Should Incorrect Information Be Allowed to Spread on Engineering Forums?

[Kevin Johnson]

My name is Kevin and I am interested in science, mathematics and logic.

Last night I helped a member of another forum by correcting the citation of a post from this forum. I do not have sufficient privileges to comment in that thread or it is locked. I thought you should know that as a messenger and scribe I was criticized for fostering the spread of incorrect information by engineers on that site.

http://speedtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44265&start=30#p568140

in reference to this:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/pushing-the-piston.357037/#post-2461678

So, in the immortal words of another forum member, caveat lector.

Carry on.

 

[Evo]

Thanks, but that thread is from 2009 and was locked and members banned. Which particular post(s) were wrong? It looks like you are referring to post #13? When we lock a thread, we do not always delete the bad posts, perhaps something we should do, but others argue to leave the bad posts visible as a lesson to others (I do not agree).

As always, we welcome corrections, and if there is a mistake we can bring it to the attention of the moderators of that forum.

 

[Kevin Johnson]

You should probably consider adding a link to the discussion I cited using admin powers.

Particularly if this is a set of forums aimed at young minds the cachet of "Physics" and unchallenged misinformation could be a problem.

 

[Evo]

You should probably consider adding a link to the discussion I cited using admin powers.

Particularly if this is a set of forums aimed at young minds the cachet of "Physics" and unchallenged misinformation could be a problem.

Your link is in your post. I will flag this thread for our engineering mentors. Thanks for your concern. Please feel free to bring anything of this nature to our attention for us to look at.

 

[ZapperZ]

My name is Kevin and I am interested in science, mathematics and logic.

Last night I helped a member of another forum by correcting the citation of a post from this forum. I do not have sufficient privileges to comment in that thread or it is locked. I thought you should know that as a messenger and scribe I was criticized for fostering the spread of incorrect information by engineers on that site.

http://speedtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=44265&start=30#p568140

in reference to this:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/pushing-the-piston.357037/#post-2461678

So, in the immortal words of another forum member, caveat lector.

Carry on.

The problem is not the thread. The problem is the member of your forum using another post in a forum as a reference! This is why we, on this forum, demand a higher quality of references. It means that using another post in another forum is not acceptable as a valid reference.

Zz.

 

[Kevin Johnson]

The problem is not the thread. The problem is the member of your forum using another post in a forum as a reference! This is why we, on this forum, demand a higher quality of references. It means that using another post in another forum is not acceptable as a valid reference.

Zz.

I guess that I would not have an issue with that save that the post in question cites no references at all. Perhaps the Otto cycle diagram was appropriated or an original, I do not know.

Edit: Aha. I have done some exploring and see via the topic of "necroposts" that it is the case that older locked posts and threads can (and demonstrably do in this instance) violate current guidelines.

 

[berkeman]

Yes, the Mentors have been discussing your post report about this. The consensus so far is that the post could be improved, but it is from so long ago that it does not represent the current state of the PF or the poster.

 

[Kevin Johnson]

Well, I have to chuckle a little.

One of my professors in grad school was a founder of his field in the 1950s (he has since passed away). He bemoaned the fact that many grad students presenting papers would only go back about ten years in the literature and would not catch that many members in the audience had researched and published on virtually the same topic. If you do not review primary sources and rely solely on secondary interpretations or meta-analyses -- that is quite risky. Of course, the real problem is that the corpus of knowledge is growing too quickly for a human mind to efficiently process.

I guess it is quite a dilemma with a dynamic forum.

I think that it will suffice that a link was provided to this exchange and that several engineers on the other forum have already expressed dismay. The onus on the dedicated student is to drill deep.

 

[berkeman]

Well, I have to chuckle a little.

One of my professors in grad school was a founder of his field in the 1950s (he has since passed away). He bemoaned the fact that many grad students presenting papers would only go back about ten years in the literature and would not catch that many members in the audience had researched and published on virtually the same topic. If you do not review primary sources and rely solely on secondary interpretations or meta-analyses -- that is quite risky. Of course, the real problem is that the corpus of knowledge is growing too quickly for a human mind to efficiently process.

I guess it is quite a dilemma with a dynamic forum.

I think that it will suffice that a link was provided to this exchange and that several engineers on the other forum have already expressed dismay. The onus on the dedicated student is to drill deep.

You do understand that for important scientific discussions here, we require links to mainstream peer-reviewed journal articles. The Automotive Engineering forum is not necessarily subject to the strict standards of the science forums here. It is not usually necessary, but it can be necessary if there is a disagreement that can be settled by examining the sources.

This thread is done.