Re: Articles system

Richard Lynch wrote:

On Tue, May 8, 2007 2:50 pm, Stut wrote:

WeberSites LTD wrote:

1st, I never said I was any authority about anything :) I'm just building the weber sites as a hobby...

Hobby or not, when you publish information on the web without a big message saying "I have no frickin' idea what I'm talking about", you are presenting yourself as an authority on the subject. And when you answer questions on a mailing list with links to your site you are re-enforcing that point.

Just to play Devil's Advocate... Are you suggesting that every site on the 'net, or even just those which LOOK like worthy material, without such a disclaimer, IS authoritative?... :-)

"People" are stupid, and they believe what they want to believe. If they're looking for an answer, they'll take any answer that comes along, usually without any concern about the source. So no, I'm not saything that every site on "the 'net" IS authoritative, I'm saying that anyone publishing information in any medium needs to understand that people will assume they know what they're talking about.

Taking this a step further, or dragging it out into an open discussion: I'm not a real huge fan of the folks on this list who post almost as often as I with links to their own ad-revenue sites, but they are at least (usually) on-topic and with valid information available to the reader. It might be better if they sprinkled in links to php.net or even (gasp!) a "competitor's" site sometimes, but it's not like total spamming, eh? There are even times where I know that there is specific content on such a site, and I'll recommend it. SO where do you draw the line? Seems to me we have to be reasonable about that. And we also have to expect the Reader to at least have half a clue and do some basic research about the source[s] of their info, and their vested interests, and choose for themselves what info to pursue... Though based on experience with some posts, that may be expecting more than will actually happen. Aim high. :-)

I agree that the reader should realise that not everything they read will be accurate, but readers tend to be people and are therefore generally stupid. Anyone who disagrees with that either lives in a box or demonstrates the point. Where do I draw the line? I draw the line at mis-information. However, I could have phrased my comment slightly better, and for that I apologise. -Stut