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Topic: What to do about members who consistantly give wrong advice? (Read 6355 times) previous topic - next topic

Grumpy_Mike

The title says it all. There are some members who consistently give wrong or bad advice.
Of course this is shouted down by the more knowledgeable members and they normally go away. However, I know that new comers do not like this and what ever is said the bad stuff dilutes the perceived quality of the good stuff.

But there is one member a the moment with over 900 posts in less than two month and that makes him most prolific. He is persistent in giving bad advice that I think is designed to confuse a beginner. Often there is a miss directed grain of truth in what he says, other times it is totally wrong. I get the impression he like to be controversial and presents himself as being greatly experienced, but he never defends his bad advice.

So as a community what should we do, if anything, about him?

On one hand is the freedom of speech aspect, on the other he is misleading a lot of beginners and diluting the quality of this excellent forum.

What do other think about this?

Graynomad

Hmmm that's a tough one and I don't have an answer.

Maybe a "three strikes" policy. But who decides, and what constitutes a "strike"?

My wife is a moderator on another forum, she keeps a log of bad behaviour which has yet to be put to use. It's a lot of extra work I would think but she's an "admin" type and doesn't mind.

______
Rob
Rob Gray aka the GRAYnomad www.robgray.com

retrolefty

#2
Nov 12, 2012, 06:51 pm Last Edit: Nov 12, 2012, 06:58 pm by retrolefty Reason: 1

The title says it all. There are some members who consistently give wrong or bad advice.
Of course this is shouted down by the more knowledgeable members and they normally go away. However, I know that new comers do not like this and what ever is said the bad stuff dilutes the perceived quality of the good stuff.

But there is one member a the moment with over 900 posts in less than two month and that makes him most prolific. He is persistent in giving bad advice that I think is designed to confuse a beginner. Often there is a miss directed grain of truth in what he says, other times it is totally wrong. I get the impression he like to be controversial and presents himself as being greatly experienced, but he never defends his bad advice.

So as a community what should we do, if anything, about him?

On one hand is the freedom of speech aspect, on the other he is misleading a lot of beginners and diluting the quality of this excellent forum.

What do other think about this?


Not an easy situation to try and improve on. Just banning a member doesn't prevent one from just rejoining under a new ID, plus I am a pretty strong believer and defender of 'freedom of speech'. So I guess personally I'll just continue to respond to those posts that I feel are particular misleading or outright incorrect. This specific member doesn't seem to be the classic 'troll' like poster in that as you say she/he doesn't tend to respond to questions or any attempt to justify or defend his/her assertions, or the few times he/she does respond again it's never quite clear who or what comment he or she is responding to. Maybe it's just a drinking problem?  ;)

Other's thoughts?

Lefty

robtillaart


First thing that came in my mind was that I have given some incorrect answers or code with errors too, which were corrected by others.
Most of the time I adjusted my answers / code with an apology or I let the code as is and posted new improved (with better errors:) to show how progress is made.
In short I act upon corrections.

Think if someone does not react on corrections I would start sending PM to the account to discuss the situation and to help him/her to improve his/her answers.

If I would get a PM for every wrong answer I would think twice before I posted something I was not sure of. But if it would help for him/her?
Rob Tillaart

Nederlandse sectie - http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/board,77.0.html -
(Please do not PM for private consultancy)

John_S

I browse another forum (aviation related), and there's a similar member there as well. His posts are filled with garble and mixed up facts and ideas. Nobody takes him seriously though, and his babble is great for the entertainment factor.

On here though, it's more difficult for a new member to sort out the truth from the "sort of" truth, especially when their knowledge of the subject in question is non-existent. An idea might be to encourage members to post links/diagrams when they want to give advice, and encourage new members to back up the answers they get here with other sources.

pe1br

Every member has A status depending on the posts he made, we used that on another forum the set back someone who didn't deserve this status.
It's A lot of work for A moderator at A forum this big, another solution would be:
Let the status depend on like / dislike button so all the members can help rating someone who gives good answers.
This way you can mess up once or twice, but you are allowed to correct your status by giving better answers next time.

AWOL

Quote
Let the status depend on like / dislike button so all the members can help rating someone who gives good answers

I'm not a fan of +/- karma - last time it was tried, it all got a bit petty, and besides, a newbie might add karma when they don't realise the implications.

