Oh, the “no medical advice” restriction is over the top here.
I got chastised once for “not being a doctor” when I was talking about how nice it is to combine drinking and prescription pain killers. For christ sakes. . .no fuckin’ shit you’re not supposed to do that. I’m just recommending it for fun.
Furthermore, it’s not asinine to ask for or receive medical advice here or anywhere else on the internet. It’s asinine to act on advice received in a manner that could cause you harm. . .but I gotta submit that anyone smart enough to be able to turn on a computer and type a question knows that “your stomach pain might be caused from too much dairy so maybe you could try cutting down on dairy” is a world fuckin’ different than, “there’s a demon in your belly so you should try sticking a sewing needle through your belly button to stab him.”
“Ask your doctor” is usually about the dumbest advice you can give someone.
“My vagina is sore after sex”.
“Ask your doctor. No medical advice here.”
Like we all have doctors at our beck and call and “asking your doctor” doesn’t actually involve making an appointment, going to the clinic, waiting, paying a co-pay, filing a claim, and seeing a doctor to tell him, “my vagina is sore after sex.”
I’m looking for someone else to tell my that their vagina wass sore after sex too and they got over it OR their vagina was sore after sex and it was indicative of a problem and maybe I have to see a doctor.
No medical advice is a marginally stupid rule, and is enforced vastly stupidly dogmatically.
Why can’t the policy be, “Medical advice accepted at your own risk” (or something to that effect) in the SDMB agreement?
Anyone willing to accept the medical advice of a carefully placed group of electrons should have their head examined anyway.
I’d say, at its most innocent, it’s explication in the context of an “advice” thread. Sometimes this gets very close to providing actual advice, in that the procedures and such described are what any patient would expect from any competent MD. True, it’s not “IAAMD, and I say you should do this…”, but I’ve seen threads killed dead with extreme prejudice over the same sort of behavior, with no MDs present. I can’t be sure if it’s simply the Mods not catching it, or, as I suspect, known MDs getting a pass. I hasten to clarify: I don’t have a problem with it, if that’s what’s going on. I just think it would be helpful to have some sort of clarity.
There was a poster with chronic heartburn, and I, among others, recommended Prilosec OTC. I put in all the “I’m not a doctor”, “You should see a doctor” blah blah blah to try to make it clear that Prilosec could just be hiding more serious conditions, but it knocked my heartburn right out.
That thread was, last time I looked, not locked. The poster, when I asked, said her heartburn was indeed gone, and the doctor had cleared her for extended treatment via Prilosec.
Now I don’t feel like I healed her, just offered some advice based on my own experience. The advice worked. She saw a doctor to confirm my advice (I just say “my”, others offered similar advice) was indeed sound. Nobody died. Nobody sued. Somebody had a condition that was so bad she brought it to the Pit relieved, at least in part due to advice offered on this board. She most likely would have gone to the doctor, anyway, but an over-the-counter remedy put her suffering at bay long enough to at least get an appointment.
The bigger problem, from what I see, is that what advice CAN be given? Say my car is sputtering and somebody says, “Hey Duke, my car was doing that same thing and I tried X!”. So I try X and my car explodes and kills innocent children and puppies? Is THAT any different from offering medical advice?
Or what if I don’t like using a credit card for online transactions. Somebody advises that PayPal works great so I use that. And my bank account gets wiped out, I can’t pay the IRS, and they confiscate all my worldly possesions? It was all because OF THIS MESSAGE BOARD that I’m living in a cardboard box!
And we can’t flirt, so that’s out. No advice and no flirting. Anybody want to discuss “Showgirls”?
Huh. You describe a thread, DoR, of the sort I’ve seen dispatched in short order, and it seems reasonable to assume the Sword of Damocles hangs over it presently. Thanks for mentioning it, as it tends to contradict my suspicions, and seems to support the other hypothesis, being that some of these threads simply slide under Mod radar from time to time.
Now that I think of it, there’s a thread floating around out there at this moment in which advice is sought for the problem of poor self-esteem. I would recommend seeing a specialist about therapy and or medication to help with depression, should a positive diagnosis of a mental disorder be rendered. Did I give medical advice? Is giving advice to seek medical advice, containing specifics about what kind of medicine one might expect from a medical doctor, in fact, giving medical advice?
And that sorta touches on the second part of my previous post. Lots of advice is just as potentially damaging as medical advice and almost any advice on human behaviour could be construed as in the realm of psychiatric advice (just read Dear Abby, “seek counseling” is here favorite bit of advice).
Actually CK’s treatment of Minnie made me put him in higher regard.
Since my “error” post I went out and read through ** Minnie’s** little whining rant and figured out that anyone so opinionated shouldn’t be so onion skinned. I seriously doubt that Minnie left due to harsh treatment by a mod. It’s more like Minnie got pissed off and then spiraled out of control when she discovered in her “whiney” thread that many other posters thought she was full of shit.
But hey, I could be wrong.
When the board begins to miss Minnie’s revenue I’ll help 'em out with the recruiting.
Well, here’s the point. Unkless they have changed the rules in athe last month or so- there is no such “Rule” as “no medical advice” or “don’t ask for Medical advice”. But some Mods seem to think there is, and close threads with same.
Now, yes, in the CoC, there is a line about “taking medical advice from a MB is pretty stupid” or something like that. Sure, and that’s fine. BUT- that’s not the same as 'don’t even ask".
Personally, it wouldn’t be a good idea for a Rule at all. The general caveat is fine, and is all that is needed.
I think each of us mods views it in our own way. And our ways are very different.
All of you posters who notice that there are threads left open where medical advice is being solicited------you’re right. Either nobody reported it, or we made a judgement that on that particular topic the advice angle wasn’t potentially harmful.
While I agree that removing a splinter is something we’ve all done successfully, I thought some of the continuing anecdotal posts were getting out of hand. And I didn’t disappear the thread. I locked it. The info was still out there for all to see. And, if you happened to use an exacto knife to cut it out, and you got an infection and died, no matter how careful you were to clean the blade and the area before the self-operation, the person who offered the advice can comfort themselves with “Hey! It worked for me. Too bad it didn’t for you.”
I locked it before someone came in with even more bad advice.
Don’t take these things too personally. It’s a judgement call.
I find it frustrating that we’ve enshrined certain professions to the point where advice cannot be given unless it’s billed at $200+/hr. Nobody has a problem with questions about car trouble or computer problems or home repair. Why is there such a hangup about medical and legal advice?
We’re all thinking adults. We’re smart enough to consider the source when taking advice. I suspect that most of us tend to ask for opinions when either
[ol]
[li]we want second opinions on the professional advice we’ve received[/li] [li]we’ve already decided not to seek professional advice and just want casual opinions [/li] [li]we want the sort of advice that professionals don’t provide (e.g. home remedies, alternative therapies)[/li] [li]we suspect that something is just a professional racket and don’t want to waste our money on it[/li][/ol]
The world would be a much nicer place if we stopped “protecting” people so much and just let them talk freely to each other.