[META] Can we stop asking if plants are "weeds" or if they look like "weeds?"

Could we not understand better the exact concerns the requesters have if they are more specific in there requests? Is it the aesthetics they worry about? The invasiveness? How tall it gets?

Again, there's a great simple word that humanity has invented as a catch all for all of those concerns - which is of course the word "weed." It is condescending to think that when people ask if something is a weed or not it's because they are too ignorant to ask all of your more specific questions. When they ask if it's a weed it's a simple way of asking if the plant has undesirable qualities.

Just because something technically works doesn't mean it can't be made better, so why all the hate towards improvement and education?

Because what your are suggesting isn't an improvement and clearly most of the people here disagree with you. Imagine when someone asks if "is this a weed or a flower?" And we all chime in "there is no such thing as a weed, only a plant in an unwanted place." They will just respond...uh..okay, so is this a plant that I shouldn't want here? Isn't it easier for them to just ask if it's a weed? Seriously this is the textbook definition of being overly pedantic. I know you have good intentions and feel like all of these ignorant souls need to be saved from using the term weed, but what you are suggesting is not an improvement, it actually makes things more confusing for beginners and comes across as elitist pedantry. We get it. You know that there is no botanical scientific catagory called "weeds" but again that doesn't mean the term is useless even if it is not scientific. I know your upset about the down votes but in this case you are asking the group for their opinion on your rant and they disagree with you which is why they are showing that with down votes. I think if you ask people what their opinion is about an idea and they downvote it you shouldn't get mad, they just disagree with you. You asked the question.

/r/whatsthisplant Thread Parent