Someone asks a question in Trade.

[Deleted]

if its a question they could answer themself by using wowhead or mmoc i troll the hell outa them like they deserve!

[Kudos]

Be the change you want to see. If I know the answer, then I will whisper the person with the answer. Sadly, you almost always see a silly or contrived answer in general or trade chat, or someone simply being blatantly rude or unhelpful. If someone can reply to the person with a snide 'wowhead is your friend, I am not', then they can just as easily give them the answer. I don't buy into the 'give the man a fish / teach a man to fish' philosophy, because there's always exceptions. I've been on an old machine, where I couldn't alt + tab out to thottbot or wowhead before.

I especially like it when the person I'm helping replies with a thankyou.

[NightZero88]

1) You know the answer to the question, off the top of your head, so YOU don't have to do ANY research, since the question invokes knowledge that you already have.
2) You're not doing something particularly demanding - you're not in the middle of an arena match, say, or doing an interview on Teamspeak, you're just chilling in Org maybe browsing the AH, tidying up your bank, mogging shit etc.
3) You cannot tell if the person asking the question is indeed trolling or genuinely clueless about the topic he's asking about.

If those 3 statements are accurate I'd try to answer to the best of my knowledge either in a whisper or general depending how spammy it is. I don't mind helping people typically. If the question is stupid though and not related to the game in any way I'd probably not answer or troll slightly.

[SherbertLand]

Trade chat isn't an information forum.

[lokithor]

All depends on the question. If i know the answer ill tell them. If I feel like I'm getting trolled though I just keep my mouth shut lol.

[silmarilen]

its situational, sometimes i give an honest answer sometimes i full out troll them and sometimes i just troll a bit for fun and then tell them the real answer.

[Deleted]

If the question is dumb I will troll otherwise I send a /w

[xebtria]

Trade chat isn't an information forum.

the chance to change trade back to what it was is looong gone. I'd change it to "talk", because that is what it is. no one really talks in any other channel. /1 general - even if people as questions there, they often get answered in trade chat anyways. /3 local defense or even /4 world defense... havent seen them being used for a long time except for status messages "xyz is under attack". even if they introduce an additional channel for "talk - city", 99% of people would stick to trade - city. they need to rename it or remove it and replace it with the talk channel. but the latter would be effectively the same as the former anyways...

[Dawnseven]

I'm on a high pop server which means there's a high pop of asshats. I honestly don't know why most people even bother asking about anything since they know they're just going to get trolled. That said, I guess if you ask a stupid question ("When is Galleon due to spawn?") you're going to get a stupid answer ("5 minutes") <-- this joke is sooooooo old btw. Please stop it. Two weeks ago someone asked in General chat in Valley where Farmer Fung was if he wasn't in Halfhill and it led to a solid 10 minutes of heavy trolling and verbal abuse. :/

Generally I do as some others here have posted. I'll answer the question in trade or general if I know the answer ("Galleon last died at 5:30") or I'll whisper an answer and try to help a brother or sister out.

(P.S. Another pet peeve is the people that feel it necessary to berate those looking for Gall invites. ("FFS people it's a faction tag! You don't need to be in a group. Just come hit him!!!!!!one!") Some people LIKE being a group. If you're not in a position to send an invite then please do everyone a favor and STFU.)

[Crym]

I will answer in a whisper and hope I don't get one of those people who can't do ANYTHING for themselves. I help when I can, but I've had quite a few people that cling on like a lifeline and while it starts with "where is the AH in this town" which I have no problem explaining (or even grouping up to show them) it becomes "which warrior spec does the best damage at 90?" Go do your research on that one, you have 80 levels to go before it will matter.

[Eazy]

If question is really stupid I just do not answer, if someone really need help with something and question is complicated then I answer.

[xytech]

I always answer politely, and if they are new I'll offer them to join my guild for further assistance.

[Belize]

Depends on how stupid the question is really. Or how big a typo in the question is.

For example someone asked where he could take the "sheep" to Northrend the other day. We trolled the crap out of the poor fellow for typing sheep instead of ship.

[Deleted]

depends on the question.
Get some really stupid ones at times, like level 90's asking where auction house is, where the trainers are, where profession master are etc - These people either get trolled, or told to ask a guard. Seriously is it that hard to ask a guard where shit is in a city ?

Other times get someone asking "interesting" questions such as, how much hit do they need, whats the best stat weights for their class and spec, or even just asking for help about the class - These people get helped.

Bottom line is, if you ask a stupid question you will get a stupid answer.

[Maxilian]

If i see the question and i know the answer then yes i would help that person, most of the time i like to /whisper the answer cause i don't like how my answer get messed up with all the trolls comments, cause that make that person unsure if what i'm saying is true or not

[MoanaLisa]

If I know the answer I tell them. If I know someone else is trolling--read lying--I'll point that out. Otherwise, if I don't know I keep quiet.

[Maxilian]

depends on the question.
Get some really stupid ones at times, like level 90's asking where auction house is, where the trainers are, where profession master are etc - These people either get trolled, or told to ask a guard. Seriously is it that hard to ask a guard where shit is in a city ?

Other times get someone asking "interesting" questions such as, how much hit do they need, whats the best stat weights for their class and spec, or even just asking for help about the class - These people get helped.

Bottom line is, if you ask a stupid question you will get a stupid answer.

There's no stupid questions :P, i don't care i just answer then by /w, i have found many people that don't know that you can talk to a guard for direction and they are not new players, they even have raid groups and are really well equipped...

---------- Post added 2013-04-03 at 09:12 AM ----------

Depends on how stupid the question is really. Or how big a typo in the question is.

For example someone asked where he could take the "sheep" to Northrend the other day. We trolled the crap out of the poor fellow for typing sheep instead of ship.

Even when i troll, i answer the question, for example i troll you in the /trade channel but i /whisper you the answer, also most of the time i have to troll, is not like we have never made stupid mistakes

[Tokru]

Acceptable, but think of this - English is not everyone's first language. Not everyone has the luxury to express oneself in perfect English grammar, both in terms of syntax and punctuation. I used to hold the same view as you - I believed someone's skills in grammar and punctuation were heavily correlated with their character traits & skills. Years later I realized though that this was not the case, and assuming things based on something like knowledge of the English language is heavily biased at best.

I wasn't talking about english.

Also imo you can easily say if someone is using a language other that his native and someone just not caring about proper grammar and spelling. The mistakes are distinguishable.

[Deleted]

If I believe the person isn't trolling when asking the question, I will do my best to answer it. I know how frustrating it can be to seek the answer to something and only get annoying troll responses. That said, it does happen from time to time that I try to joke it up a bit, but I try to keep it friendly so that the person in question also finds it funny. If I can't think of anything witty I will simply proceed to answer his/her question straight and clear.

[fizzbob]

i usually tell them to use the alt+f4 menu to find what they need in the in-game wiki
most do it

first thing you should learn is to never expect a real answer in /2

it takes less time to google something than ask in trade, just no excuse these days, wow isn't that type of game and that's how we've all made it