Forum Correctional Issues

[clifford_cooley]

Forum Correctional Issues:

If a post that you encounter has a statement you find to be false, would you try to correct or ignore the statement?


I know if I am wrong and can be proven wrong, I would want the forum corrected. I'm certainly not going to get upset at anyone when they do correct me. Sometimes it's not that there is an error, but simply something that would need clarification.


Anyway I'm asking everyone for their views on the topic of correcting someones post.
Would you think it's more important not to confront someone on the issue?
or
Would you think it's more important to keep the forums material as correct as possible?

Surely we can compromise between the two without causing an issue with other members.

 

[davehc]

It would be next to impossible to succesfully implement. As an example, some may have a good experience with, say, a piece of software, where others would have disasters with the same software. A few weeks ago there was a discussion on Ccleaner, and cleaners in general. One one liner stated that Ccleaner was the only available reliable cleaner!! This would be regarded by the majority of cleaner users as inaccurate, or false. But without preamble, could be considered by the uninformed as the gospel truth.

Perhaps it could be pointed out that such emphatic statements could be started with, let us say, IMhO.
Corrections in following posts, if badly composed, could so quickly lead into "flaming" wars.

 

[Fire cat]

As davehc allready stated, it would be very hard to implement.

But I am rather FOR correcting the user. It will give him that little bit more knowledge! Everbody is allowed to make mistakes, but it wouldbe better if they didn't do it again, if we can help it.

 

[davehc]

I agree. I was really thinking in terms of emphatic statements, as I quoted. They do come from time to time. Mistakes can actually be beneficial, as they inevitably lead to following posts correcting the mistakes and - as you say.

 

[Fire cat]

I agree. I was really thinking in terms of emphatic statements, as I quoted. They do come from time to time. Mistakes can actually be beneficial, as they inevitably lead to following posts correcting the mistakes and - as you say.

Some old saying:
"You learn with your mistakes."

 

[Ian]

Forums are inevitable going to lead to discussions with differing opinions, so I'm pretty sure that most people would post their own thoughts on the issue. I've been corrected on this forum many times, and I'm very glad that this has been the case.

Flaming wouldn't be tolerated, but there's nothing wrong with politely suggesting an alternative if you believe some facts to be incorrect. Posting "THIS IS WRONG" would of course rub people up the wrong way, but chipping in with some good ideas of point of view would be most welcome to many people.

BTW, sorry I've not been around much this week - I'm on holiday for a few days and haven't had much time to come online. I'm back home soon though.

 

[Core]

Since this is a forum frequented mostly by hobbyists, much of the knowledge shared here is acquired through experimentation and personal experience, which means that the knowledge is half fact, half opinion.

I think what the answer to your question boils down to is this: if someone says "MSE is as good as AVG" or "Norton's AV products are all inferior resource hogs", there is little point to trying to correct them. Any "study", benchmark, or other test to measure a product's usefulness or lack thereof can be countered with another which provides facts and figures to the opposite. While telling stories about your own experiences may or may not influence the other party's opinion, it's still just fighting opinion with opinion.

I have done this myself many times when I've seen people arbitrarily dismiss a Symantec product (which I am a satisfied user of) or a Google service (which I find greatly superior to those of their competitors). In the end it's just for personal satisfaction because you're not likely to really influence anyone's position, and even if you did, it really makes no difference whatsoever in your own life. But we do it anyway...and we commit the same offenses; I know I'm always willing to put down Internet Explorer and am never short of any excuses for it, much, I'm sure, to the chagrin to those who like IE.

An entirely different matter is if someone says "Pentium III is 64-bit" or "one byte consists of seven bits." These aren't opinions, they're falsehoods which can be - and definitely should on a tech forum - to be corrected with facts right away. We just need to remember to provide those facts when we correct someone.

 

[TorrentG]

Norton/Symantec is the worst a/v vendor on the market, even worse than AVG nowadays. I don't think that's really left to opinion. I'm going by what I see. It causes a range of different bsods from 0x24 NTFS errors to 0x50.

