Quora Question: How can I tell if it is a bass clef or a question mark on a music staff?

This question keeps coming up over and over and over again on Quora. So, in the interest of getting traffic from these multiple requests, I'm going to just link here to the blog. Here's the question:

How can I tell if it is a bass clef or a question mark on a music staff? A bass clef and a question mark are the same thing.

Wow. Not only is this person frustratingly ignorant about what either of those symbols look like, they go the extra mile to assert that there is in fact no difference.

You tell me:

Obviously and unambiguously "the same thing," are they not?

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