However, as a moderator, I am allowed (required, even) to delete posts which mislead or add nothing to the discussion, which I am happy to do if people will point them out to me (I don't read all the posts on the forum).

Use the "Report to moderator" control to be found on every post.
"Pete, it's a fool looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." Ulysses Everett McGill.
Do not send technical questions via personal messaging - they will be ignored.

Nick Gammon

The person to whom I think you are referring has a karma of 16 right now, which is more than some who post sensible advice. This is why I think karma is a waste of time.

I'm not sure there is a simple solution. Some of the stuff he (she?) says aren't totally correct, but you could say that about a few other posters.

Perhaps if the moderators send a PM when things are clearly incorrect, or at least, not provably correct, just to slow him/her down.
Please post technical questions on the forum, not by personal message. Thanks!

More info:
http://www.gammon.com.au/electronics

Groove

I suspect the subject is an avrfeaks reject, and thought s/he would take it out on the noobs here.
Per Arduino ad Astra

focalist

That would be a new low, even for that Nerd Barbecue (nothing but weenies and flamers).  As always, I am proud to say that in thirty plus years of forums and websites, I have only been banned from ONE.. avrfreaks.. for the crime of pushing back on a MODERATOR who responded to my FIRST POST (an introduction, in the forum labelled "off topic") with profanity and nasty remarks about how I ought to "go where all the F*&%&^% idiots go, over at the Arduino site".  There is a reason that even Atmel has distanced themselves from that "warm spot" in the gene pool...

Is this poster actually giving bad advice intentionally?  I would make a point of informing him that it won't be tolerated, and if it continues, take it as an intentional attack and just lock him down for a while. 
When the testing is complete there will be... cake.

retrolefty


That would be a new low, even for that Nerd Barbecue (nothing but weenies and flamers).  As always, I am proud to say that in thirty plus years of forums and websites, I have only been banned from ONE.. avrfreaks.. for the crime of pushing back on a MODERATOR who responded to my FIRST POST (an introduction, in the forum labelled "off topic") with profanity and nasty remarks about how I ought to "go where all the F*&%&^% idiots go, over at the Arduino site".  There is a reason that even Atmel has distanced themselves from that "warm spot" in the gene pool...

Actually there has been a real improvement in user friendliness in recent times on the avrfreaks site. They have really started to apply peer pressure to the members that use to like to flame noobs and almost anything Arduino. They have seen the light and have really cleaned up the behaviour on the site as whole, still an occasional flame but the normal users do a pretty good job on pushing back on such behaviour. I still most just 'read the mail there' and don't often post unless I have a 'real intelligent questions' to ask.  :D  

Is this poster actually giving bad advice intentionally?  I would make a point of informing him that it won't be tolerated, and if it continues, take it as an intentional attack and just lock him down for a while.  

Graynomad

Yeah I think Freaks is OK these days, like Lefty I really just lurk unless an interesting topic comes up but I don't see too much goings on.

_____
Rob
Rob Gray aka the GRAYnomad www.robgray.com

GoForSmoke

#12
Nov 15, 2012, 06:59 am Last Edit: Nov 15, 2012, 07:10 am by GoForSmoke Reason: 1
edit: (okay, found out about the karma, no need to answer)

John_S... Gaston? At least here if the code don't run, people will know.
Nick Gammon on multitasking Arduinos:
1) http://gammon.com.au/blink
2) http://gammon.com.au/serial
3) http://gammon.com.au/interrupts

Graynomad

#13
Nov 15, 2012, 07:03 am Last Edit: Nov 15, 2012, 07:05 am by Graynomad Reason: 1
Quote
Just what are the implications of forum karma?

None AFAIK. Just some kudos for those with large numbers and an implied inference (is there any other type of inference?) that they have been helpful.

That said some very knowledgeable members can be a bit terse and presumably get fewer karmas even though they are helpful.

As we've said all along, it's not a very useful metric for anything. At least we don't have the minus karma button any more, that was a total farce.

_____
Rob
Rob Gray aka the GRAYnomad www.robgray.com

Grumpy_Mike

Quote
That said some very knowledgeable members can be a bit terse

What!

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