What makes an "expert"?

I agree with Leigh. When I post onto the Harsh Truth section, I want advice from proven experts like those already mentioned, and not claptrap from self-styled experts. I say put it to a vote too!

PS: Even when I was really new here I was able to differentiate between real expert advice and mere flash, so perhaps it's not doing as much harm as might be thought :) I'm sure there's more people out there who would agree with me, right :) :)
 
This was Mal's original point. It should be a regulated section of the site.
 
Steve said:
I wasn't hatin anyone really.

Promise. :)
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Ha I know I was just messing with you guys.

Maybe the harsh truth section does more harm than good unless things change.

Just a thought for everyone.
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I don't think it does more harm than good, the level of good that has been achieved in my eyes is pretty astounding actually. Take some of the posters who before were following unhealthy programs that now not only are following healthy programs but giving really solid advice to people.

My worry is with posts like these. Now granted it is not full on only bad advice, but to much conflicting and a spam promotion to a cleansing diet spot.

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/harsh-truth/13940-how-many-calories-do-i-need.html

That is not what the harsh truth should be.

This is another example...

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/harsh-truth/13700-somebody-please-help.html

I just feel like if someone posts a question and just a few of us are allowed to respond then the quality of the advice in this particular section will be on a higher lever and lead to less confusion.

I also think that we do have different approaches, we all have our different techniques to apply to a situation to where it would still leave to help a wide variety of people or make a wide variety feel comfortable.

We could even make a little bio sticky to let everyone know who will be helping them in the section. I think we could really bump it up a notch. :)
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Im no expert. Just someone who tries to understand the body; how it works and how particular results can be achieved. I love this stuff, bottomline.

A nickname (ie, expert) is received by your peers. You cannot give yourself a nickname, IMO. Maybe the original people who came to help should have the say as to who gets the title, Steve, Leigh.


Oh and Trevor, Leigh and I are mods. :D


Leigh, you're a mod over at jp, how do they determine whos a fitness expert title and who isnt?
 
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They no longer do those titles over there, infact there was quite a stir over there about what the term expert means, who it should apply to, etc. Now you just have the means to label yourself whatever you want.

I think here, more than title anyone an expert, it would just be nice to have this section be more focused. After all there are other sections to discuss all things exercise, diet, etc. If this section doesn't stick to some sort of stricter policy, I really just don't see the point of having it.

Anyone want to rule on this, take it to mod discussion even?
 
Leigh P. said:
They no longer do those titles over there, infact there was quite a stir over there about what the term expert means, who it should apply to, etc. Now you just have the means to label yourself whatever you want.

I think here, more than title anyone an expert, it would just be nice to have this section be more focused. After all there are other sections to discuss all things exercise, diet, etc. If this section doesn't stick to some sort of stricter policy, I really just don't see the point of having it.
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Completely concur.
 
Leigh P. said:
They no longer do those titles over there, infact there was quite a stir over there about what the term expert means, who it should apply to, etc. Now you just have the means to label yourself whatever you want.

I think here, more than title anyone an expert, it would just be nice to have this section be more focused. After all there are other sections to discuss all things exercise, diet, etc. If this section doesn't stick to some sort of stricter policy, I really just don't see the point of having it.

Anyone want to rule on this, take it to mod discussion even?
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Doesnt require a mod discussion... that's why i brought it to the community actually... and sort of the reason behind my point -unless there truly is expert advice... there's no reason to have this specialized forum...

OR it could become more highly moderated... and answers and questions posed would have to be approved first there are questions asked in here that don't need to be here... but then it comes down to the opinions of a few...
 
I am not trying to preach segregation but it is simply to hard to lump in with the random "well I just decided not to eat for a few days and the fat fell off!" kind of advice that can float around here. This place is to scattered in its level of knowledge to not have some section that is devoted to those ready to get serious and look for solid advice on diet and exercise programs.

Now granted we have some different approaches and we don't all agree on all things but we have a common flow of advice that guides by proven scientific sense. I need to know that the time I take to post is not going have a higher chance of not falling on deaf ears or being combated by someone who suggest a cabbage soup fast.

