Don't Post Passive-Aggressive Webpages
20 comments
·November 16, 2025mosselman
abnercoimbre
And what's the deal with these "blog posts" using AI brazenly? It's so cowardly, not to mention lazy. Just stop.
ultamatt
Kinda missing the irony here it seems.
a5seo
I’m totally going to drop this link next time I see a passive aggressive link dropped in a comment! /s
comrade1234
"The intent behind these sites might stem from a desire to encourage better questions, promote self-sufficiency, or manage repetitive queries. "
What? No. The intent is to lightly mock the user and point out that they are asking a leading/epiplexis question. Maybe the other person thinks higher of you than they should and maybe you really didn't understand the point they're making, but from my perspective that is what is usually happening.
awestroke
Don't post, period. Only consume.
verall
I am already wrong since I am replying to an AI blog post - but -
The point of these is that it is a widespread annoyance. No, it's not nice to send someone a link to nohello.net, but it is letting them know that you are annoyed.
If every time someone Slacks you "Hello", you send this link, you're probably an asshole. If you send this to your boss, or to senior people in your org, you are a moron.
But everyone knows the serial "hello"-ers, and if you tell them nicely "Please just ask your question", they will just say "Yes of course", and then do the exact same thing next time. By sending the link, you are telling them, YOU ARE ANNOYING ME, without having to be so direct as saying something like, "If you Slack "hello" to me while I'm working outside of my hours on a customer deliverable one more time I will lose it with you".
It _is_ a shaming. It _is_ a talking down to. It is saying "get a clue".
But I have slack conversations that are just "Hello" - "Hello" (weeks pass) "Hello" - "Hi" (days pass) "Hello" - "Hi".
They do not have a specific question for you. They are looking for someone to dump their work on, and they pick whoever lets them know they are available, by replying
krisoft
What i really hate is when i search to solve some problem and I find a page where someone asked the exact thing i need, but the answer is just some smart alec hectoring them that they should google first. Especially when in reality there are no other good results.
ang_cire
Or perhaps I can make the choice of when I choose to be helpful in a cheerful way, and when I give a passive-aggressive response.
This toxic positivity trend disguising itself as genuine kindness is leading to the HR-ification of everyday life.
BolexNOLA
I’m not sure it’s “toxic positivity” to say “being passive aggressive/using trite URLs to respond with no intention of actually being helpful is unhelpful.”
My biggest complaint about this site is “no duh” lol I can’t imagine there’s a single person out there who has ever linked lmgtfy that genuinely thought they were being helpful.
ang_cire
I think the idea that the only acceptable responses to any given query are helpful ones is absolutely toxic positivity. Not all queries merit helpful responses.
Do unhelpful responses sometimes get leveraged against people genuinely just asking for help? Sure. But people also ask questions in bad faith, and it's a perfectly valid choice to respond in kind.
I've never sent an lmgtfy link to someone asking a technical question, but the "can you actually cite one vaccine that is proven to have saved lives" people get one.
BolexNOLA
People like that thrive on being martyred and/or dragging you into a flame war. They want to stand and fight and make a scene. They want to take the example of how they were silenced or whatever and parade it around to their peers. You being passive aggressive/sarcastic with them only plays into their hand 98% of the time. If you want to make a point for other people looking on, then you answer them calmly with a few sources and move on.
Otherwise, the best course of action is the simplest: ignore/downvote/report and move on. You’re better off spending your energy and wit actually helping people who are there in good faith.
Onavo
Most open source software projects handle it using those AI chatbots that scrape Discord and GitHub Issues and automatically answer your questions.
E.g. better-auth uses dosu, if you see their GitHub discussions
ForgotMyUUID
Just marked your website as DUPLICATE
xchip
lmgtfy is a reasonable one, nobody should get offended for that
behringer
Yes cuz nobody ever thinks to search Google for something before asking.
excuse the passive aggressive form of this comment
baked_beanz
The title is causing horizontal scrolling, at least on mobile...
Maybe I should create a passive-aggressive webpage about sites that don't check their formatting on different screen sizes? ;)
bgwalter
Strictly speaking, "passive aggressiveness" would imply to act or word something in an obstructive manner but in a way that offers plausible deniability.
lmfgtfy.com is an active joke/taunt usually used by the knowledgeable person against a lazy person. There is no attempted deniability or hiding the joke.
> The intent behind these sites might stem from a desire to encourage better questions, promote self-sufficiency, or manage repetitive queries. However, the act of posting the link itself often comes across very differently.
Hate to break it to you, but shaming and ridiculing is always the intent when I use those types of links.