Hi. I want to discuss a certain phrase that’s become a pet peeve of mine to see but also spawned some curiosity. I’m not particularly here to complain about its usage though, just to set things straight. It’s chiefly seen in Help and Feedback categories but definitely isn’t a stranger to other categories.
Hope (this/that) helped.
This certain phrase has appeared as sort of a pet phrase/signature for a significant amount of members across the DevForum - New Members especially - and I’ve never quite understood why that’s the case. Is it some kind of well-wish, or an uncertainty about the content you’re replying with the aspiration that it either alleviates or resolves a question?
For those of you who tack it on, why? Is there any meaning or intention behind the phrase? How does it come up so naturally on so many posts?
I think the usage comes from the forum being primarily run by humans who might use different nuances when they reply, and not every bit of the reply needs to have meaning. Whether or not they intend it as “I hope this is relevant to your issue” or “I want to be polite”, replying might vary from person to person, but I think it’s just another phrase that kinda catches on to new people trying to be nice. Hope this helped.
Taken literally, for sure. That’s more when my latter questions spin up - wondering how it spins up naturally as if it’s a built-in signature plugin of some kind.
Maybe I’m looking too deeply into it, but it’s struck me as genuine curiosity at this point and I just had to ask about it, especially to those who do include it in their posts. I’ve just gotten so curious in the why of it.
And personally, I’m not a fan of it. Doesn’t mean people should stop just because of that though.
It seems to be posted more frequently when their reply was genuinely not helpful. I usually get either a condescending or uncertain vibe from it, but I think it’s better off to assume people just want to be polite.
As mentioned in previous replies, it is mainly an intention of politeness. The author writing the phrase assumes he has answered your question but uses this phrase as something along the lines of: “This is the answer to how I interpreted your issue but I may not be completely correct”
I usually just tack it to the end of my answers in Scripting Support, especially to those who lack critical programming knowledge; people who’re still learning the basics.
Learning to program isn’t an easy feat—it takes a lot of brainpower to think like a computer. I subconsciously do it as a sort of respect symbol, like a “Bonne journée!” to newbies, wishing them the best on their path to mastery.
I might be overthinking this—it’s frankly something I never have to think about. I just do it. I can safely say most of us do it as a sign of respect.
Question: Why is this a pet peeve for you? It doesn’t seem like an immediate issue, unlike far-too-common phenomena of the “XY Problem” or “No Hello” problem (Google if you’re unsure), both of which REALLY grind my gears.
I’m unsure why this would be an issue to you. Like I said, most of us probably do it because we mean it more than anything.
Hear me out, this may sound pretty crazy, but just maybe…just maybe it’s because the person who replied to whatever topic hopes their answer helps the original poster with their problem out of kindness? I know that may sound a bit crazy but it’s just a little thought experiment.
In all seriousness though, the phrase means the person who wrote it hopes they were able to help the original reply with whatever solution/advice given prior to writing the statement. It’s not like it’s a symptom of just the devforum, many forums and social media platforms have members who commonly use the phrase when they assert a solution to a problem / give advice. Hope this helped you understand the meaning behind the phrase a little better!
I guess it’s kind of useless and there isn’t really a “meaning behind it”. Not going to lie, I did use this ‘phrase’ in the past, and I guess people just add it on so creator of the post can then reply back to it saying if it helped or not. The phrase is completely useless but I guess that’s one way you could put it.
I have also noticed this (on scriptinghelpers too), where people add “hope I helped” on the bottom of their posts, which makes me wonder if they’re certain that their answer is actually answering someone’s question.
I’m not annoyed by it, nor am I a fan of it. If you’re not sure if your answer is correct, or whatever it is, do research. I’m more of a fan if you say something like “Let me know if you’re still struggling!”. That indicates (to me at least) that you think you genuinely solved their issue, but if they have any other issues with the implementation or how to add it to their system, that they can just reach back to you for help.
If they think your answer might not work, they won’t go to the same extent trying it out as when they’re confident it actually should work. Then they’d ask for help again so that they can have an added feeling of certainty before giving it another shot.
I normally end my posts/responses with that phrase because I probably had a similar problem before, and am just sharing my solution to how I solved it. It isn’t guaranteed to work, as sometimes developers leave out parts of the whole problem, which is why the ‘hope’ portion can account for the uncertainty of a provided solution to work.
Well… okay! Now I know today was one of my brain fart days where I decided to ask something completely random. Awesome. I don’t even know why myself I don’t like the phrase.
I regret making this thread.
I’m just going to leave this thread open. Thanks for spending your time humouring me. I’m going to go into a corner and think about this now.