No other a/v is doing anything close to as bad as this nowadays. It causes all other issues that no a/v even comes close to doing. Here's an example from today:

https://www.w7forums.com/please-help-bsods-t8333.html

I like to call it "marketware." They have marketing and nothing else to go for them.

 

[Elmer BeFuddled]

Agree with Core. Even though I had to bookmark his post halfway through for a breather!!

Maybe off-topic but, when you start a thread, you can edit it, but not the title. Why is this? (And I'm sure that's been asked thousands of times).

I like to speak "proper" English when I post, mainly to help non-English people (peeps!) understand what I'm trying to say, and hate not being able to edit a typo in a thread title.
That's why I'm glad I've nvr cum 2 txt spk ea (never came across text speak here). Bit of slang now and then is OK though! We all need local colloquialisms.

Innit??

 

[Nibiru2012]

I agree 95% with CORE on his reply. I know for a fact that the Norton 360 is a good piece of software. I know several geeks and uber-geeks who swear by it solely. Contrary to other opinions.

I don't use Norton products anymore and haven't for several years. I personally like products by G DATA and ESET. I have yet to see a post with those so-called AV initiated BSODs being caused by ANY product from ESET or G DATA. To me MSE isn't all it's cracked up to be by some posters here. Yes it's free and that's great, but it has had some vulnerability issues in the past couple of weeks, also it's not the "universal cure-all" for all BSOD issues. If one is willing to spend the money on top-end or mid-grade hardware then they can afford to get an excellent AV or IS program for anywhere from $30 to 60 per year fees.

What irks me most is people who do not or will not post their full hardware information when they're having driver issues or hanging. Then they incessantly post about how they're not getting the help. It would behoove those who post here to give as much information as possible the first time in the first post on the thread so the help may be supplied or suggested in a more timely manner.

 

[Nibiru2012]

I agree. I was really thinking in terms of emphatic statements, as I quoted. They do come from time to time. Mistakes can actually be beneficial, as they inevitably lead to following posts correcting the mistakes and - as you say.

I was told once by a colleague in the building materials trade that if you don't make any mistakes, then you're not doing anything.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time.

Ignorance of a fact or something simply means you don't know about the form, function, application or whatever.

Stupidity simply means you know better but do it anyway.

 

[draceena]

I agree that specific errors should be corrected (like in the examples provided) but when it comes to areas where it's a matter of preferance, it definately gets cloudy.

For example: I am not a big fan of iTunes, but I do use it and have no issues with it tweaked as I have it (I uninstall Bonjour and a few other pieces that lighten it and don't break anything) but if a person comes on the forum saying they have issues, the resounding cry is to dump it (much like the Symantic threads) rather than see if "tweaking" it may solve the issue.

In the end, I think it'll always be this way, burn me once and yes I may be in the same boat where the resounding cry is to uninstall and never use again.

 

[TorrentG]

I have yet to see a post with those so-called AV initiated BSODs being caused by ANY product from ESET or G DATA.

It happens often.

You've been making statements as this or very similar. Every time I post links of examples from the same very day showing a/v errors specifically showing the statements to be irrefutable untrue.

Of course you haven't seen a post like that. You don't do any bsod analysis and see the volumes of interesting things I and others do.

 

[Core]

I am not a big fan of iTunes, but I do use it and have no issues with it tweaked as I have it (I uninstall Bonjour and a few other pieces that lighten it and don't break anything) but if a person comes on the forum saying they have issues, the resounding cry is to dump it (much like the Symantic threads) rather than see if "tweaking" it may solve the issue.

Hsving uninstalled Bonjour, can you still use it to share libraries wirelessly and sync your iPod? I hate Bonjour, and I would like to get rid of it, but the synchronization with my iPod is great, as is sharing of the library with other computers, and I'd prefer not to lose that.

It happens often.

You've been making statements as this or very similar. Every time I post links of examples from the same very day showing a/v errors specifically showing the statements to be irrefutable untrue.

