Cunningham's Law

Cunningham’s Law

The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer

~ Ward Cunningham (1994, Author of Gang of Four book, inventor of WebM)

I recently tested it on mastodon social media and have observed this phenomenon on other platforms. I posted a picture of leaves wrongly attributing it to a maple leaf. No one interacts with my posts. But someone wanted to correct me. I have posted several useful pieces of information yet, no one cares. I think people to virtue signal are tempted to correct others by putting in their time and effort.

This can be used for good causes. I witnessed this up close on Reddit where a person having two Reddit accounts posted a genuine query. She used the other account to give wrong answers and after a couple of hours, people were discussing the right answer for her.