Bad Advice

LegacyUser

There seems to be no legislation for bad advice on this board. I see an awful lot of people dispensing there opinion and some of it is downright dangerous.

I think if you have a problem and your posting on here there's a good chance, with the advice you receive, you'll end up with a bigger problem.

If you haven't got direct personal experience of a problem that you have overcome yourself, personally, then you really are not helping people by giving "guess" advice.

Gordon

Dangerous advice, you mean medical advice?

Any examples?

the_syco

Top of the page, there's a link saying Sticky: This is NOT a medical board. ** Please Read **.

This explains something. Most people want advice from people who have gone though similair situations.

Finally, explain "bad advice"? If you want good advice, you know you should goto the doctor. On anything serious, someone usually says for the person to go to the doctor. If you think that your going to get VHI medical advice from a load of nerds, your in the wrong place.

Zillah

It's a public forum and the charter is quite clear that you should go to a Doctor if it's a serious problem. You hardly expect professional level of advice from a bunch of people on the internet do you?

Also no one is forcing people to follow said advice. Also, any blatant lies will most likely be deleted by Bereuthiel.

Also, read the internet disclaimer...

TheInternet wrote:

I am trying to kill you...

SantaHoe

It's the same "in real life", you've got to be carefull whos advice you take.
The danger I think is how people present their advice... if you're only giving a gut reaction, yet you're packaging it like real experience, then yeah, it's misleading for the original poster.
Sometimes that's all people want though, just to write it down and get it off their chest, see what people think... I think a lot of people just want moral support... someone to tell them what they already know... to dump that cheating boyfriend, or stand up to the abusive colleague.
What a person takes from the thread is up to them, but I do agree that blatantly stupid advice should be deleted on sight, even if it's only a joke.
And medical advise is a whole other minefield, but that seems to be well policed already.

BuffyBot

melakywat wrote:

There seems to be no legislation for bad advice on this board. I see an awful lot of people dispensing there opinion and some of it is downright dangerous.

I think if you have a problem and your posting on here there's a good chance, with the advice you receive, you'll end up with a bigger problem.

If you haven't got direct personal experience of a problem that you have overcome yourself, personally, then you really are not helping people by giving "guess" advice.

You pay your money, you take your chance.

Oh hold on, you're not paying anything. At the end of the day, coming here and asking advice is the same as going up and asking random people on the street for advice. Some is good, some not so good, occasionally some is bad - but the person asking is the one with the responsibility as they take the advice or not, and deal with the consequences..

The internet isn't the only place where you need to be cautious. In real life you can receive a lot of bad advice too.

"Be careful who's advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it."

Talliesin

melakywat wrote:

I think if you have a problem and your posting on here there's a good chance, with the advice you receive, you'll end up with a bigger problem.

If you follow it blindly, yes. Really following any advice blindly will lead to pain, even if the advice is sound.

melakywat wrote:

If you haven't got direct personal experience of a problem that you have overcome yourself, personally, then you really are not helping people by giving "guess" advice.

You could have direct personal experience and be a clueless muppet. You could lack personal experience but have a keen insight or even have some degree of actual training.

If someone does something related to a deeply important part of their life solely because someone on the web said so how long do you think it would be before they messed it up anyway?

WhiteWashMan

well, for a start, i think the definition of bad advice for one person, may not be the same for another.
and while one persons advice may may be suitable for one person, another persons advice may be better, or more suitable.

the reason for posting here, is that people can often get a whole myriad of opinions (and frequesntly do), and more often than not, will get advice they didnt solicit. however, as buffybot pointed out, you pays your money and you takes your chances. but just becuae you dont like the advice, does not mean it is not good advice, does not mean it is not useful advice.

on the other hand, factually wrong advice is bad, doubly so when it is about medical conditions or treatment of those conditions.

which i why we have the charter as pointed out above.

although i do wonder at a lot of the so called 'advice' dispensed here, we are all allowed to air our own opinions, and hopefully the original posters have enough sense to take away the bits that are useful, and leave the bits that really add no value at all.

pickarooney

Perhaps the sticky should be amended to add "This is not a legal forum" as there's more dodgy legal advice passed off as fact than medical from what I've seen.

Gordon

For example? (pm me if you wish)

arbeitsscheuer

BuffyBot wrote:

Oh hold on, you're not paying anything. At the end of the day, coming here and asking advice is the same as going up and asking random people on the street for advice.

Very, very true.

What you have to understand is that boardies aren't here to solve all ur problems, just put in the 2cents and let you make up your own mind. If you're relying on us to give you all the answers, you seriously have the wrong approach to message-boards.

Kell

Pfft.

My perspective on this particular forum is that you get the best, free, unbiased advice than you'll ever get from a friend, lover, family member etc.

Think about it- the majority here dont know eachother. A friend etc will be biased towards a person seeking advice or will be oversensitive to the persons reaction to potentially upsetting advice. On the contrary, PI's is full of people, sometimes with helpful sometimes unhelpful advice a lot of which is based on life experience. And they give it out free of charge with no oversensitivity.

Where better to go? Pfft.

