ChaCha Tips: Dealing with Pranks

ChaCha guides are targeted daily by pranksters. Pranksters are either just individuals (teenagers) or worse, people from message board forums making a mockery of ChaCha. They copy and paste, and post your conversations on various forums, so always be on your best behavior. Don't get into a dialog or conversation with them. Always maintain the utmost professionalism. You are a representative of ChaCha. Use your best judgment when reporting an info seeker as abusive.

Common Pranks

"Hello?"
Sometimes it is a prank, but sometimes it s just someone unfamiliar with ChaCha, they have a legit inquiry, and want to see if a 'real' person will answer. As a general rule, answer the inquiry, ask for clarification, and then move on from there. What will sometimes appear to be a prank is a real search. Give it the benefit of the doubt, always.

"Mudkips"
Mudkips, Herd you like Mudkips or Do you like Mudkips, are all prank searchers. Mudkips is actually a Pokemon character, the phrase "so I herd you like mudkips" was a phrase used by Pokemon fans to invite others to join their group. A twisted site called 4chan, which is currently running a forum just for ChaCha pranks, made "Mudkips" popular by posting a story about a school disturbance involving a Mudkip stuffed toy.

"Goatse, Meatspin, Lemonparty"
Goatse', 'meatspin', 'lemonparty', do not fall for this, it is the oldest trick in the book, or internet rather, and guides get searches for these terms everyday. DO NOT GO TO THESE SITES! These 'webpages' are just links to disturbing images, that's all I can say, just don't go for it, and report it as abusive.

"Noobs"
What is a NOOB? A 'noob' is a newcomer. This refers to a person specifically belonging to a game site, or a newsgroup. The term noob, a.k.a. nub, noobtard, noobstain, among others is just internet lingo for an inexperienced person on the internet. While they refer to newcomers in a good way "newbie" a "noob" is an insult. Again, another term pranksters search for just to get you going, and try to get you into a conversation.

So far, these are the most 'infamous' inquiries we get on ChaCha. If we work together to not feed into the nonsense, maybe, just maybe it will stop. Eventually if we all just work together to not answer the blatantly obvious pranks, they will give up, and probably move onto something else.