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Comment by JSDevOps | Hacker News Reader

They don’t.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

"The adage does not apply to questions that are more open-ended than strict yes–no questions." -the first paragraph of the linked Wikipedia page

But there is not a yes or no answer to the headline question, so Betteridges law does not apply.

From the wiki link you provided, here are examples of where the law applies:

"Is This the True Face of Britain's Young? (Sensible reader: No.) Have We Found the Cure for AIDS? (No; or you wouldn't have put the question mark in.) Does This Map Provide the Key for Peace? (Probably not.)"

Those examples are terrible. Other than the AIDS question, a real discussion of the other two is likely to start out "no, but ...", and much more open-ended in practice than perhaps the author wants to admit. Just like the answer to "Why do remote meetings suck so much" is likely to be "they don't, per se, but..."

wh-questions are different than polar questions, and in particular, saying "no" is infelicitous in most cases, and denying presuppositions is also different than answering a polar question with "no".

From the Washington Post: Does sister need to know her abusive husband is why they stay away? Do landlords have to provide AC? Is your lamp the right size?

The law also doesn't seem to work quite as well when the verb is a modal (e.g. should, can, could, ...).

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