In one of the more bizarre reflections of the simple fact that the e2 population is overwhelmingly made of humans, there seems to be a confusing tendency among people in the chatterbox to completely forget what the chatterbox is a part of.

It isn't a big deal, of course, but it still puzzles me to see people, upon seeing in the chatterbox some comments about something called (for example) "Godspeed You Black Emperor!", respond with

What's "godspeed you black emperor"?
Odd, when you think about it. Everything2 is probably the world's largest general database of definitions. Why would you use its chat function to ask what something is..?

Are these people not thinking? Do they simply, in the heat of the moment, not remember that instead of typing that question into the chatterbox, they could have gone to the search: box up top and asked What's "godspeed you black emperor"? there? Are they just too lazy to scroll to the top of the page? It can't possibly be that the chatterbox is more convenient; getting a response from the chatterbox will likely take several page reloads, whereas going directly to the concept's node would get you your definition immediately and in much greater detail.

Of course, sometimes a statement like "What, exactly, is function decomposition?" is a way of saying "I can't find a node on this, someone write one"; but by and large such questions seem to be prompted by forces unknown.

People are strange.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.