People Online Giving Unsolicited Advice

@wanderer1991 haha I’m glad I came across this comment. It got a good giggle out of me and I needed it 🙂

@wanderer1991
Okay, I understand. I've seen many posts in here that point exactly in that same direction where a simply statement is made where neither a question is asked nor an answer is solicited.

What we have to understand is that an open forum that is set up as a question/answer platform which is how this website is marketed to form a membership, is not a whiteboard mounted on a washroom wall where someone can scribble an irrelevant statement with a felt pen to achieve the same effect which neither asks a question nor solicits an answer.

Therefore, when you write an irrelevant statement in a forum like SW but then you become offended by someone who attempts to provide you with an unsolicited answer, the bottom line is, you should really be restricting any irrelevant statements you write to your favorite washroom whiteboard instead of using this SW forum because you're in the wrong place to do this kind of thing if you think that someone won't misread your irrelevant statement as being a grammatically incorrect presentation of a question.

That is why members here at SW will flood your post with a plethora of answers and solutions to a question you never asked, because they have no reason to believe you were not asking a question, but they have every reason to believe that you are simply illiterate. For that reason, they assume you are attempting to ask a question or are asking for advice. Sort of like someone walking up to you on the street and saying to you, "I am lost!". They didn't ask a question and they weren't seeking a solution to their problem. In that case, would you ignore them like you are asking the members of SW to do when you present in the same way?

Hopes that helps you to understand where you really are here.

@swirlie The statement in question wasn't made here. It was made on Facebook. I was referring to social media and the Internet in general.

But this place to me has always been about expressing my personal thoughts and feelings. I was looking for an alternative to Experience Project because I use to do the same thing there. It has never been about seeking guidance or advice to me unless specifically stated. On the main page of SW it says “ Discuss Experiences, Share Stories, Ask Questions, Find Answers, Explore Interests, Make Friends ... Express your true Self! “. It doesn’t say “Ask Questions, Receive Unwanted Advice”. Asking questions does not automatically mean that you’re looking for their advice. You can ask questions and receive answers without advice being involved. People can ask someone their thought’s and feelings on a subject without wanting their advice.

@wanderer1991

Actually, you've contradicted yourself.

In your original post and your response to me, you inferred that your issue was about making a simple statement which DID NOT contain a question component, but you received answers to a question that wasn't asked in the first place, which was followed by unsolicited advice which you never asked for either.

You inferred as well that this behavior is a chronic condition among people on the internet who read non-question statements, but then act on them as if a question had been asked and advice solicited.

But now you are telling me:


... however, you're forgetting that your original argument all along has been that you never asked a question in the first place! Yet NOW you are saying that a question was being asked for which you received unsolicited advice!

Since you've reversed your direction from your thread-post's intended argument, I now ask you, when you ask someone a question and they provide you with an answer, why would you criticize their unsolicited advice IF you were already cognizant of the knowledge behind their advice, of which could only happen IF you had already possessed a pre-knowledge to the answer of your own question?

If you were already cognizant of the knowledge behind their advice, then you would have no reason to ask the question in the first place because the answer to your question would have inherently contained the content of their advice.

This would also mean that for you to ask that question anyway, you would have already known the answer to your own question BEFORE you asked it if you actually knew what you were talking about.

Therefore, what would be your motivation for posting a question you knew the answer to, other than to create an opportunity to troll a website for the express purpose of attacking people who give unsolicited advice in answer to a trap you have set for them? 🕳️

@swirlie I never said my post was referring exclusively to “statements which do not contain a question component” it was referring to all unsolicited advice being given in general, and the purpose of asking a question that you already know the answer to would be because you are curious to hear other peoples opinions and viewpoints on the matter. If you can’t distinguish between advice and opinions/viewpoints I don’t know what to tell you.

@wanderer1991
Then tell me, since you've decided to 'spin' your point to fit the mold of your ever-changing rhetoric, what IS the difference between advice, opinions and viewpoints?

@swirlie I never changed anything. You just came onto my post and made assumptions. An Opinion is a personal view or belief. Advice is guidance, recommendation or suggestion.

An example of an "Opinion" would be: “I believe the sky is red.”.

An example of "Advice" would be: “You should believe that the sky is blue, because it is.”.

@wanderer1991
How can I make assumptions about your post when your post is self-explanatory in every edition of it's spinning?

@swirlie I have no desire to argue about this further. Best of luck.