<p>Well…actually…for what ExieMITAlum is saying, yes they are. There are several people from these message boards that I communicate with “offline” and I’ve interacted with them on Facebook and visited their business web sites and I think that there is a high degree of reliability in terms of the biographical information that they share.</p>
<p>But in terms of the reliability of advice, I dislike using private channels. I routinely encourage people who communicate with me via PM to ask the question on the public message board because there’s accountability and the opinions can be vetted by the group. One-on-one communication is very unreliable in terms of the advice and opinions that are offered.</p>
<p>If, however, I had to rely on the people I’ve come to know “offline” and the ones who come here with a post count of 12 or 58 or even 592, the “offline” group is, hands down, more reliable in terms of their self-reported information.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this point, or the one I’m responding to advances the conversation. I know it doesn’t detract from the conversation because at this stage all that is happening is that people are agreeing with posts that validate their views and disagreeing with posts that counter their views…to the point where even eminently sensible comments are being shot down as if there’s a scorekeeper tracking such things. Nobody here seems interested in understanding as much as they’re craving validation. Ugh.</p>