Forums have long been a popular "go to" source for automotive information. You can search a forum for a specific topic, or post your question on a forum and hope somebody can provide the information or help you are looking for. But how accurate are posts and replies you find on a typical automotive forum? The main advantage of forums is that ANYBODY can post content. Although many forums are moderated to prevent people from posting spam, off-topic content or porn, many forum moderators do not edit or validate the information people are posting on their forums. The better forums may have a competent moderator who has knowledge in a particular area and will comment on a post or a reply if they think it is needed. But many forums make little or no effort to weed out good information from misleading or totally incorrect information. As an automotive tech writer, editor and author, I am constantly researching topics online. Google search results will often include snippets from various forums as well as links to forum discussions on the topic I am researching. My experience has been that probably a third of forum posts and replies contain accurate and helpful information. Another third are of questionable value or are just people expressing their personal opinions or preferences which may or may not be helpful or accurate. The final third are totally wrong, misleading or incorrect! Back in the days when most information was published in some type of print format (magazine articles, newspaper articles and books), content provided by a writer was edited and validated by an editor or team of editors to make sure it was as accurate as possible. Facts were checked, sources were verified (and credited), and corrections were made as needed before (and sometimes after) an article was published. Not so today. With many forums, do-it-yourself websites, YouTube and Tiktok videos, Instagram posts, Facebook and other social media, ANYBODY can post ANYTHING. There's no fact checking, no validation, no peer review, no crediting sources of information. Some of the information is really good, helpful and created by somebody who knows what they are talking about, but a lot of it is pure BS, nonsense or even dangerous. The quality of the finished product ranges from excellent and professionally produced to really amateurish. Nothing is worse than watching a 20 minute how-video that could have been edited down to about 3 minutes. My point here is that when looking for accurate automotive information on the internet, you have to be very discerning. Consider the source. Hagerty does an excellent job of presenting factual, accurate and entertaining content. Many other dedicated automotive sites do as well. Social media sites are the ones you have to watch out for, especially YouTube and now Tiktok.
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