As far as the method, well it isn't my board, and I respect rules and chain of common so to speak. If it was up to me I would just get together a list of reliable posters/professionals who could respond and have it be a moderated section.

Hope it doesn't come across as to harsh, not meant to be, just in my opinion could provide a NO BS safe area for advice.
 
Leigh P. said:
I am not trying to preach segregation but it is simply to hard to lump in with the random "well I just decided not to eat for a few days and the fat fell off!" kind of advice that can float around here. This place is to scattered in its level of knowledge to not have some section that is devoted to those ready to get serious and look for solid advice on diet and exercise programs.

Now granted we have some different approaches and we don't all agree on all things but we have a common flow of advice that guides by proven scientific sense. I need to know that the time I take to post is not going have a higher chance of not falling on deaf ears or being combated by someone who suggest a cabbage soup fast.

As far as the method, well it isn't my board, and I respect rules and chain of common so to speak. If it was up to me I would just get together a list of reliable posters/professionals who could respond and have it be a moderated section.

Hope it doesn't come across as to harsh, not meant to be, just in my opinion could provide a NO BS safe area for advice.
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Yea, that's what Mal said in the post above yours.
 
The interesting thing is that no matter what the subject, most true experts have a certain humble quality to them. The best way I can describe this is to use a movie example... if you've seen the movie "Shooter", the main characters need to talk to a ballistics expert, and they seek out this quiet old man who is pretty much the most knowledgable person in the world on the subject. The old man asks them what they are looking for, and they simply reply "Wisdom". The old man instantly replies "Well, you've come to the wrong place". Then they ask something really complicated, and suddenly he's interested. I realize that's a movie but it's interesting that in real life this really is often like that.

My point is that if I'm truly going to seek out an expert, I'm going to look for a guy like this. The abrasive pricks who act like they know it all is not this guy, and there's a bunch of these. No, I want to find the guy who is quiet, who will only respond when there is a question that is interesting enough to justify spending time on, meaning that if he actually says anything, you had best listen up. These are the true experts. I've seen stuff that Trevor has written that makes me think he's one of these guys. On the other hand, the guys who just blabbitty blabbitty about every little petty silly easy question possible usually aren't the real experts, they're the abrasive pricks, but in a forum environment, this can be very misleading.

Now, how do you translate this into trying to figure out how to "mark" the experts for this forum? I have no idea... I'm just an abrasive prick. :cool:
 
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Leigh P. said:
Yeah I wasn't trying to say my take was new, was more saying that was my "vote" if you will.
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Yea, I gotcha.

I wasn't assuming you thought the above either. ;)

I just wanted to make sure everyone saw that both of you concluded the same things.
 
This section of the forum tends to be very quiet, so you will find some poor soul who's eating 1000 calories a day and still not losing wondering if they're "doing it right", yet getting no response. Clearly the answer is "NO!", but very often the person's post goes unanswered. That's when I may chime in. No, I'm not an "expert" (meaning I don't practice fitness and diet as my profession), however, I am an intelligent and well-read individual who has worked hard to maintain my weight and lose weight at times over the years. So I have my own experiences, and frankly, just like the "experts", I can also read articles about the science.

Some questions (such as the 1000 calorie diets or the cabbage patch starvation soup diet) simply do not require any specific expertise to respond appropriately, just a bit of basic nutritional knowledge and some common sense to help the poster (usually a desperate teenager) avoid a frustrating future of yo yo dieting. Sometimes the problems posed are less clearly resolved, and that's when I would step off and hope the "experts" will respond.

I also believe that, despite the comment that any wrong answer (such as "go on the cabbage soup diet") is a waste of time, that these wrong answers are always debated by others and actually give the readers a chance to see why that's the wrong way to go. Wrong answers, if debated, can be very educational.

Note that sometimes the experts' grammar and spelling is poor/wrong, and it makes you wonder how educated they really are.

To sum it up, my vote would be to (a) either open the forum up to everyone, the so-called experts and the lay person or (b) limit this forum to only the self-described experts AND open a new forum that is for general support and allows everyone to respond. Why waste the knowledge of so many people who really want to help just because they may not do nutrition/fitness for a living?

