I used to live in an apartment complex. There were 3 floors in my building with an elevator. I was on the 2nd and usually took the stairs, except for when I was going bike riding. There was no visual way to tell if the elevator was going up or down, so I got on at the 2nd floor and went up frequently.

50% of the time, when the doors opened up on the 3rd floor, someone would ask if we were going down. I had to try it one time, so my response was, "sorry, we're going to the 7th floor". The people just stood there and let the doors close.

>>In the VFP Zone someone posted "this might be a stupid question, but..." and of course everyone says, to encourage the OP, "there are no stupid questions."
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>>Well.....
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>>I work in a hospital. We have lots of staff who know the place well, and lots of visitors who get lost easily, as well as being stressed about why they're here. Most everyone here in the hospital uses two elevators (lifts) to get to their work area, so we are all well versed in elevator etiquitte. Sometimes when the elevator stops at at the street level pepole will get on just because the door opened, without checking whether the elevator is going up or down, so if there are people present when the door opens, I always ask which way they're going.
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>>The other day I was getting on at the bottom floor, along with a couple of other people, and as one of the first ones on, I was holding the door open for the others. So, there were about 4 people in the elevator and a couple of other people came along and were staring at the elevator, probably wondering if there was room. I asked them, "Are you going up?"
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>>One of the MDs in the elevator poked fun at me because there was nowhere to go but "up," but really I meant, "Are you wanting to get on the elevator? If so, please get on so we can go up." I had never considered the other interpretation of my question, but I got my smile for the day.
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>I would agree with your response to those persons who were standing outside the elevator. Who knows what they wanted to do? Why not be polite and ask if they are going up? Should you have asked, "Are you going to stand there all day or do you want to get in the elevator"? :)