To think there is so much bollocks advice on MN?

[TooOldForThisWhoCares]

Some of the "advice" offered up on this website is just ridiculous at best and actually damaging at worst. If you are having huge issues for e.g with your child's
behaviour, fgs go to your gp or some kind of professional if possible. Same applies to many problems people put on here. Yes there is some good advice, but honestly it's often drowned out by complete and utter shite. Yes I'm sure I'll get a kicking for this but it just amazes me what people say to other, sometimes desperate, people on here.

When it comes to ending relationships, I think people are sometimes given very straight talking and supportive advice, and that the outsider perspective serves a useful function. However, I often wince at the way people are advised to cut their friends off, sometimes (it seems) for misdemeanours or misunderstandings which could probably be worked through. Some people sound to me as though they’d discard friendship at the drop of a hat.

Advice doesn't bother me, it's people reporting opinion/their experience as fact... that's the really harmful one.

There are also a lot of very knowledgeable people who give freely of their time and are a huge source of help and support. They tend to be found on specific topics, however - infant feeding, legal etc - and not on AIBU. AIBU is, as a general rule, not a good place to solicit advice!

Well asking for and giving medical advice on an unregulated website is asking for trouble especially in relation to acute conditions. The answer is see your pharmacist or call your GP service, 111 or 999. Support on topic specific boards for long term conditions can be helpful in supporting self management but again it's not regulated so opinions can hold sway over qualified advice.

A lot of the advice on fast moving boards is bad but it gets better on the subject specific boards. I am not always convinced that it matters because people with real problems will seek specific advice on the slower boards.

”I get unreasonably irritated by replies that start with "Head teacher here" or whatever. a) because it sounds really pompous and b) the poster could be nothing of the kind, yet everyone's supposed to bow down to their superior knowledge.”

Agree.

It also never ceases to amaze me how many people post asking for employment law (or in fact any legal) advice on AIBU.

They usually get a load of nonsense spouted as fact from people who have no clue at all, sometimes with some actual half-decent advice mixed in. There’s an Employment topic people!

Yes you can’t guarantee the people responding will know their stuff but the chances of people who hang about in Employment having at least some idea are immeasurably higher than people in AIBU!

Whenever I attempt to explain anything about speech and language development or linguistics, I'm usually ignored. It is quite frustrating.

I have a real love hate relationship with MN for this reason.

Anything to do with animals, baby guidelines / feeding and relationships tends to attract the really ridiculous ones.

Poster lives in a council flat with awful neighbours and you can guarantee at least 2 people will say " Just move to a detached property". Like this is even an option for many people

People surely on the whole know that they're getting opinion here, rather than professional advice. Don't they??

There is an awful lot of abuse along the lines of all men are useless. It made me smile yesterday to see a post specifically requesting Piglet John's help. He is much in demand for his knowhow and advice about building matters. I have seen specific requests for help from him on a number of occasions. Some advice is worth having!

Yes there's some utter drivel. I don't mind when it comes across as well-meaning but often it isn't. You can tell that some people live in worlds where the realities of others just don't exist. Which is lovely, but then why post as if you're an authority on the subject?

I do not know anything about bollocks personally , apart from being told to grow a pair !

Is anyone else checking to see if they offered any advice on here anywhere at around quarter past two?

Also, re the legal aspects and in fact many aspects of posters' questions, answers come in from across the globe. So where you might be 'entitled' to something somewhere, unless the poster has said where they're from there's no way of knowing if a reply is relevant to their situation or not.

When someone comes along brandishing their expertise I first look at the question and often it's apparent the 'clever' advice is based on nothing more solid than the 'expert's' own assumptions gathered along the exceptionally narrow path they've trod thus far.

Go to a&e, for anything.

Or ‘oh he must be depressed’ if you’re struggling with your DH’s behaviour.

Pregnant? Well it must be your hormones.

Have a spa day.

Hot sweet tea. No thanks.

If you want professional advice, pay a professional. If you want a random selection of musings and ponderings and lived experiences, ask mumsnet. If you don't like it then you're free to ignore it. What else are you expecting?

This

Piglet John is clearly the exception and is exempt from criticism of any kind. (We neeed piglet John, maybe not today or even tomorrow but he's helped me in the past and we might all need him in the future.)

Not so much advice, but a suggestion that a 4-year old might be a psycopath. Not accurate as not diagnosable in a child, and not at all helpful.

OP:My DC has a temperature of 37/ has just been sick/ has a slight rash
Response: Phone 101, just to be on the safe side

FFS wtf did people do before this magical 101? Where does common sense come into play? I so want to answer 'just keep an eye on your child, kids do get ill and usually get better. If not get them to a GP/ hospital.' But it would only be me and I'd get a verbal battering and I'm a coward so I ignore and move on by which time some anxious parent is making their way to A&E with a child with a cold virus. It's like so many people don't trust their own judgement before typing to strangers.

Mn is only ever a starting point to do further research. Anyone who takes it as the gospel truth at face value is an idiot, particularly if a thread has contrasting advice from so-called experts and non-experts.

I just had an idea that when we sign up to MN we could identify a sort of expertise we have and it could be printed after our name. We could only choose one and it could range from Teaching, Social care, breastfeeding, plumbing, using zoflora, sex techniques or absolutely anything. Then if we answer on a thread about one of our expertise subjects we can be treated in awe and be like PigletJohn

YANBU OP.

So many posts about 'should I call 999' answered with outrage at the very idea you'd ever dial 999 unless you were actually on the verge of dying, in fact if you're able to use a phone you're not ill/injured enough to need an ambulance.

As a lawyer, GP, teacher, fighter jet pilot, financial times columnist, large volume wine taster, and award winning author.... YABU :p

My favourite advice is the get an au pair/live in nanny to any poster who has an issue with childcare as if the average person has the space/money available for this.

A&E ones always have conflicting responses..

'I cut my leg off by mistake, its a bit sore and bleeding. Shall I go to A&E?'

'Yes, OBVIOUSLY. Are you an idiot?? GO GO GO'.

'Hmm..I'm not sure, my gran's leg fell off once and she just used a bit of butter to stick it back on. But her generation were tougher than today's. I guess if you feel it's worth the NHS' precious resources...'