… and why is this community against them?
Ppl take lemmy too seriously. You remember all that negativity from reddit?
Yea, that’s mostly here on lemmy now. Reddit has become much more pleasant since they’ve moved here.
Reddit is not without its issues. Only saying the difference is noticeable for sure.
I’ve often wondered, and occasionally asked people:
Is this question, as I’m asking now with this sentance, a stupid question?
Yes, because you misspelled sentence
What about now?
Perfekt
Huh?
There’s no such thing as a stupid question.
Just a lot of inquisitive idiots.
I’ll take this question in the spirit of the community you posted to. “No stupid questions” refers to the saying “there is no such thing as a stupid question,” which is an aphorism meant to destigmatize expressing ignorance. This is supposed to be a place to ask the questions you might be afraid to ask because you assume everybody else already knows.
The other posters are responding a bit comedically at the notion that this community is fundamentally opposed to asking “stupid questions” when it’s traditionally been a space for “I’ve been afraid to ask, but are you supposed to use shampoo or conditioner first?” type questions.
which is an aphorism meant to destigmatize expressing ignorance
teacher of mine expressed it in the form of the “there are two types of questions - smart ones and those you shouldn’t be ashamed of”.
In general, a stupid question is a question is one that allows a group to shame whomever asked it, often for wasting most people’s time and mental energy either by distracting the group or for asking something that was just explicitly answered. For example, if someone asked, “What does this community have to do with stupid questions?” as a response to my comment. That’s an example of asking something that was answered. Another stupid question in response to this comment could be, “Whhy do men have nipples?” It would be distracting because it is irrelevant to the topic at hand.
Thus, I think the way it is used in this community, “no stupid questions” means that no question will be considered stupid. In other words, users are to feel free to ask anything without fear of being ridiculed for asking it as long as it was in good faith. Moderators will be especially vigilant for anyone shaming an OP for asking a question. Users that subscribe to this community will be extra accepting of all questions.
I don’t think there are any stupid questions … from the time we are children who learn to speak, we will ask millions of questions about everything because that’s how we learn.
The problem is not in asking stupid questions or the right questions but in receiving absolutely dumb answers.
The name of the community comes from the idiom, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.” The idea is that as long as the person asking the question genuinely wants to learn, then there is no question they can ask that would make them stupid because they’re trying to educate themselves - one of the least stupid things you can do.
Some people feel shame at not knowing something, so they’ll often talk down to themselves and call it a stupid question. This is particularly true if the asker feels it’s something that they should already know or everyone around them seems to already know.
This community offers a place where you can ask a question, no matter how small or basic, without fear of being made fun of. In a sense, you might say that the community welcomes stupid questions while at the same time reassuring the questioner that the question is not actually stupid.
You’ve definitely not been in my latest work-related course. Dayum, people are able to ask some really stupid questions. (Subjective opinion)
Along the same lines, ignorance shouldn’t be seen as a negative unless it is willful. There is just so many things that not everyone experiences or has received conflicting information about to say being unaware is a negative until the person refuses to learn.
Good joke, you made me laugh!
The only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask. The full name of this community should be understood to be “[There are] no stupid questions”
Thank you for a good answer
But if that’s true, aren’t there infinite stupid questions, by definition? Because there are infinite unasked questions.
Then we’re going to be here a while.
Yup. So go out there and make the world a smarter place by asking about things you don’t know about. Just don’t use this as a license to be a JAQ-off
I opened this thread hoping for exactly this, and was not disappointed.
In my just over a year here and using him as my avatar, I think this is the first time I’ve actually said the line lol.
I thought i remember a thread from when you first created that account where we were all making you say the line.
Oh, yeah. I did, lol. Forgot about that.
But that was deliberately in-character. I think this is the first time I just threw it out
[Personal view] A stupid question is typically one that has a built-in assumption or fallacy. For example, your question in the title isn’t stupid, until we include the body of the post; the body of the post contains an assumption (that this comm is against stupid questions, when the name of the comm instead conveys “no questions are stupid”), so it makes the question stupid.
So, oddly enough, the part of the question that might make it stupid is not the question itself.
Side note every bloody body does some damn stupid questions once in a while. So don’t take this “you’re question is of stupid!” as personal criticism. i.e. I could be the one asking the stupid question instead and I’m aware of this.
People have already correctly answered that in this community there are no stupid questions, you’re supposed to be able to ask anything without ridicule. But if you want to permit the general existence of stupid questions, here’s the definition I’ve always used.
A stupid question is one you can easily answer yourself.
As in, any question due to real lack of knowledge is not stupid, but if you can answer your own question just by thinking about it for a second, then it wasn’t necessary to ask and therefore "stupid”.
I always thought as tho the meaning of the sub name is to make fun of people who do not awnser “stupid questions” by saying that they are forbidden from the sub.
Maybe I’m just stupid lol
This is the safe space to ask a question you have that you are afraid other people would find stupid.
It’s especially good for things some people feel are common sense, but that others just managed to miss growing up.
Here’s an example. My husband is really smart. But he moved schools a lot over a 3 year period. He managed to completely miss kids being taught 1 is January, 2 is February, etc for dates. He just never learned it.
He knows his birthday in number form. But if he needs, say May 23rd in number form, he’ll look it up or ask me which number May is.
Some people would classify that as a stupid question and be a dick about it. I just answer him. I know he’s tried to learn it, he’s just never sure if he’s right and knows I know.
This sub operates under the good faith that there are no stupid questions, just people who legit missed something along the way.
In life, I would argue, there are stupid questions. But for me, it’s only in situations where someone is clearly just asking questions to make you break, or clearly not listening and asking the same questions over and over without even trying to pay attention, and lastly, weaponized incompetence where people are acting like that because they don’t want to do something and won’t just say no. Basically questions that are exclusively to waste someone else’s time are the only really stupid questions irl imho
But here, you get the benefit of the doubt if you don’t know how to properly brush your teeth, or why May is 5 and July is 7.
I believe the name originated on reddit, and an accurate name would be “thereAreNoStupidQuestionsHere” but the shorter version is what got the brand recognition, but the confusion is understandable
followup question: how is it different from AskLemmy community? (is this question stupid?)
To first clarify this community, it’s not “don’t ask stupid questions” its “there are no stupid questions”. In other words, ask that thing you’ve wanted to know but feel dumb for not knowing. It’s fine- there’s no stupid questions.
AskLemmy is more centered on asking other (lems? Lemians? Lemmers? I have no idea what we call each other.) questions specifically. A question for asklemmy would be something like, “How do you all feel about x?” It’s more of a general question and answer forum where the question is sometimes less important than the discussion that it causes.
I think asklemmy is more like “what do you guys think” and nostupidquestions is for “how do bumblebees fly when they’re so fat”
