Warnock's Dilemma
The concept of "Warnock's Dilemma" is rooted in a post sent by Bryan Warnock to the Bootstrap mailing-list at Perl.org:
The problem with no response [to a post] is that there are five possible interpretations:
- The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There's nothing more to say except "Yeah, what he said."
- The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.
- No one read the post, for whatever reason.
- No one understood the post, but won't ask for clarification, for whatever reason.
- No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.
Dee of Classy.dk paraphrases it thusly:
"Warnock's Dilemma: The act of choosing whether the lack of response to a discussion-list post is because of its brilliance (there's nothing to add) or because of its stupidity (it doesn't deserve comment)."
As a blogger I face this silent dilemma all the time... At least now I know it has a name.
Nýleg svör frá lesendum