It was posted earlier in this thread:
The hyper criticalness of this forum is somewhat offputting. It feels like a good portion of the posters here are just lying in wait for an opportunity to get negative.
I completely agree, and now have a fantastic example.
I don't want to call out the individual because this attitude is shared by many in our community (including myself, sometimes). Compare the questions in the OP:
I'm playing a HOFi and am a relatively new player (only won once, tried a hundred times).
I started out my background with axes. But pretty soon in I found this wicked trident! What should I do? ignore it and train axes or switch to polearms?
Thanks for the help!
(if you spot any other glaring errors do let me know, I'm for example not sure wearing plate this early is wise)
With a response like this:
That trident is bad, and the rPois on it is useless. Don't train polearms.
Advice like this is something I'd argue is actively harmful to the questioner:
1) Absolute advice
2) Surprising advice
3) Given without justification
4) Speaking down to the questioner
How many newbies will want to come back when they're exposed to a tone like that? "Your question is dumb, you are dumb for asking it, don't bother us."
Would someone joining the forum for the first time enjoy reading an answer like this? Or would it be better to say something like:
"The base damage of your trident is less than a war axe, and your aptitude for axes vs polearms means it's much less efficient to train. On a merfolk the opposite would be true."
or
"rPois only prevents a bit of poison damage which is relatively rare, and poison dot shouldn't be dangerous if you engage enemies one on one."
Of course, none of the previous answers in the thread are this nice. Nobody has the energy to write an essay every time. But none of the other answers were so condescending or brusque. They offered suggestions in a relatively friendly manner and without an absolutionist tone. Just because the answerer thinks they have "the right answer" should not be an excuse for such hostile behaviour.