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"Why you believe what those geeks on the internet say?"

B

bolido2000

Diamond Member
You know the drill...sometimes you have a question and you post a question and people come up with suggestions. I personally think this is the best part of online communities. Anyways....my sister always asks me why I trust what these people know what they claim to know? How do I know the information is reliable? I just say that it's pretty self regulated...if someone is talking out of their arse other members will point that out. Some other time I said "that's a myth....snopes.com pointed that out". She said "how do I know that website is reliable". Well...I really can't be 100% sure.

Now my gf....
Someone posted on ATOT about the "regimen" on acne.org. I went there and sure enough they have a big community with tips about controlling acne, etc. The webmaster of that site also sells Benzoil peroxide gel which controls acne and many people on those boards seem to like (I knew it works from before). My gf tells me that the guy is a salesman and the whole website is a big infomertial including the forums. This might be true, however, I say that there seems to be a lot of members giving good feedback. She says maybe the whole thing is a setup and the people posting are his employees and the mods filter out negative posts (like the whole thing is phony) about the site. I say that is unlikely too because sooner or later people would complain on other websites.

I really don't have a good argument. Their doubts are understandle. I just think that forums are pretty self controlled and I have found that many times people post good suggestions. I obviously do some searching to know if what they are saying is correct.

Why you trust what people say?
 
Originally posted by: bolido2000
You know the drill...sometimes you have a question and you post a question and people come up with suggestions. I personally think this is the best part of online communities. Anyways....my sister always asks me why I trust what these people know what they claim to know? How do I know the information is reliable? I just say that it's pretty self regulated...if someone is talking out of their arse other members will point that out. Some other time I said "that's a myth....snopes.com pointed that out". She said "how do I know that website is reliable". Well...I really can't be 100% sure.

Now my gf....
Someone posted on ATOT about the "regimen" on acne.org. I went there and sure enough they have a big community with tips about controlling acne, etc. The webmaster of that site also sells Benzoil peroxide gel which controls acne and many people on those boards seem to like (I knew it works from before). My gf tells me that the guy is a salesman and the whole website is a big infomertial including the forums. This might be true, however, I say that there seems to be a lot of members giving good feedback. She says maybe the whole thing is a setup and the people posting are his employees and the mods filter out negative posts (like the whole thing is phony) about the site. I say that is unlikely too because sooner or later people would complain on other websites.

I really don't have a good argument. Their doubts are understandle. I just think that forums are pretty self controlled and I have found that many times people post good suggestions. I obviously do some searching to know if what they are saying is correct.

Why you trust what people say?
Click to expand...

I think you hit it right on the money. It is an open discussion, you expect the people to regulate whats right and what is wrong. If she is such a skeptic, tell her to create an account on that other forum and post something negative and see if they block it... if they don't i suggest she delete after a day or so =)
 
Holy sh|t! my GF says the same thing!

Aside from some real idiots here, (including myself) ATOT is a full of resourceful and skilled guys in just about Everything. Cars experts, career advices, hot deal finders, and so on...

I like the way how ATOT as a whole is anal retentive and skeptical yet giving...
 
Exactly. I told my gf to just get an account on ATOT and she will realize that everything is self controlled. You just can't go out and post BS all over the place without other people knowing.
 
Holy sh|t! my GF says the same thing!

Aside from some real idiots here, (including myself) ATOT is a full of resourceful and skilled guys in just about Everything. Cars experts, career advices, hot deal finders, and so on...

I like the way how ATOT as a whole is anal retentive and skeptical yet giving...
 
I look to ATOT mostly to see what people think; in other words, I want their honest opinion. It seems a lot of threads that contain "facts" are usually reduced to a few members seeing who can type more insults in a single post. I personally like to be shown the answer and not told. Vague references like "Science says you're wrong" (this seems to come up a lot) are effectively meaningless without references, imo.

Anyway, never appeal to any authority. Always check the answers you receive.
 
Originally posted by: Shockwave
Well, statistically online answers (As a whole thread) prove right more often then not.
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This is true and it's an interesting phenomenon. The more layman's opinions you get on something, the closer the average gets to the truth. It's pretty much the basis for anything that uses a democratic process.

ZV
 
Reading internet forums is like panning for gold. You sift through a ton of worthless dirt to find a tiny nugget of valuable gold.
In other words, most posts (and even sites) are total bullsh!t and blatant misinformation, but there is the occasional post or sight which will answer your questions truthfully if you search hard enough (and properly).
 
