This is something for all of us to remember. The information that we're giving out is often a matter of life and death for someone else' fish. Even if the situation that's being directly discussed may not be such a dire thing for the original poster's fish, another member, or even a lurker, may pick up on advice and employ it for good or for ill.
Everyone on the forum wants to help everyone else. This is the reason that Fishlore is such a great place for us, and the reason that we get together, not just to discuss fish, but to do as friends do; sharing jokes, life stories, etc...
However, offering advice when you really don't know much about the topic can be devastating to another's tank.
Please do not offer advice simply because you want to help people out. The intent is noble, but the end result may not be. Offer advice because you want to help people out
and because you are reasonably sure of your advice.
This means checking your advice, not giving advice, or giving it with a caveat (for example, when I give marine advice, it's usually with a mention that I don't actually keep marine tanks, and that others with more experience should check and verify my info), and, when presented with evidence that suggests that your information be wrong, accept it gracefully and examine it against what you already "know" with a clear, neutral mind. In this way, not only do you continue to grow and learn, but you can give better advice.
This post is not meant to be a discouragement to give advice. Rather, it is an encouragement to do more research, to insure that the advice that you give is sound and beneficial.
Along the same lines is a reminder that words like "guarantee" should be used sparingly on the forum. Similarly, it is a good idea to avoid wording statements as a command ("you need to..."), but rather as a suggestion, along with the potential impact of not following it ("I would suggest doing daily 25% water changes, or
ammonia will build in your tank, will seriously stress your fish, and may kill them.")
Thank you, everyone, for being so willing to help each other out. As I suggested each of us do, so to is Fishlore always striving to be better. The advice that we give out today is quite a bit refined from that we were giving when I joined a few years ago. This isn't to say that the old advice was wrong (heck, it got my aquariums through several scrapes), just that it was incomplete, just as I believe that the advice we give today, while more complete, still has plenty of room to improve. Thus, the advice that we give out a year from now will be better than the advice we give today.
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