Discussion > Rhetorical question
"Careful how you answer."
A rhetorical question isn't intended to be answered.
geronimo
The first answer on Ward Cunningham's wiki when I did the same thing there in 1999 - in fact just the three word question - was simply "No." The humour was helped by the fact the original wiki allowed total anonymity - no signature on the page itself, like Wikipedia today, just a short-lived note of the domain name used in Recent Changes (very unlike Wikipedia today).
Sorry for the trip down memory lane. It was partly prompted by wanting to ask a question about whether our lives are enhanced by interacting with trolls. Then I thought better of it. Was it going to be rhetorical only? I wasn't sure I could bear the actual discussion, trolls and all. Hence this one instead.
Richard Drake
When I was studying philosophy, about a hundred years ago, one of the favourite urban myths was that some examining board had set the question “Is this a question?” and that someone had got full marks for answering “Yes, if and only if this is a response”.
No, our lives are not so enhanced. Of course, everyone is free to decide who is a troll, and act accordingly, but any commentary on their decision is by definition an interaction.
By the way, that doesn't mean that I think that everyone I don't interact with is a troll. There are only so many hours in the day.
geoffchambers
Is this one?
Careful how you answer.