Hope this quick response is coherent.
 
Blancita said:
This section of the forum tends to be very quiet, so you will find some poor soul who's eating 1000 calories a day and still not losing wondering if they're "doing it right", yet getting no response. Clearly the answer is "NO!", but very often the person's post goes unanswered. That's when I may chime in. No, I'm not an "expert" (meaning I don't practice fitness and diet as my profession), however, I am an intelligent and well-read individual who has worked hard to maintain my weight and lose weight at times over the years. So I have my own experiences, and frankly, just like the "experts", I can also read articles about the science.

Some questions (such as the 1000 calorie diets or the cabbage patch starvation soup diet) simply do not require any specific expertise to respond appropriately, just a bit of basic nutritional knowledge and some common sense to help the poster (usually a desperate teenager) avoid a frustrating future of yo yo dieting. Sometimes the problems posed are less clearly resolved, and that's when I would step off and hope the "experts" will respond.

I also believe that, despite the comment that any wrong answer (such as "go on the cabbage soup diet") is a waste of time, that these wrong answers are always debated by others and actually give the readers a chance to see why that's the wrong way to go. Wrong answers, if debated, can be very educational.

Note that sometimes the experts' grammar and spelling is poor/wrong, and it makes you wonder how educated they really are.

To sum it up, my vote would be to (a) either open the forum up to everyone, the so-called experts and the lay person or (b) limit this forum to only the self-described experts AND open a new forum that is for general support and allows everyone to respond. Why waste the knowledge of so many people who really want to help just because they may not do nutrition/fitness for a living?

Hope this quick response is coherent.
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I don't think another section needs to be opened really. I didn't think an open form of the "harsh truth" section was really needed either. Everyone has their questions answered by an "expert" or other outside of the harsh truth. And at the moment, as it stands now, this section is just an extension of that.

So either it becomes more tightly regulated or it's done away with IMO. Right now it serves no purpose above and beyond what the rest of the forum does.

Again, just my opinion.

I agree, I hate misspellings. But at the same time... we each have different value systems. For some posters..... they want to get their point across and in many cases, they don't have a lot of time to do it. I'm sure if you were speaking with them, they wouldn't be fumbling words and the like. It's simply a product of the means of communication and lack of time... at least that's what I like to think.
 
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Well Said Blancita --
To sum it up, my vote would be to (a) either open the forum up to everyone, the so-called experts and the lay person or
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Every other forum answers the same questions that are asked in here - so weight loss thru exercise or weight loss programs would easily replace this.


(b) limit this forum to only the self-described experts
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Which goes back to the original problem of how do you determine 'expertness'.

AND open a new forum that is for general support and allows everyone to respond. Why waste the knowledge of so many people who really want to help just because they may not do nutrition/fitness for a living?
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every other forum does fill the need so it really comes down to do we need an experts only forum or not...


And steve types faster than I do..
 
Aside from people's individual diaries and the Harsh Truth, is there any place to go for support and/or questions such as "why am I plateauing" or "what would be a good exercise plan"? Perhaps I've missed this.

Often diaries are mixed with tons of other comments unrelated to the question at hand, and new people may not have many people coming to their diaries, so their questions may not get answered through a diary.

I used to belong to another, very heavily censored WL forum (which is why I switched here), and they did have a good support forum where you could ask questions and everyone would chime in with helpful advice or just some support. People are not really welcome to do that in the HT forum because its supposed to be reserved for a few so-called experts.
 
Diaries I think are pretty useless for getting information.. but weight loss thru exercise and weight loss programs are definitely well utilized parts of this forum that encompass pretty much anything a person needs...

there's also On Topic as well.. and nutrition... questions get asked in most of those topics...
 
mal and I cross posted :D. I guess I haven't visited the other forums mal mentioned. I think it would be great to have one place where all WL, nutrition, exercise and even social (such as looking for support because someone called you fat or whatever) questions can be answered by anyone that wants to try to help. Some of the forums around here seem very quiet, so it may be better to consolidate rather than have a million very focused forums. But hey, who am I to say, since I'm semi new?
 
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