Posted by akc on October 30, 2001, at 7:28:27
In reply to How do you decide what to trust?, posted by Dr. Bob on October 30, 2001, at 1:56:11
> 1. From the perspective of someone looking for information, how do you decide what information to trust? What leads you to trust a web site? Another group member?
As far as trusting a web site, the biggest reason I trust a web site is based on its "reputation." Do I know anything about it? I tend to mainly frequent only sites that I have learned about from others. Sometimes I do "learn" about these sites from another site. For instance, if I am doing legal research (or other research), I may get a link from one site into a new site. However, with that type of research, I am ultimately going to "back it up." That is, I am not going to ultimately base my decision on anything I learn for the first time from a new site.
With a site like Psycho Babble, where it is a bunch of people coming together, my decision whether to "trust" it only comes over time. A site like this is as trustworthy as the people who make up the site.
That then gets to how I decide who I am going to trust. A lot of that is also based on time. The more I read a person's posts, the more I get to know the person, the more I then decide whether I "trust" the person. Given the anonymous nature, I doubt I will ever fully trust a group member the way I do a person in person. But I definitely trust some more than others. Those who seem to put thought into their posts, those who don't name call, respond to every post, who seem to empathize -- these are the things in group members posts that to me are the "clues" that lead me to trust some more than others.
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> 2. From the perspective of someone providing information, do you just pass it on, or do you try to present it in a certain way?
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I definitely try to present my information a certain way. I want to be thoughtful in my presentation. I don't want to come across as half-cocked. Information just for information sake is not always helpful, in my opinion. I try to read what has been posted and to tailor my response to that post.akc
poster:akc
thread:82639
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011025/msgs/82646.html