Are forums a dangerous thing ?

I have been on forums now for a year or so . Increasingly on certain forums I am alarmed at the amount of completely rubbish advice given out when people ask a question . It seems to me that some of the people who have the most to say have had their particular breed for about five minutes and are spouting forth as if they know what the are talking about . In some cases they haven't even had any sort of dog for very long either .
The poor unsuspecting person who asked a genuine question may in fact be taking the completely wrong advice .
I'm not talking particularly about Dogsey here .
Has anyone else noticed this trend ?

....not really

Yes I've noticed that and one dog forum in particular was very bad as you weren't allowed to have a different opinion to the moderators and their knowledge of dogs was extremely lacking. However, I don't think this is confined to people who have only been in dogs a short time I'm always stunned at the advice given out by long time breeders who really sould know better. Especially things like I don't believe in hip scoring etc
However, I think the internet as a whole can be dangerous as anyone can put up anything about anything and someone somewhere will accept it!
Becky

Of course there is good advice out there as well but how do you sort the good from the bad if you are the person asking the question !

i find its not good v bad advice
its either just different opinions or experienced v less experienced.
but it doesnt matter, as the thread usually naturally enthisises the best approach

its great that the internet allows anyone to write about anything (legal)

I'm only with Dogsey

I was asked to join another last year, but soon became bored

So I Ok with how things are here

The short answer is - you can't Especially if you are new to a breed and you don't know one person giving advice from another.

Over time you come to know who is well respected and who has a lot of experience but as has been pointed out, even some experienced breeders can give advice that others don't agree with.

There are only a handful of people on each forum I am on whose advice I would trust in general (for want of a better word). It doesn't necessarily have to be people in my own breed(s) and I welcome listening to other people's experiences but I wouldn't ask them for advice unless I knew them (or had read their posts long enough to form an opinion of them). However that isn't to say I wouldn't ask different people for advice in what I know to be their own areas of expertise. For example I would ask one person if I wanted advice on clicker training but I wouldn't then ask the same person about working or breeding (this is just an example).

For new owners it can be a minefield when they get several different responses and IMO it is only over time that you come to know whose opinions you can trust. That isn't to say you don't value input from others, but knowing whose advice to follow, especially if you are new to a breed can be daunting. Most of the time you would refer people back to their breeder (if they are reputable) but sadly the number of reputable breeders is diminishing and there are more and more people breeding solely for the money who have very little experience in the breed and can not advise on problems their puppy owners encounter because they just don't have enough experience themselves.

You don't! I always listen to everyone and then work out my own views based on that!
Becky

As with another recent thread...I wouldn`t look for professional advice on internet forums, personally. They`re brilliant for anecdotal evidence, pointers, chat and commiseration, but you do need to use your own experience, BS detector and other sources to take important decisions regarding health or behaviour.

Yes i noticed that on another site but found that most of the people on here know what there talking about and chose to stick to this one