Bad Advice?

[Miss Wiggle]

every so often someone crops up on this forum dishing out dodgy advice left right and centre, i was just wondering how the powers that be would prefer this be dealt with?

I appreciate advice is an objective matter so it can be difficult to judge based on 1 single post, however after several posts you can get a decent idea of someone's knowledge.

Would you prefer as individual forum members we just discussed the threads in question and presented our opinions and counter arguments when we feel someone is wrong. Or if there's someone who we think is causing a problem would you prefer that we report them to the moderating team for them to take whatever action they see fit.

Not thinking this about anyone in particular, just wondering in general how that situation should be dealt with.

Thanks

 

[geo7x]

I'm not quite sure what you mean but if it's just one or two posts that someone makes and the info is a little off then I think we shoud just do nothing more than deal with it on the thread. After all, this is a forum and it is for discussion, the information is never going to be, and shouldnt be, completely spot on perfect, otherwise the whole point of the forum would be lost and each thread would have 1 reply and that would be it.

However if we are talking about someone going around and giving wrong advice in every post, and by wrong i mean inhumane etc, and just acting like they know it all and not taking any advice, then this needs looking into more seriously. Perhaps with PMs from other members and in extreme cases action taken by mods.

thats my opinion anyway, but at the end of the day it comes down to what the mods think of course.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah that's what i meant, a few slightly dodgy pieces of advice i'm happy to respond to the post and give opinions, thats what it's all about.

but you do get the odd person who although i don't believe they're always trolls seem to give out awful advice constantly and claim that they know everything. if there's someone like that how should we deal with it?

 

[CFC]

Sending someone around to their house with a big stick is the preffered way of dealing with complete idiots but if thats not possible then use the report button.

 

[Tolak]

Sending someone around to their house with a big stick is the preffered way of dealing with complete idiots but if thats not possible then use the report button.

Oh my!


































Hahaha!

 

[WILDER]

You have to laugh at cfc comments.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sending someone around to their house with a big stick is the preffered way of dealing with complete idiots but if thats not possible then use the report button.

ha ha ha ha ha

fair enough, i just wasn't quite sure if i should report them if it's just cos they're stupid!

but now i know just to send Ian round so it's all settled

 

[nmonks]

Sometimes multiple opinions can be helpful, provided they're based on experience. So I think we need to be careful about castigating people with different points of view. I've had my mind changed on several issues that I thought I was right about, and only later discovered my mistakes. The whole figure-8s in freshwater issue, for example.

Otherwise, if someone is really speaking rubbish and everyone else agrees, then I suppose sending a PM and discussing the issue outside the particular thread in question is the kindest way to tackle things. It isn't nice for people starting out here to be jumped on in public by the "old hands". Learning how and why they have an erroneous opinion can be useful too, because it alerts the more experienced fishkeepers to the problems that newbies are likely to come across. As we all know here, fish shops and aquarium books can be as dangerous as they are helpful when it comes to advice!

Cheers, Neale

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sometimes multiple opinions can be helpful, provided they're based on experience. So I think we need to be careful about castigating people with different points of view. I've had my mind changed on several issues that I thought I was right about, and only later discovered my mistakes. The whole figure-8s in freshwater issue, for example.

Otherwise, if someone is really speaking rubbish and everyone else agrees, then I suppose sending a PM and discussing the issue outside the particular thread in question is the kindest way to tackle things. It isn't nice for people starting out here to be jumped on in public by the "old hands". Learning how and why they have an erroneous opinion can be useful too, because it alerts the more experienced fishkeepers to the problems that newbies are likely to come across. As we all know here, fish shops and aquarium books can be as dangerous as they are helpful when it comes to advice!

Cheers, Neale

yeah absolutely, i wouldn't dispute any of that Neale.

I do do my best to explain calmly and politely if I feel someone has given incorrect advice. But everyone has they're breaking point where you just get sick of replying and feel something more should be done.

 

[Dragonscales]

Sometimes multiple opinions can be helpful, provided they're based on experience. So I think we need to be careful about castigating people with different points of view. I've had my mind changed on several issues that I thought I was right about, and only later discovered my mistakes. The whole figure-8s in freshwater issue, for example.

I totally agree. There is often no defined "right" and "wrong" way to do things (when it comes to fish and most things in life) and a differing opinion doesn't always mean either person is wrong.

Then there is the issue of people posting when they are tired, not thinking clearly, getting muddled, etc, etc, etc (I am guilty of this one myself every so often, usually due to a particualarly bad bout of insomnia ), most of us do it, it's not done purposefully and is usually infrequent.

The problem lies in monitoring the various aspects of the problem. How do you tell which is a case of "right but in a different way" or "getting info mixed up due to lack of concentration, etc" or "just plain ignorant and/or needs to go back and learn more on the subject before giving advice"? Personally I agree with just making a post that does provide the correct info (if indeed the info is absurdly differing to "accepted" practices, such as keeping a school of plecos in saltwater, etc) and leaving it at that - unless the person wishes to argue the point in which case I generally break down my reasons for/against and hope logic prevails. At the very least, the original poster may read it, think there may be more on the subject than meets the eye and do some delving themselves.