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As I didn't find any better title, please feel free to revisit.

Yesterday somebody asked a "simple" question: "How to ensure block elements will be on same line in a table?".

There were two answers, that perfectly solved the problem. But after a few minutes there was a comment like this on the question:

Is this a fake question? Why do you ask a simple question like that when you have 2000+ reputation. Do you just want to gain rep or attract bots to upvote your questions.

(This is not the original quote, cause the comments were removed. I tried to remember the content).

My question is: What is that supposed to mean? How can you gain extra or more reputation by asking a "simple" question when you already have a good rep? And what about this "bot thing"? Didn't get that either.


And by the way. I answered that comment with something like that:

Why should it be fake? Maybe the OP gained 2000 rep asking hardcore C++ questions but has no clue about HTML. (Not offending in any way.)

Immediately after my comment I got a down vote (my first one, argh) on "this (also very simple) answer" and some minutes later on my answer to the question from above, that was stated as "fake". I found that strange too, somehow. Or are my answers badly presented? I mean one line of code doesn't need much explanation – in those cases, right? And yes, I read "How to improve low quality answers consisting of only a code block?" just some minutes ago. :)

Maybe this is not a good (written) question, but maybe you can explain what this comment was all about.

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    I think this falls under the header "Some people on the internets are weird". Who can tell why they say or do certain things. I don't immediately see a problem with the question, nor with your answer. Shit happens.
    – Bart
    Jul 20, 2012 at 11:52
  • Yes. And some people are weird before they drink their coffee and later realize they said something stupid and remove their comment. Jul 20, 2012 at 11:54
  • @dystroy No need to get personal with me.... oh, you meant in general? ;)
    – Bart
    Jul 20, 2012 at 11:54
  • I think I'll remove my last comment... [now drinking the coffee] Jul 20, 2012 at 11:54
  • @dystroy actually, it was a ♦ moderator who removed the comments. Jul 20, 2012 at 12:05
  • @MarcGravell I know, I've read your answer. That's the reason (well, with the coffee) why I removed my last comment. Jul 20, 2012 at 12:06
  • I guess you're right, @Bart. Many thanks for all your comments. :) Jul 20, 2012 at 13:19
  • Some people believe that high rep users attract all the votes, and that this is unfair. Similar to wonder why rich people have all the money.
    – Bo Persson
    Jul 20, 2012 at 13:40
  • That's probably true. But I think, people have a high reputation because they give good and well written answers and it's some sort of trust for quality. I also think that 2k is not "a very high" reputation – seeing all those people with 10k+. But for me: I was – of course – happy to reach 1k. :) Jul 20, 2012 at 13:46

1 Answer 1

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Indeed, the original comment was:

2Moderator: The user with 2000+ reputation asks very simple question. It's fake. No one could really upvote this in clear mind. Are you admitting bots?

Which makes no sense to me. Programming is a diverse subject, both broad and deep. A user with 300k can still be entirely and wholly ignorant of a given area. I know I am! Asking a well written but seemingly basic question is fine, and has nothing to do with the asker's reputation.

Haters gonna hate. This was all cleaned up 14 hours ago; it was flagged, and the moderator reviewing it correctly realised that the flag was incorrect, and marked the flag "declined". And cleaned up the noise in the comments. Good job that mod (BoltClock, take your bow!).

I suspect the person flagging somehow felt that you shouldn't ask a simple-looking question, and that therefore you must be trying to get a few upvotes from a simple question. Frankly, that person is misguided.

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    All in a day's work. Jul 20, 2012 at 12:03
  • Many thanks for your answer. It pretty much sums up, what I was thinking. And it was also a good thing to clean that comments. Jul 20, 2012 at 13:18

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