This question was prompted by the following node: json no reload

Its author has repeatedly made low quality posts with an obvious lack of ability or intent to learn anything, expecting us to give him ready-to-use solutions to help him in his nefarious endavors. To put it bluntly, the poster is likely a scammer or script kiddie, except he keeps tripping up in his own shoelaces and he is too retarded to notice even that.

What is the right thing to do with posts like this, given that replying to them is at best a waste of time, but at worst might lead to other, innocent people being hurt?

  1. ignore completely
  2. delete and ban
  3. try to educate the poster
  4. give a malicious answer that hurts the scammer if he is dumb enough to blindly run code from the internet
  5. report to the authorities

Ignoring or deleting seems like avoiding responsibility, like saying "it's not my problem".

Educating doesn't seem to work - now, nor in general.

As for giving a fake answer, I've once read a chatlog where an angry and overconfident kid wanted to hack his neighbor's wi-fi, and someone convinced him to run yes I want to enable wireless hacking > /dev/sda as root on his (or as it turned out, his father's) computer - which is both evil and hilarious. In any case, this is a dangerous option.

Reporting makes me feel like a snitch - but at the same time, if there is evidence for a crime, I (we) have a moral or even legal obligation to report it.

In reply to Ethical considerations of responding to posts made by someone obviously up to no good by kikuchiyo

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