Warnock's Dilemma, named for its originator Bryan Warnock, is the problem of interpreting a lack of response to a posting on a mailing list, Usenet newsgroup, or Web forum. It occurs because a lack of response does not necessarily imply that no one is interested in the topic, and could have any one of several different implications, some of which are contradictory. Commonly used in the context of trying to determine why a post has not been replied to, or to refer to a post that has not been replied to.
The problem with no response is that there are five possible interpretations:
The problem with no response is that there are five possible interpretations:
[li]The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There's nothing more to say except "Yeah, what he said."[/li]
[li]The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.[/li]
[li]No one read the post, for whatever reason.[/li]
[li]No one understood the post, but won't ask for clarification, for whatever reason.[/li]
[li]No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.[/li]