This happens a lot in any thread touching on legal matters. Everyone has some anecdote or story about what happened to his bother-in-law's sister's niece's case. Occasionally, they are helpful. A lot of the time they are harmless, but not relevant. Sometimes they are flat wrong. Many times people want to tell you what they think the law SHOULD be, not what it is.

We had one example from a now-banned poster (IndyFFL), who flat out insisted that the question-asker was legally shit out of luck. He wasn't, and eventually about every lawyer who was an active member weighed in with contrary opinion, and some pretty specific guidance about how to proceed. The original poster eventually prevailed on a seller who tried to welch on a deal to sell the OP a rare revolver.

It was a great example of a time when "advice" from an ignoramus could have done some real harm.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhe888,

It's a mix of well meaning, and the compulsion to post and be recognized.

We all need to temper our masturbatory interests, for the greater good of an OP, and the forum at large.

bump

As someone who recently received excellent advice from a forum member (via e-mail), who is an expert on the subject, I appreciate your directions and of course his free advice. As an FYI, I approached him directly as I didn’t want a thread to get sidetracked.

This could use a bump.

I posted a question, no long ago. I recall not what. Electrical/code, I think? Anyway, I noted in my OP something like "If you're not a subject matter expert, please refrain from commenting. Thank you."

It appeared to work.

Ultimately, the goal is to make sure membership gets the actual help they are looking for. If they go off of someones bad advice and harm comes from it, well, that is what is to be avoided.

Additionally, the goal would be for people with actual experience and professional expertise to not have to wade through or counter/explain/rebuff people who have only their misinformed or outright wrong opinion.

If you're a qualified expert in your field, but routinely have to elbow through jackasses to speak your piece, you eventually feel it's not worth your time. Expert opinions do provide value for the membership, so we'd like to avoid this.

This is worth a read:

The death of expertise

Many of us have have been guilty of this kind of nonsense. The first few comments of a post asking for help seems to have the obligatory "waiver", "nice Karma, I'm in!", and other generally useless comments. This is especially common when the poster is a new member. I know I've done this in the past without any compassion for the OP.

We all need to refrain from this type of behavior. Starting with me. Habits are hard to break, though.

It seems general respect for your fellow members is on the decline. If someone doesn't want to contribute, that's their business. If you don't have anything to contribute, don't.

Thanks ARC, for helping to make this a more inviting environment. The more direction we get in these types of matters, the more this place becomes, not just some site, but a family.

H&K-Guy

Another bump for those who had a busy weekend and might have missed Arc’s public service announcement

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
This is worth a read:

Yes, it is. I loved “intellectual valets.”