(Rant Post) Why Does It Feel Like Giving Advice Is Evil?

[Eli85]

Unsolicited advice happens when you are incompetent at your job. Easiest way to avoid these occurrences is to be competent.

Being dead weight and causing wipes thus wasting time and effort is a hell of a lot more rude than being told what to do.

Yes, because unsolicited advice only occurs in the work place, right?

Look, if you're being paid to do a job, and you're doing it poorly, then yes, you can't complain about being told what to do. That is just the nature of paid employment in results-based businesses. Yet when it comes to a game, a leisure activity, or a hobby? Yes, that unsolicited advice is very rude, which is why you see more negative reactions to it than positive. It's really amazing that in social games (like MMOs) that so many players (the advice givers) cannot grasp this basic social tenet.

I would have to disagree with this, in the context of grouping up with someone. If you and I were working on a project together, that's a different situation than walking up to a random person doing their job on the street and telling them what to do. It's because we're engaged in a group activity together that makes unsolicited advice socially acceptable. As long as you aren't rude with how you approach the player, then it shouldn't come as a problem, because it's to the benefit of everyone- including the person receiving the advice.

Even in that situation unsolicited advice is not acceptable. It is socially acceptable to ask if the person would like your advice. If they say yes, you give it. If they say no, then you have a choice to make: continue on or find new partners and / or group. Unless the person formally agrees to it (eg., employee contract), it is not socially acceptable to start telling other people what to do, unless it is for the well-being of themselves and / or others.