Originally posted by: Shockwave
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: Cattlegod
Originally posted by: Shockwave
Well, statistically online answers (As a whole thread) prove right more often then not.
Click to expand...

15% of all statistics are made up on the spot 🙂
Click to expand...

72% of the people who say that are lying.
Click to expand...

53% of those lying are intentioanlly trying to mislead people.
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if 20% of all people say that 15% of statistics are made up on the spot than .2*.73*.53 * 6000000000 = 464,280,000 people in the world are lying intentionally to mislead people

EDIT: of course, there is only a 28% chance that I'm telling the truth.
 
No offense to your sister and gf, but that's a pretty dumb question. Why does anyone trust anyone? Just like everywhere else, people/groups are trusted on the internet for three reasons.

1) If a very large number of people say something chances are they are correct, or at least chances are better than if one person is saying it. If I post a technical question on this forum, and 20 people answer the same way, I'm going to be fairly confident they aren't ALL wrong.

2) If you spend enough time in certain places on the internet, you get a feel for the knowledge/honesty of the place. I've been posting on AT for several years, and in that time I've learned what questions you all are good at answering and what questions you are not. This holds true for individual members as well. If I want an OpenBSD question answered, I'll trust n0cmonkey's answer a lot more than I'll trust, say, luvly's answer 😉

3) Chances are you have some knowledge in the area you are looking for answers in. Example: I read a lot of sci.crypt (crypto newsgroups). I'm a fairly knowledgeable cryptographer, at least from an engineering point of view, so even if I don't know the exact answer to my question, it's often obvious when someone is totally full of crap.

That pretty much sums it up I think. Of course those who aren't actually part of an internet community can't really understand it, so I'd suggest they try it before they knock it 🙂
 
Soon this will pass...most older people thought the internet dangerous and viruses could be caught by other appliances not to long ago, yet now they are venturing out into email and picture sending.

Like any forum you get the zealots...people looking to disagree just to do so, or to make up 'facts'.

However, books are much the same way, only as good as the author.

For research the internet is indispensable. There are a lot of bogus sites to weed out though.
 
Originally posted by: Shockwave
Originally posted by: Ameesh
Originally posted by: Cattlegod
Originally posted by: Shockwave
Well, statistically online answers (As a whole thread) prove right more often then not.
Click to expand...

15% of all statistics are made up on the spot 🙂
Click to expand...

72% of the people who say that are lying.
Click to expand...

53% of those lying are intentioanlly trying to mislead people.
Click to expand...

reminds me a good monty python skit:

the guy is pointing a bar graph with three bars, each "representing" a percentage of the population. but he never says for what. 🙂
 
He is a salesman.

Hes trying to sell you a 4oz acne treatment thats 2.5% benzoyl peroxide for $8.50.

You can buy a 4.2oz acne treatment thats 3.5% benzoyl peroxide for $6.50

Or you can by an 8oz acne treatment thats 10% benzoyl peroxide for $5.00

Sure they arent "gel" but they are more effective and cheaper. Hr claims the 10% isnt effective. Its far more effective for anyone that has skin that can tolerate it. And well the 3.5% isnt harsh and is still $2 cheaper.
 
Originally posted by: digitalsm
He is a salesman.

Hes trying to sell you a 4oz acne treatment thats 2.5% benzoyl peroxide for $8.50.

You can buy a 4.2oz acne treatment thats 3.5% benzoyl peroxide for $6.50

Or you can by an 8oz acne treatment thats 10% benzoyl peroxide for $5.00

Sure they arent "gel" but they are more effective and cheaper. Hr claims the 10% isnt effective. Its far more effective for anyone that has skin that can tolerate it. And well the 3.5% isnt harsh and is still $2 cheaper.
Click to expand...

You're probably right, but if those prices are correct, then it's not a major investment to begin with and if the salesman's product works better than the 4.2oz treatment, then it was worthwhile.

Trusting someone in person can usually cause more 'harm' than trusting advice on the Internet (unless you decide to try the first reply someone posts when you inquire about how to best circumsize yourself, or whatever)
 
Sounds like you need new women in your life. The sister might be tough, but you could try spoofing some DNA test results.
 
Originally posted by: LOLyourFace
Aside from some real idiots here, (including myself) ATOT is a full of resourceful and skilled guys in just about Everything. Cars experts, career advices, hot deal finders, and so on...
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...except women 😉
 
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