First, I’d like to say that I do not want this to be a handy-bashing thread. I’m sure we can all go on at length about times handy has spouted grossly incorrect info in GQ. I’d be willing to bet I can find a dozen examples in the past few days if I was willing to spend a little time wrestling hamsters.
My question is whether there’s something that can actually be done about it. Mods, can we please consider such behavior “being a jerk”, given that it’s completely counter to the whole purpose of this message board?
The great thing about the SDMB is that you can come here and have a pretty reasonable expectation of getting an informed answer to your question. Sure, people sometimes post stuff they don’t know for a fact, and they get corrected, and everyone learns something, but that’s part of a discussion. With handy afoot (ha, I kill me), he posts something blatantly wrong, and the conscientious posters on the boards go back and forth with him, trying to point out his error, and the people who asked the question just end up confused about who’s right.
Having someone posting wrong information in GQ just for the sake of getting a high post count is a significant detriment to the SDMB. Why isn’t this considered “being a jerk”?
ntucker, every time I read your name my brain at first processes it as a swear word. Like “nutfucker”. Was this deliberate? Do you fuck nuts but are afraid to admit it?
If he could only admit he was wrong about something. Then it might be a bit more tolerable. Watching how he goes thru the most amazing gyrations and rationalizations to justify how what he said might apply in some parallel universe so he really isn’t wrong gets very tiresome.
You know, it’s amazing but true - I visit GQ quite regularly and I’ve yet to come across “Handy Syndrome” - but obviously it exists. So many people have created Pit threads about him. And considering his post count it’s extraordinary I haven’t noticed him before. But I haven’t.
I guess, with hindsight, I should simply count myself extremely lucky. It’s just an extraordinary source of mystification to me why I haven’t come across him yet.
I’ll admit that I’ve seen posts where Handy is mistaken, but I feel there are far more posters who are more irritating. Besides, he turned me onto a website that had good prices for toner cartridges. How about having a mod gently remonstrate with Handy?
Revtim: There’s obviously no way of being sure he’s not simply mistaken. However, this happens so astoundingly frequently that one can only come to the conclusion that he simply answers questions without regard to whether or not he knows the answer, which is really the behavior I’m complaining about. In addition, he is impervious to all reason when his mistakes are pointed out. I’m not asking for a hard ban on this behavior – I’m asking for moderators to use their Cecil-given discretion to treat egregious examples as “being a jerk” and warn him off this habit.
Boo Boo Foo: You say you haven’t seen an example of this. Do you see it in the thread I linked? His off-the-cuff answer was exactly wrong, and it was obvious from the start to anyone who knew the subject. He denied it vehemently, and now it’s been proven that he’s wrong. This is the behavior I’m talking about. Far too much effort by knowledgeable people is wasted correcting handy’s misinformation.
Eternal: I can neither confirm nor deny any nut-fucking activities, but suffice it to say that I would never fuck nuts without their consent.
Saying “just ignore him” misses two points: 1) why the fuck would we impose such rigor on ourselves as to insist on only asking “factual questions” in GQ, yet completely disregard the quality of the answers? This is supposed to be a place to find information. And 2) what about the folks who haven’t yet figured out that he’s completely full of shit? Do we only wish the boards to be useful to those who have been here for years, keeping track of who’s full of shit and who’s not?
