the wrong stuff

[bravowhiskey]

An individual gives a title for a thread that is a good interpretation, with pics, but not established fact. The answers to the thread are proof as more folks than not, politely tell the individual, what they have is not what they think it is.

A third, totally unrelated party, in this case a search engine, runs with the title, pics and all as fact and it is posted as such, to one and all that visit their site. It is not even screened, edited or checked for authenticity.

Enter the neophyte, all smiles and good intentions, goes to search for their school project or maybe just for personal knowledge, and they see this thread posted on their search engine. To them it can only be fact, as it was found on the very professional web search.

So there you go, how untruths and unresearched info gets into the mainstream and confuses the heck out of all of us only partially educated, but anxious to learn, civilians.

End of rant, but it should suffice to say..... don't believe all found on the internet.

[uniface]

Especially when it's for sale at a high asking price

[GL]

But wouldn't this person open the thread, read it and soon discover all is not what it seems? Only to scroll to other threads in the area of interest that do contain proper items and information?
No one simply searches a subject, looks at one result and doesn't delve further. Everyone reads past the first post don't they?

[sidmind]

hmmm k..

[uniface]

Heck -- doing that's how I ended up here

[Tnmountains]

Yep T-Net will hit the top of a google search engine on items at times. It shows what a good web admin they have. I help run a few web sites one is in Olympic Fencing. Sometimes you can google words about Fencing and they end up at my site. It takes what they call Key Words that direct people to a site and as an Admin you pick your key words for the hundreds of search engines with google of course being the strongest. So like on this forum if you were setting it up you would use words like.arrowheads, ancient artifacts,arrowhead hunts,found arrowheads etc. so when we post something in a title Google will see it and direct you here. Say I do a post called...Wooden Arrowheads. Someone looking up arrowheads might see a post about wooden arrowheads here on T-Net till it gets bumped down the search engine list. If its a weird title it might stay on top for a long time. Hmmmm I am rambling now. lol
TnMtns

[Th3rty7]

The fine art of discernment, me thinks is crucial.

[Neanderthal]

Which leads me to one of my biggest concerns with forums and the internet. Is it better to speak your mind and tell someone exactly what they have, even it if hurt their feelings (which is often the case), or better to just not post at all? Unfortunately, the latter one is usually the case from what I've noticed. On this forum alone, I know there are certain very intelligent people who simply don't post often because it may "stir the pot".

For instance, you are not allowed to call very blatant laughable fakes on certain forums without getting flak for it. Who is that hurting? It's hurting almost everyone. People who don't know any better will see similar pieces and assume the are real because they have the same qualifiers. It SHOULD be all about the education but unfortunately that often isn't the case. But, who care about education as long as we're PC...right?

I agree with you completely, don't believe everything you read on the internet, or offline either. There is a ton of misinformation printed out there and it can be a chore trying to sort through it. Anyone can build a website or write a book, all you need is the money for hosting or a publisher.

[uniface]

I can only speak for myself, but I welcome contrasting opinions when they have something behind them (and experience will do nicely). Rubbing up against people with opposing ideas and additional information is the way people widen their perspectives and learn -- here or anywhere.

Again, speaking for myself, I hope these people step forward and speak up. Not everybody has to agree every time. But as long as the information's out on the table, face up, everybody can potentially benefit from considering it.

And if they don't, whose fault is that ?

[Th3rty7]

I can only speak for myself, but I welcome contrasting opinions when they have something behind them (and experience will do nicely). Rubbing up against people with opposing ideas and additional information is the way people widen their perspectives and learn -- here or anywhere.

Again, speaking for myself, I hope these people step forward and speak up. Not everybody has to agree every time. But as long as the information's out on the table, face up, everybody can potentially benefit from considering it.

And if they don't, whose fault is that ?

I agree with that 100%. I will also say there is alot of hasty, rush of judgement calls on 2 dimensional digital pictures that imo warrant more of a debate. Often these pieces get shot down quick and never resurface.