Comment · Tue, January 27, 2015 · Ceretropic
Is this a dangerous subreddit filled with pseudoscience?
Original post in this thread
[deleted] · 169 points
I can find no way of objectively quantifying the contents of this subreddit that doesn't result in a straight-forward determination that it's filled with pseudoscience, which is inherently dangerous.
Has anyone considered that there should be far more disclaimers present in the sidebar and/or alongside all of the discussions happening here?
It seems that "a friend tried this relatively-unstudied herb and they noticed they were able to remember certain things better" is a valid post, when I think that most sane people would dismiss comments like this out-of-hand in any other context. Why do mods allow such threads? How is it not dangerous to perpetuate health-related "information" that is so anecdotal?
I hope we're willing to have an open, honest critique of ourselves. You should be genuinely concerned if this post gets massive downvotes or deleted by mods.
EDIT: The level of defensiveness is unbelievably over the top. We should always be erring on the side of caution, yet 100% of the replies are suggesting that everything is perfect, nothing can be improved, and that a couple sentences buried in the FAQ are all that could possibly be done. Others are telling me to unsubscribe…
What they were answering
caffeinetheanine · -2 points
Why not stop the somewhat arbitrary autotagging of posts mentioning substances that a few people purposefully misdosed or misused, and just have a giant sidebar disclaimer saying "You may wish to stay away from this subreddit if you are either too stupid or not stupid enough to learn about experimental substances."
Information wants to be free. Why enslave it?
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
I think a happy middle ground in achievable. There are good arguments on both sides of the table. I don't see tagging as enslavement, but another method of disseminating information.