Of course you haven't seen a post like that. You don't do any bsod analysis and see the volumes of interesting things I and others do.

I've used Norton/Symantec AV products for a decade, on and off, and have been for the most part very happy with it. Some editions have been better than others, but I've never been hit with a BSOD because of one. This is not because of my 1337 skillz, primarily just dumb luck. But I have been using a lot of different kinds of hardware and software over the years, and they've never collided with Symantec products, so for me the experience has been good.

I would keep in mind that for every machine that BSODs with a Symantec or any other AV product, there are a lot of machines that don't. If I were a mechanic who worked on broken down Toyotas all day, would it be prudent to claim that all Toyotas are pieces of junk? (Let's ignore that recent 740,000 Toyota recall for the purpose of this analogy...) I don't think it would be.

But, just as you'd never recommend Symantec Antivirus to anyone, I wouldn't want someone using MSE as their AV solution on my conscience. This is just one of those opinion vs. opinion situations.

 

[TorrentG]

Hsving uninstalled Bonjour, can you still use it to share libraries wirelessly and sync your iPod? I hate Bonjour, and I would like to get rid of it, but the synchronization with my iPod is great, as is sharing of the library with other computers, and I'd prefer not to lose that.

I've used Norton/Symantec AV products for a decade, on and off, and have been for the most part very happy with it. Some editions have been better than others, but I've never been hit with a BSOD because of one. This is not because of my 1337 skillz, primarily just dumb luck. But I have been using a lot of different kinds of hardware and software over the years, and they've never collided with Symantec products, so for me the experience has been good.

I would keep in mind that for every machine that BSODs with a Symantec or any other AV product, there are a lot of machines that don't. If I were a mechanic who worked on broken down Toyotas all day, would it be prudent to claim that all Toyotas are pieces of junk? (Let's ignore that recent 740,000 Toyota recall for the purpose of this analogy...) I don't think it would be.

But, just as you'd never recommend Symantec Antivirus to anyone, I wouldn't want someone using MSE as their AV solution on my conscience. This is just one of those opinion vs. opinion situations.

Not really opinion vs opinion. Proven fact that MSE absolutely never causes bsods while Norton does all of the time and it's the king of junk. (I just did one where it's causing 0x124 hardware errors lol haha!)

That's not opinion at all. It's proven. Yes, I repeat that in case it's not understood.

I work on pcs all day. Norton is a major issue. MSE saves them from trouble. That's much better than any analogy.

 

[Core]

Well, God has spoken.

 

[draceena]

Unfortunately I cannot say if uninstalling Bonjour causes sync issues as I don't actually have an iPod (I have a Creative Zen Stone and it has no syncing functions so I have to transfer my music manually)

 

[catilley1092]

Speaking of Bonjour, my new printer installs it automatically, I was going to uninstall it, but I'm afraid if I do, then I'll have to reinstall it. It works perfectly, it'll install on Windows (XP & up), 32 & 64 bit, Mac and Linux (with some trickery).

What I don't understand is, I select Windows 7 as the system, still it installs Bonjour, a Mac (or Apple) product.

But as far as the opinions expressed on this forum goes, there's a lot of good advice freely given here, along with some not so good. I would say that if the member who presents bad advice is doing it unknowingly, a kind correction is in order, being careful not to be too harsh in doing so. After all, we all make mistakes, what's important is learning from them.

However, there are some, no matter what, their opinions are cast in stone, and the only thing to do is flat out present the facts, and as long as no harm is being done, let it go. But if allowing the post(s) to remain may cause damage to other members (and visitors) computers, then the post(s) should be removed at once, and if warranted, the member should be banned from further posting.

Fortunately, we don't have any active members here who posts like this. But I do remember a post where a new member issued a command to execute, and in doing so, it would wipe your system out. C_C caught it, left it there with a large warning not to use it, rather than removing it, and obviously banned the member. In such a case, action must be swift, and as far as the offending member goes, get whoever it is the hell out of here, without further delay.

Cat

 

[davehc]

I've thanked you Cat -. Back on thread!