Comment · Wed, January 28, 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
ilove2dub · 2 points
Long time reader here. I agree that there is a reasonable middle ground.
I think a short but precise disclaimer ( a general one about nootropics not being a panacea for everything) with a stern but friendly "human physiology is a complicated beast, a beast which we hope you'll have a better understanding of during your time on r/nootropics , please develop as much of a knowledge base possible pertaining to any substance ( nootropic or otherwise) that you might be interesting in taking. Feel free to ask us if you need help."
and if some one is bored, we can link this to a new page packaging some really basic pharma and the types of considerations one should think about eg: Drug-Drug interactions etc.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
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