Don't believe everything you see on the internet!

[RealJames]

Don't believe everything you see on the internet!

Seriously, I always assumed this was common sense. These days I doubt that.

What is a reliable source? Someone or an organization who has A LOT to lose for being wrong, and who happens to know a lot about the topic at hand.
By "a lot" I mean enough that pioneers in that field listen to him or her or he was paid a significant amount of money for his thoughts on the topic prior to whatever hot event he's talking about happened.

If the topic is actually recent enough, it's more than advisable to find two or three of these reliable sources and see on what points they agree/disagree etc, making sure they aren't working for the same person.

Blogs, your aunt, a rumor, something posted on JapanForum, are all BAD sources unless they themselves refer to a reliable source, and you check it.

I'm posting this hoping to prevent at least ONE idiotic thread.

[TalnSG]

Probably won't prevent another idotic thread, but at least its an offset.
And hopefully it will moderate the numbers of readers tempted to allow someone else to think for them.

[Ryzorian]

Whoa, I better recheck Uncle Bob's story about that alien he has hideing in his basement.

[kenmei]

ironically a lot of main stream media in the time of crisis are not that credible of sources, with things like all of the sensationalist reports they do..

[tenmins]

Originally Posted by Ryzorian

Whoa, I better recheck Uncle Bob's story about that alien he has hideing in his basement.

Your uncle Bob has one too! That's freaky...

[tenmins]

Originally Posted by RealJames

I'm posting this hoping to prevent at least ONE idiotic thread.

Have you heard about this HAARP thing the US have that can actually cause earthquakes?!?

[steven]

Something that I have been noticing is that even reliable sources on the internet (like news websites or popular websites for articles) often copy each other. I've seen word for word cases as well as copying sources. If that original source is wrong, then you have like 5 news sites reporting misinformation.

When I was in college I used to have access to their electronic library (as I'm sure is the case with most college students) which had tons of electronically saved scholarly articles. Now that I've graduated I cannot access those articles any more, although I saved some that were of interest at the time. So much for life long learning! At any rate, those articles are usually the best sources because not only are they written by people who know what they are talking about (at least the majority of the time), but they are checked by people who also know what they are talking about.

Any news site is in it to make money, just like the news on TV. If you want to have a laugh, look up any kind of "help"/"health" websites. You might find it interesting how their list of natural cures goes from probable to the realm of pseudo science and into the absurd.

It's my opinion though that no source is without its biases and misinformation. Just look at what kinds of things were considered medicine less than a century ago (or study about ADD, which really had a boom about 20 years ago). There will always be bogus-- even with "reliable sources". I personally like to get as much information as possible and use my brain as a filter to try to get a general idea of what's going on and what other people are thinking about it.

I agree that it's dangerous to just take a look at one source (particularly an internet website/blog) and take it as the "word".

[Ryzorian]

I thought HAARP was the group AARP members joined when they died.

[GoNative]

One of things I fear these days is a decline in incredulous and logical thinking. And it's often people who claim to be sceptics who are the worst. Most of them wouldn't know the first thing about what it is to be a true sceptic. It's always amused me over the years to often see the same people who are so called climate 'sceptics' are also the same people who believe in an extra-terrestrial explanation for UFO's or believe in paranormal phenomena and a whole range of conspiracy theories. You can't be a sceptic and believe in such things, it's impossible!

It also never ceases to amaze me just how little most people seem to understand about the world around them. With little to no science in their background to help explain what they see it's little wonder they turn to the weird and wonderful explanations for things out there and little wonder they are susceptical to believing just about anything they see on the internet or elsewhere. They have no basis from which to distinguish real science from pseudo-science and fantasy and no basis from which they can distinguish good sources of information from bad. I also blame a lot of it on religion. To believe in any kind of supernatural being means you have to suspend rational, logical thought and just have faith that what fairytales you are being told are true. Once you've done this it makes it much easier to suspend rational, logical thought in a whole manner of things. It's much easier to sway your thinking when you are willing to accept things as true without any proof whatsoever.

[RealJames]

I suspend disbelief all the time when watching movies, doesn't make me prone to suspending disbelief when being shown ridiculous pseudo-science.

The religion comment has the potential to start a huge flame war, I'm asking kindly that if anyone wants to continue that idea they start their own thread.

GoNative, I agree with your observation that people tend to have no real basis for comparison with fact and fiction. I suppose it's too much to ask for common sense to dictate these things...

edit: about the haarp thing, what surprises me most about this isn't that anyone would believe it, hell if you say anything stupid someone is bound to believe it. What surprises me is how many people believe it! With so much passion and fervor and determination to spread this insanity! I got like 35 (intense) messages in my youtube inbox about linking to HAARP shit because I posted a few vids of the tsunami news...