That doesn’t apply to Linux communities on Lemmy though, but I meet a lot of Linux communities, that are toxic and beginner-unfriendly. People, who have voluntarily decided to maintain a community, behave like I broke into their house at 3 AM with my questions. If I ask a question, there will be a 20% chance to get any relevant response, but a 100% chance of being nagged with some bullshit. It especially applies to the behaviour of mods. For instance, a dude was messing with me because I have searched for a binary on the official internet database, instead of quering it via package manager.
I wish I could just avoid junkyards like that, but I can’t: I haven’t found another active community for Void Linux.
As far as I can tell from my experience, it is something specific to Linux or IT communities.
So why is it like this?
Easy solution:
1: Make a post asking your question.
2: Switch to a different alt account and make a reply giving an obviously wrong solution to your question.
Your sock-puppet reply will attract all the negativity, and the answers painstakingly pointing out why it’s wrong will give you the correct answer.
Sort of similar is people that make posts on social media, some purposefully make a wrong comment in the title to foster engagement, and it works, people will come on to correct the OP and it will get bumped up on the algorithm.
You don’t need a sok puppet–just ask if a really boneheaded solution would work or give a comically bad diagnosis of the problem.
People’s need to be right is greater than their need to help anyone. The hope is that they’re helpful along the way to being right.
The genious