K-

WhiteWashMan

Kell wrote:

with no oversensitivity.

hey, i care.

i care too much.


and yes, there is often inaccurate medical advice given out on this board gordie.
for example, people telling other people to go and get prescribed medicati0on for short term soultion to depression (on a current thread), someone saying that sports arise 6 weeks after the ingestion of coca cola (on a current thread), saying that the oral contraceptive does not effect a womans hormones (on a previous thread).

those are three that have stuck out for me in the last while. while there is not an awful lot of medical advice given here, because we tend to frown upon it, there are still some people who are willing to give medical advice based on their own experience, and that is wrong.

i eman, even telling someone to go to a physio for a sore elbow is wrong. they should get it checked by a GP first, regardless of anything.

mycroft

melakywat wrote:

There seems to be no legislation for bad advice on this board. I see an awful lot of people dispensing there opinion and some of it is downright dangerous.

I think if you have a problem and your posting on here there's a good chance, with the advice you receive, you'll end up with a bigger problem.

If you haven't got direct personal experience of a problem that you have overcome yourself, personally, then you really are not helping people by giving "guess" advice.

There is no legislation for stupidity or bad advice in the real world.

If I ask a mate for advise, and take it, and it's wrong, I can't sue. If I go to a doctor or lawyer and get bad advise. I might be able to sue, but I might be wrong.

I've a network of friends who I turn to if I need specific advise, in their area of expertise. I've a friends who are professionals knowledge in a certain aread and need some advise I turn to them. I've used PI as an area to vent occasionally when something was p*ssing me off.

I don't think people come here looking for advise on medical situations or legal situations and when it does happen, some swift modding sorts that out.

So I really dont see the point of this particular whinge.

DrIndy

WhiteWashMan wrote:

and yes, there is often inaccurate medical advice given out on this board gordie.
for example, people telling other people to go and get prescribed medicati0on for short term soultion to depression (on a current thread), someone saying that sports arise 6 weeks after the ingestion of coca cola (on a current thread), saying that the oral contraceptive does not effect a womans hormones (on a previous thread).

those are three that have stuck out for me in the last while. while there is not an awful lot of medical advice given here, because we tend to frown upon it, there are still some people who are willing to give medical advice based on their own experience, and that is wrong.

i eman, even telling someone to go to a physio for a sore elbow is wrong. they should get it checked by a GP first, regardless of anything.

I agree - I have medical links but would not ever dare making an internet diagnosis (even when it seems blatantly obvious what it is). It is important to keep things straight and emphasise the importance of a GP referral for anything of medical concern.

However, this board also does a lot of good as people can vent their concerns. Even if the responses are by the occasional muppet - writing something down on paper focuses the mind on the problem and that mere act alone, even without supportive advice from other users is very helpful to people.

leggo

^^^

Agreed with everything that's been said.

I've only made like 6 posts here, but I read a ****load and the advice here is as credible as anywhere you're gonna get for free.

Besides, when you talk to people online it's more likely that they'll have the same line of thought, interests etc as you, since you HAVE been brought together by some sort of common interest that inspired you to register at boards.ie. A close family member might be more distanced from the situation than someone here is.

And on the net you're pretty much guaranteed anonymity. Where else can you seek advice without anyone knowing who you are? It allows people to open up more and hopefully they'll be returned with a more precise piece of advice that could help them with whatever irks them.

cajun_tiger

theres some good advice even if it feels like a b!itch slap at the time, but as you should do with every converstaion you have in life take it with a pinch of salt or go see a pro in which ever area you need it

The_Conductor

melakywat wrote:

There seems to be no legislation for bad advice on this board. I see an awful lot of people dispensing there opinion and some of it is downright dangerous.

I think if you have a problem and your posting on here there's a good chance, with the advice you receive, you'll end up with a bigger problem.

If you haven't got direct personal experience of a problem that you have overcome yourself, personally, then you really are not helping people by giving "guess" advice.

There are a lot of people here- so regardless of what someone is going through, odds are a few people will have gone through similar previously (or be in the process of going through it).

That said- everyone's situation is unique to them- its impossible to impart the full breadth of the situation in a few typed lines here. So regardless of how people may sympathise or empathise with situations- in a lot of cases advice offered may be "guess" advice at best.

I think the mods do a good job of keeping the threads on the straight and narrow- as the many warnings to different people show. The biggest problem, as I see it, is people not reading the forum rules, and then not adhering to rules they are unaware of. Even that is being kind, the amount of spam posting here, and elsewhere, has shot through the roof.

Its not a medical forum- it doesn't claim to be one, on the contrary- there are disclaimers plainly posted, along with warnings.

I, for one, do not see that the problem as you describe it, actually exists.

LegacyUser

melakywat wrote:

There seems to be no legislation for bad advice on this board. I see an awful lot of people dispensing there opinion and some of it is downright dangerous.

Dear anon .. funny, people like you posting anonymously. Hmmm .. then not returning to back up your comments.

Apart from the odd .. eejet in here there is some pretty sound advice. In most cases when a twat does slip advice that is unsound, it is caught by someone more rational.

In general .. you sound like an biddie with a nark becuase you ran out of wool with one last row to knit on a poxy old wooly jumper for your son next Christmas. Dry up!! You probably park your car under a tree when it snows .. so it doesn't get dirty.

smccarrick wrote:

I, for one, do not see that the problem as you describe it, actually exists.

I agree, and suspect a troll or someone without the guts to stand up to their original posting.

leeroybrown

I get the impression melakywat is referring to 'bad advice' in general, not just medical/legal mis-information. Sure, theres a metric shed-load of poor, ill-advised and downright stupid suggestions here but it's a public forum. Theres always a level of good advice among each thread and anyone who takes the time to properly read a thread should be able to pick it out.