There are many subjects that I’m fairly knowledgeable about, and a few that I have a great deal of knowledge about. There are also some subjects that I’m pretty clueless about. Like many others, my first stop for answers is usually the Internet, either Google or a Facebook post. While I’ve gotten some very good answers, there are also some stinkers lurking out there, often cleverly disguised as very authoritative. I’ll give a couple of recent examples I’ve seen.

First, there was a FB post about the dangers of RV travel with the propane on. The accompanying video, however, showed a burning RV parked among other RVs (probably on BLM land in AZ). I immediately disputed the premise of the post since it showed only stationary RVs. One lady actually tried a novel, but stupid, argument. None of the RVs had simply materialized in that spot so you should certainly blame travel. The guy who started the post responded and we traded comments. Along with my common sense and RV experience, I also included a link to a very authoritative article on RV propane systems. To his credit, he read the article and revised his position. He was also preparing a video on RV propane safety and asked permission to include my name in the video as a credit. No prob bro, but I didn’t write the article.

Another post was written by a FB group admin. She was warning people about travel in high wind conditions expected at the time on the east coast. Her sole piece of advice was to ‘tuck in behind a semi’. A few other people pointed out that was a very dangerous practice before I got involved. She merely edited her original post to state that she was NOT advocating tailgating. That wasn’t good enough for me. Reading through some of the other comments, there were other group members who thought she was an authoritative source simply because she was the group admin. I sent her a private message asking her to remove her comment since some people would see only that and take her terrible advice. She declined. So I posted a link (as a comment) to another source that discussed what to do as an RVer during windy conditions. None of their suggestions included tucking in behind a semi. Not surprisingly, she couldn’t let that go so we started trading comments publicly. She asked if I wanted to moderate the group since I apparently had the time. I responded that I really didn’t have the time but thought the topic of saving lives was important enough to make the time for this subject. I fully expected to be booted from the group but was very surprised that she actually removed her post.

I could go on with other examples but I think y’all get the point. Even well intentioned people on the Internet can be wrong, sometimes dead wrong. You need to do your own due diligence, apply some common sense and make up your own mind. Sometimes you should maybe even pay an expert in the field for a professional opinion.