I was trying to explain how to ask a good question to my nephew and totally failed.

We were at my kitchen table last month, and he was stuck on a school project. I told him to just 'ask anything' online for help. He typed 'help me' in a forum and got zero replies. I realized I never taught him the key part: you have to give the details. I said, 'Tell them the project is about local bridges, you're in 8th grade, and you need three sources by Friday.' His next post got five answers in an hour. How do you guys explain this to people without sounding like a teacher?

4 comments

4 Comments

jasonallen2mo ago

What's the worst question you've ever seen online?

fiona_west211mo agoMost Upvoted

That "vegetable oil in an engine" question is a classic. But I have to gently correct kelly385 on that one. It's not a totally crazy question - people with old diesel Mercedes used to run them on filtered vegetable oil back in the 80s. It wasn't good for them long term, but it wasn't just someone being stupid either. Now someone asking about vegetable oil in a modern gas engine, that's a different story.

kelly3852mo ago

Oh man, "worst question online" makes me think of those super obvious ones people could just google in two seconds. I saw someone in a cooking group ask "how do I boil water" with complete seriousness. Another time, a guy on a car forum asked if he could use vegetable oil instead of engine oil. It's wild what people will post instead of doing a quick search.

dakota4152mo ago

Seriously, vegetable oil in an engine? That's a new level, @jasonallen. Some people just don't think before they post. It's like they want to wreck their car on purpose.