I’m not really pissed, just curious. How could the SDMB be liable for anything negative that resulted from a “medical advice” post?
Are hiccup solutions taboo? My splinter question got shut down.
I can clearly see why one should not ask for/trust info on cancer here, but a splinter?
If I tell someone that they should eat as many raw oysters as they can, is it food advice, or bad medical advice?
Why can’t we prohibit amateur pharmacology, while still allowing basic triage?
If I got bitten by a spider and posted a picture of it here, would the thread be closed before it was identified and an antivenom could be reccomended?
This board is not meant to be a first-aid site, and sometimes people give faulty advice, does banning discussions of such matters help to fight ignorance?
People will sue over anything these days. I’m about to sue my girlfriend for not having sex with me.
Say you’ve got a splinter. Someone on here tells you to poke it out with a needle, the needle ends up in your eye, you go blind in that eye and someone’s fist ends up in your face because you couldn’t see on that side, and suddenly it’s all THAT GODDAMNED STRAIGHT DOPE’S FAULT. URRGGH I CAN’T WAIT TO CALL MY LAWYER
(no offense intended to careless folk, victims of face violence and lawyers)
What difference is there from taking advice from regular people out in the streets? I would guess that by having a disclaimer “None of the folks here work for the Reader, they’re paying costumers, just like you” you’re off the hook. It’s like suing Kazaa for getting bad porn. That’d be a lot of 'suits.
It does seem like they’re playing it safe to avoid even the possibility of a lawsuit, to the point of absurdity. No splinter questions? The overwhelming majority of splinters will be removed without the help of a medical professional, regardless of whether a person can seek advice here. Saying it’s inappropriate to ask a splinter question because people should be seeing a doctor about it is clearly ridiculous.
Am I the only one who thinks that CK really did go out of his way to avoid offering a real apology in that thread? “I apologize if my meaning was unclear” is a far cry from “I apologize for implying you were assinine” or “I apologize for being snarky.”
I just read that thread and I am appalled by how rude **CK ** was. And how hard is it to apologize? Inability to apologize has always shown a lack of maturity to me.
I agree. My wife hates it when I, “Apologize for making you mad”, rather than the prefered, “I apologize for getting drunk last night, which made you mad”.
Big difference, I’m told.
I didn’t see that CK had any need for the apology. The offending statement was an example of how somebody could be stupid by using the SDMB as a sub for necessarily legit medical advice. It wasn’t directed at Minnie.
I found it interesting that as a guest poster ** Minnie** was so quick to become offended and so bold as to immediately criticize the moderators of the board.
[Hijack]
OK, I just caught some error in my statement. Somehow Minnie is listed as a guest even though she’s had 499 posts since 2003?!? Expired subscription?
In any case it refutes my surprise in her actions. She’s obviously been here a while and knows the ropes. As a newbie, her statements were unusual. As a veteran, they make sense.
I think the “no medical advice” gets a little too anal sometimes, too.
I remember a thread not too long ago where a young woman, a legal adult and a virgin, was describing how it has been very painful everytime she tried to have sex and wondered if that was normal for the first time or if there was something wrong and she should go to a doctor. Several people responded that she should see a doctor and got on her about another comment. It was then locked because “she was asking for medical advice”. I thought she was just asking if it was normal for it to be painful and it is. I could just imagine her going to a doctor and saying she’s a virgin and it’s painful when she tries to have sex and a bunch of people on a message board told her to see a doctor because that’s not normal and the doctor rolling her eyes. Perhaps it would have been allowed if she has phrased it differently or posted it as an IMHO thread?
Yet numerous threads discussing things such as Tasering ones genitals and various discussions of color, size and consistency of one’s poo are left alone. In fact I remember one on hemorrhoids that was not shut down even though that could have been considered asking for medical advice. I guess that means if it’s male genitals or ass-related, painful and embarrassing it’s okay.
Obviously not. However, they do post medical advice all the time, and it apparently is not a problem. I don’t quite get this, personally. IANAMD, but I, and any number of people here, could tell you the exact same thing as an MD would, and clearly such statements are still treated differently. Whatever. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but that’s the de facto policy, as far as I can tell. De jure, it’s “No Medical Advice, EVAR!!”, with no ammendment to the effect that “Folks who the Mods are confident are M.D.'s get a pass.” It’s their sandbox, so if they want to play that way, it’s fine with me. I think they should make it clear that’s what the rules are, though. We, as participants, are free, of course, to take on faith any claim of credentials, or not, and react accordingly.
I will point out, BubbaDog, that Minnie was a Charter Member at the time of that post. We lost a member to CK’s lack of decent customer service…Minnie said so her(I’m assuming)self in this post. Since this is now a pay board, that means a loss of revenue to the SDMB.
The comment sure sounded like it was directed at least partially towards Minnie to me, since she had admitted in that post to seeking such advice in the past. And, yes, I don’t think that CK really apologized. It’s as if he couldn’t possibly see any reason at all why he should possibly apologize.
I still can’t see why asking for medical advice is now verboten. When did this happen, BTW? I don’t recall hearing about any policy change. Posts about things like splinters used to be OK…when did this change? And can you ask “Should I see a doctor about…?” regarding a certain condition? Sometimes, things are normal, and seeing a doctor just wastes his/her time, but if, say Qadgop is saying “You should see a doctor,” well, then you know that another doctor is probably going to take you seriously as well.
Also, wouldn’t it be nice if lapsed paid memberships had the title “Former Member” so that we wouldn’t be confused when going over old threads? Just a suggesstion.
They do? I am not familiar with any of the doctors here actually making diagnosis on the boards. I have seen them describe conditions and medicines, but never give actual medical advice.
IIRC, the main reason to stop medical advice was due to the fact that Handy had gone around giving flat out bad medical advice on several occaisions.
