If its a smart question? Can't have those here!
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
16 points (60.3% liked)
No Stupid Questions
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No such thing. Ask away!
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You must not have come across Don_Dickle so far ... the bane of all ask-communities.
my guess is they see it as trolling. A question can just be considered insincere.
There are bad faith questions[1], (at least somewhat) self-answering questions[2], and poorly asked questions[3]. (Edit: this comm has rules. These and others are covered in the sidebar, It's not about being too stupid a question, it's about being appropriate for this community)
[1] "Are you still cheating on your spouse?" type questions that are meant to evoke a response rather than ask a real question that deserves an answer.
[2] is a little harder to define, but I have definitely seen a few where even the smallest amount of thought about what is being asked would make the answer obvious. (edit: I hope people aren't just drive-by downvoting this type, but I sort of understand why they might)
[3] includes questions that have so many answers depending on factors not specified that they're impossible to answer without writing a book covering every assumption that goes into each possibility.
The worst are the troll questions. They're just meant to stir flamewars in the comments. No one, specially the OP, is interested in the actual answer.
Sometimes, OP already knows exactly what answer(s) they'll get, they just want to
- See who will give the answer, possibly for tagging purposes
- Let the world see what the responders think and let the reader be the judge
Sure, but let's imagine. If there's a conference somewhere (it doesn't matter what it is about), and you go there and start screaming on a loudspeaker anti con-topic questions to try to make someone punch you in the face. You will get punched in the face and then kicked out, probably banned for life, from said conference.
Now, you could argue, that you were trying to get the most toxic people in the con to mask-off themselves. But you will still be just an asshole. It's unhinged behavior, you are the toxic people in the comm. There are rules and a purpose to the space, so don't cry and whine when you get kicked out for breaking such rules.
There are also questions with only one objectively correct answer that is easily findable with a basic web search. That's usually why I downvote here.
Sometimes it's a rant or opinion piece posing as a question. That's off-topic.
Or sometimes it's begging the question.
And sometimes it's just deeply misogynistic.
"No stupid questions", in this community at least, does not mean "stupid questions are bad! We don't want them! Go away, stupid people!"
It comes from the phrase teachers say, "Remember, there are no stupid questions!", to encourage discussion and curiosity in the classroom. When question-asking sorts of communities formed, they shortened it to just "no stupid questions" (context is lost if you do not know the phrase, a little ambiguous)
This community prioritises discussion and curiosity, so questions that are against that (e.g. attacking individuals or groups, personal arguments, unfounded conspiracy theories) are not what we want (so yes, the score number will become more negative)
As for me, I updoot the questions that I think are worth asking. Topics I'm not as interested in or am not familiar with I ignore, but if somebody is being unkind or generally awful, downdoot for them.
I swear to god if you're that canal guy again...
Drama inducing content - racist/sexist stuff etc
Personal crap - my bf said my eyebrows were darker what should i do/im clearly immature let me share details of my fake kink and ask edgy questions.
Unanswerable - if the whole world blew up how would you feel. Erm I wouldn’t.
A majority are not stupid questions they are just in the wrong place, or are clearly attention seeking’ or rage baiting.
Finally I personally think people here are less tolerant of bad faith users. They don’t want the community being abused and they vote to try and maintain better behaviour. I do it because idiots gonna idiot. So let them know with a vote.
Contrary to the name there are stupid question.
Why feminists hate men ?
What Trump did that is so awful?
Why everybodies are against Israel ?
To name a few. They came from bad faith actor that try to stir shit into the community or by stupid people. We did our part, we educated most people. It’s sadly not our job anymore to answer this stupid question
Engagement bait, US defaultism, the person already knows better and shouldn't be asking. There are a couple.
If they don't contribute to good conversation.
"Stupid questions" i.e. questions that reveal you are missing some basic common knowledge, are actually generally downvoted on No Stupid Questions. Along with any that intentionally agitate people or are otherwise bad faith, bury the lead or otherwise strawman The Correct Side in an unpleasant way.
There needs to be something at least marginally interesting about the conversation the question generates. If it's just annoying/tedious/aggravating, people will downvote.
Spelling.
FAQs? Logically impossible questions? Something violating rights, like "why are whiteys even allowed to exist" or so?
For me, it's spelling.
A question asked in bad faith isn't stupid, it's a question in bad faith. Bad faith questions are quite common unfortunately. Rhetorical questions, begging the question, questions that are based on a sneaky false premise, etc. The subject might not even realize that the question is bad faith, because they acquired that question elsewhere. The fact it was honestly posed by a proxy, doesn't change the fact that the question is bad faith.
I don’t know who the canal guy is. I also try to just ignore questions I don’t like and upvote everyone else to help everyone be seen.
No question made in good faith and ignorant of possible answers is stupid.
The answer to the question posed is simply people have differing opinions on how a downvote in particular should be used. My thought is that it should be for a post that has no relevance in the thread. If I disagree, then I post a comment. An upvote should be used where you think more people should see it, not necessarily if you totally agree with it.
An up or downvote without more engagement just to agree or disagree is lazy, but at least the upvote is serving a little purpose.
I'd be quite surprised if you didn't understand the most basic psychology behind some people feeling the urge to downvote something for a reason other than it being something worthy of a downvote.
Hadn't thought of all that, I just sometimes feel bad when someone asks a question and gets downvoted. I tend up upvote almost everyone and scroll past the ones I don't want to read.
But I'll nevr tell 😉
yeah, some people confuse "I dont want to promote this" with "this should be punished with downvotes"
If ppl dont like a question they should just not engage or upvote
Maybe they should go back to Reddit
humans are humans everywhere.