I've noticed over the past couple of years, the propensity of bloggers on many websites, including TV.com, to ask inane or incredibly vague questions, which, for some reason, receive far more responses than intelligently worded questions. At first, I presumed it's because people are naturally curious and/or helpful, and want to see what the question really means, by looking at the "details", which are usually hidden from view, until the surfer/respondent clicks on the vague question's link.

For example, in a recent TV.com forum for "Futurama", the topic question was "Will it be the same?" If you had no idea what "Futurama" was or didn't know about the current situation surrounding that show, you'd probably say, "Who cares?", or, at the very least, "What the heck is he/she talking about?", and move on to the next thread, or realize that you're wasting your life on the computer, and go outside and play! ;)

Another one is in TV.com's Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Does Anyone Know?" I'm not kidding. That's the question! Of course, if you deign to read the newb's question, he/she asks about unknown (to him/her) ST titles, which a respondent says are the names of ST-based videos. Why couldn't the asker simply write, "Does anyone know to what these ST titles refer?" Why? Because a reasonable respondent would have said, "You did a web search for a character from the show, but didn't think to search for the titles in question???" Clearly, the newb couldn't care less about the real question, and was looking for just such responses, in hopes of getting the respondents or even themselves moderated (there are some people who get off on that kind of thing, primarily because they have no life beyond their virtual one).

Instead, most people - - intelligent or otherwise - - would tend to be overcome by a wave of curiosity, and want to know more. It's similar to asking a politician a very specific question, and then getting unrelated or irrelevant rhetoric in return (great alliteration, eh?), and then saying, "Yup, I agree! I'm voting for him/her!", even though no real answer or opinion was given.

Here's a simple test: Which question would you be more likely to respond to, whether or not you knew the answer?

1) How does Einstein's famous theory relate energy to mass?

2) What's this theory about?

I'm willing to bet that most readers would ignore the first, incredibly specific, one, believing it to be too complex or obvious to bother responding, while the second one has so little information, that one can't help but be intrigued and want to see more. Advertising/marketing at its best! Don't believe me? Then why did you read this blog? It has a ridiculously vague, if not inane, question, which could refer to anything and everything! Any intelligent person would/should simply ignore it for being unworthy of their attention (i.e., if the writer can't ask a direct question, how can respondents possibly give a direct answer? Can you imagine what a classroom would be like if every student in every classroom asked only vague, unanswerable questions?). But, if I had written the more accurate and specific, "Why do bloggers write vague questions?", your response probably would have been, "Who cares?", and you would have moved on.

I did a bit of unscientific research on the web: The average, intelligently worded question asked on question-and-answer websites (which begs the question, why in the world are there so many of them? Can't folks ask a question, get an answer, and be done with it? But, I digress . . . ) receives one or two equally intelligent answers, with, on rare occasion, one trollish answer, usually asked by a newbie to that site (e.g., "I don't know" or "Who cares?"). But, absurd and vague questions, such as "Plz hlp me!!!!" (seriously!) and "Am I doing the right thing?", receive, on average, 5-6 "good" answers, with one or two trollish ones thrown in. Astonishing!!!

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but I am guilty of responding to inane/vague questions. I keep saying to myself, "Geez! I know all they want is attention (and are getting it!), but why do I feel so compelled to respond to such nonsense???" Is it because I think I'm more intelligent than the person who asked the question, and want to pat his/her head and say, "There, there . . . let Daddy help you?" And, more importantly, since most of the people asking such are children and teens with nothing better to do, it seems to me that they would make the perfect politician or marketing executive, if their energies were redirected.

Gangs thrive where there are no police and people are too frightened to speak up. Websites with so-called moderators will often tell those who report such vague questions, et al., to chill, rather than recognize the validity of the "citizen-cop" (it has happened to me on this and other websites; recently, I even got moderated on this site for reporting a member! It's one thing to say, "chill"; it's quite another to be moderated for trying to be helpful. There'd be less crime on the streets if every decent person spoke up. Likewise, this recent moderation only makes me feel that my input is unworthy, unhelpful, and unwanted, which has, essentially, frozen me with fear that I, a self-professed "good guy", might be cast in the same light as a troll or a mere tattler).

So, I am putting my foot down! I will not respond to any more vague or inane or emotionally charged or childish questions or forum threads, in the hopes that the trolls and ne'er-do-wells will either shape up or ship-out! Yeah, I know: I'm living in a fool's paradise, but, I can only hope that others will read this, and be moved to act in a similar fashion, in the hopes of making the web a better place! (per my "Burger King" blog, BK has seemed to eliminate its violent, nonsensical ads; I'd like to think that I had something to do with that, so who knows what I might accomplish with this blog?) Ooh! There's a forum thread asking, "What's this all about?" I think I know the answer to that one!!! I can't wait to help!!! ;)