especially. It is all about opinion, may i say. Otherwise, we might as well try sections of geography, math or biology etc.

Answer 4

You know something? That happens to me too. Remember what I said last time? It still applies.
You can construct your question as carefully as any logician, but there are those who do not understand logic, or who will incredibly find something in your question you did not see yourself.
It is the answers that "snub their noses" at my questions that bother me--why do they bother snubbing, instead of just ignoring?

Have a Happy New Year. See you on the other side!

Answer 5

Are you doing this as a hobby or what? You should be more specific by what you mean in improving the quality of the site.
By the comments here I can only say you get what you deserve. No matter how much information comes out of your mouth there seems to be an insincere quality to your question. I think true philosophers are looking for originality and not regurgitating the definitions and axioms like you're playing a game and fiddling with a hobby.
PS This is a problem in EVERY section. What's worse is often the stupid asker awards the best answer to the person who gave an answer that wasn't an answer to the question. The asker doesn't even see the answer hitting them right in the face like a brick.

Answer 6

It's really frustrating!!! And it not only happens with philosophical questions, but also with very specific, practical questions.
Another thing that's very common is answering with cliches, not giving too much thought to the answer.
I guess it might have to do with getting points by just aswering (no matter what you answer!)
It's a pity since this gives us such a wonderful oportunity to share thoughts and exchange points of view with people that otherwise you wouldn't be able to reach.

Answer 7

I am sure I have probably been guilty of altering Q, whilst not truly answering.
My goal when ever giving an answer to a question is to help(whether I actually do help is up for debate) & people are more then welcome to disregard my contribution(s) . I feel it is often helpful, to be able to see a problem from a different perspective(which often means altering the question), & this may open a door to finding a sollution, or point some1 in a helpful direction.
Another thought to consider: A question that is eternally regressive, can perhaps only be truly resolved through a trick of misdirection(sayeth the illusionist), or as you call it 'defocus of the central idea'.
But if the amount of answers of mine that are agreed with or chosen as best, is an indication of anything....then i am probably wrong again.
How do I feel about people who do what you say? I usually end up 'feeling' disapointed.