Do you really need to announce your credentials for your view to be taken seriously?

Sometimes professionals do give very valuable online help on here.

I seem to remember a bunch of town planners doing a particularly sterling job...

I am sorry but there really is one thread on which I want to bloody scream 'for fucks sake I know what I am talking about I do this for a fucking living!!!'
But I won't.
It's not even a particularly important issue.
But I KNOW how to do it ffs.

sorry - appalling lack of continuity with the grammar in that last post! Hope it still makes some kind of sense.

Actually I think it is worse when people insist on you telling them your credentials before they'll believe anything you say - this is an anonymous forum (depending on how revealing you are with your personal info of course) and it's a bit unreasonable to be told they MUST say who they are/how they know so that other posters will accept their opinion.

Of course, no one has to accept anyone else's opinion ever on here or anywhere else.

I loved that one Thumbwitch - really funny!

I'm just remembering the "I AM CANADIAN" line, which was probably the best example of credentials used in an argument ever.

Oh yes, before my time, but there was someone who claimed to be a high flying lawyer or judge or some such thing and turned out to be talking out of their arse and probably worked in a chippy or something, wasn't there?

I find it helpful sometimes e.g if they deal with university admissions.

They generally throw it in when they are losing an argument!

I don't think that's true, though. People talk about professional stuff because they're interested. I'm not a professional, but I know people who're professionals in what I'm training to do, and they talk, and it's very easy to work out that some of them are real, and where and who they are.

There may be some situations and professions where, by definition, anyone who tries to offer advice online shows they're not a professional because a professional would know not to - doctors being the obvious one. But there are loads where it's less clear-cut.

I agree with trust nae fucker, though!

to strike note caution trust nae fucker
have been fake professionals in mn past eg legal.
tbh competent professional would advise rl consultation and advice

Agree with SM - that the only professional advice should be to seek professional advice. I have seen many a thread for example, where qualified legal bods don't agree with each other.

no.no professional would fess up qualifications and then opine online
as Internet is online blah it's not appropriate forum to advise in professional capacity
professional common sense is not to give professional advice online

Sorry, I can't describe it, it's a look-on-faces thing.

hecate - it's my baby brother, he works with homeless people in the area, and they find him very funny. I am still amazed he doesn't get beaten up because to me it sounds like he's taking the piss ... but they seem just to find it rather sweet.

Don't think I won't put you over my knee too!

Reaction? Do tell...

Yeah blud. Like, well solid. We is like, well solid, against them hecate 'n' shit.

(I've seen the reaction of real east londoners - or indeed, humans with ears in general - to this sort of thing and it is a joy to behold.)

Never. EVER. speak like that again. I'm embarrassed for you!

That is pretty cool, MI.

Hellenic - a crucial skill. I can contribute a deep knowledge of what a naice middle-class boy sounds like when trying to pretend he's from East London. Bless his little heart.

Oooh but but but there is a fossilised hippo tooth from Peckham in the Museum of London. This is Actual Fact.

Oi, Helen, check yer RL emails - am trying to get hold of you!

I am deeply impressed by the quality of 12 year olds in Peckam, then.

Are you an expert in that area, Hellenic?