Something I actually love about the Fediverse—and I'm not being sarcastic at all right now, btw—is all of the unsolicited advice I get from random people who already know way more than I do about whatever incredibly niche topic.

There have been so many times I've posted something bizarrely specific, not even asking for advice, and had replies from people who'd already gone there before me, giving me their takes on what to do or not to do. One reason I not only don't mind this but, again, welcome it is because most of the advice I've been given in that context has been helpful. I say "most" and not "all," and "helpful" and not "correct," not because most of it's incorrect. Most of it's not incorrect. I say that because of me more so than anyone/anything else: not all reasonable advice applies, at least all the time, to me and whatever I'm trying to do, and again, that's usually because I'm already out on the fringe anyway. That doesn't mean the advice is bad in its own right, though, and it's usually not. It's usually still helpful, even, or perhaps especially in that case. People here are in one way or another, on average, about as fringe as I am by my own estimate, so fair enough. This is exactly what I mean when I say that I welcome any and all reasonable advice.

I'm not saying that Reply Guys don't exist, or that RTFM is always an unreasonable response; I'm saying that the Fediverse is, in my experience, particularly useful for troubleshooting whenever RTFM is impractical, either because the FM doesn't even exist or, again, may not be fully relevant if it does. The reality that rational people would be willing to pay for that kind support makes it both hilarious and amazing that random people on the Fediverse give it away for free when no one even asked for it. If you do that, and if you also identify as a guy, that still doesn't make you a Reply Guy if you're asking me; that makes you, to me, some guy who replies, and replies with something that doesn't waste everyone's time at that, which is unfortunately rare on the Internet (however ironically).

Reply Guys can be found anywhere on the Internet, not just here. The way I look at it is that the more helpful a community is, the fewer Reply Guys there are proportionally, and the more people actually reply. So the Fediverse is quite helpful according to my own logic.

Just so we're clear, I do block people who piss me me off, immediately. It's just that that doesn't happen here very often, especially as compared to the rest of the Internet I'm familiar with. If I had to ballpark it, I'd say that for every one person I block here specifically because of their interactions with me on my own posts, I become mutuals with—and this is conservative, frankly—five more, and that's not an exaggeration.

This is what I love about most of you:
most of you are unapologetically weird.

This is how it's supposed to be.
Thanks.

#Fediverse #Thanksgiving #HappyThanksgiving2025 #RTFM #ReplyGuy #ReplyGuys