It is clear that the signal to noise ratio of the WWW is getting worse. It’s much harder to find good content when using a good old search engine. And if it’s good it is usually hosted on Reddit or Stackexchange.
So remember, even if it’s easy too Google something (well, it isn’t nowadays), we want to create a fediverse of good content that helps people (I hope). So, it’s always better to write a real answer if you have the time and energy. Please help boost the SNR and reverse the AI fueled information degradation loop.
I think we’re not talking about the same kind of questions here. Questions about “obscure things” someone “couldn’t find [the answer to] on their own” are almost by definition those that cannot be easily looked up using a search engine.
I’m talking about questions like “When is Easter in 2025?”, “What does the W in George W. Bush stand for?”, “Where will the next Tailor Swift concert take place?”, “Who is the oldest member of The Beatles?”.
Those are different from questions like “Can you recommend a children’s book about bears for a 4 year old?”, “Which smartphone should I buy as an environment-conscious person?”, “My car is making some kind of scratchy noise. What could be the cause?”.
When asking about the Beatles, are they asking about those still living or all of the founding members? Sice many bands have changed members over time, could they be asking about the time in the band or their age in years?
Suse, this was easy for the Beatles since they had a single lineup and are popular enough that all of that is easy to find. But it is a good example of a simple question that could be asking different things based on context and even if they get an answer it isn’t necessarily what they are looking for, but they didn’t know how to ask. Follow up questions are possible when interacting with others who may point out missing context, but not for search engines.
Also, kind of funny that you are an instance with ‘discuss’ in the name and you are opposed to discussion about easy to search things.
Either way it would be easy too look up. The person asking would be aware of what they actually want to know after all.
No, I’m saying questions with definite answers that are easy to look up are unnecessary noise. On the contrary, those are exactly the kind of questions that do not invite discussion. I’m all for people discussing anything they like. But if you’re just wondering how many ancient world wonders there are, maybe have a look at the Wikipedia article first.
El oh el