Comment by _DeadFred_
5 days ago
What was the Twitter joke. 'If I want an answer to a programming question, I post the question, and then an incorrect response from a different account.' No ones posting to help, but a lot will post to smugly correct the wrong answer.
This trick has been around forever, it's actually got a name, "goodhart's law"
Oh your comment is so clever because now I’ve gone to correct you that it’s actually Cunningham's Law.
I'm not entirely sure if smugness is the entire reason for doing it -- I suspect that for many of us (particularly autistics like me) there's a certain amount "But someone's wrong on the internet!" syndrome going on.
Some of us just can't work up the energy to answer a question, but if we see something wrong, it doesn't sit well with us, and we have to correct it.
And yes, sometimes when I see a question I can answer, it gives me the energy to answer it ... but not always ...
old IRC joke