Online Groups: Sort Out the Nonsense

How to Sift Through the Answers and Motives of Online Q&A's

Prior to the rise of the powerful internet and social media, information was exchanged and shared in person, in local establishments amongst patrons and through traditional media channels such as newspapers, magazines and other sources. 

That has changed over the years to now include information shared within online specialty groups dedicated to geographical areas and specific interests. This created an increased need to be aware of the Q&A responses within the groups. Don't believe or buy into everything that is discussed and stated as fact within the groups. When I titled this post, "Nonsense" was the most polite way to describe two initials that I would have rather used: B and S. 

As an example, I've seen online administrators shoot themselves in the face and feet as recently as today. I was flabbergasted when a very large Facebook group of thousands of members dedicated to local snowbirds in Northwest Florida informed their audience that "Starting November 1st, Only Snowbird Business will be permitted. No Rental Advertising!"

A member of the group said, "I like seeing the places available. Is it a problem posting them?" and was told by the administrator, "Most Snowbirds have already found places to stay for the winter. We want to focus on promoting our activities offered by the club for the winter."

A logical follow-up question was posed, "Every year many of us have to find a place to rent in order to come and enjoy those activities. It is becoming more difficult each year to find a place at the right price. Maybe there could be a separate place on the web site to post them so anyone interested could go have a look."

A second administrator said, "Rental postings will be allowed on the WCS snowbird page March 1-Oct 31" and sent the woman to ANOTHER generic web site that doesn't have anything to do with snowbirds or rentals. It's simply a geographical group for Northwest Florida.

Wow, just WOW! Unbelievably dumb.

In response to the member who asked about rentals I replied, "Wow, like you, I think there's many ppl who need the snowbird rental info all year round. I know this because I see the requests online and there's many reasons snowbird bookings are not yet complete. I recommend joining private Facebook rental groups such as..." I then listed three excellent groups. I really wanted to say much more, but refrained. Smart administrators would want to keep their members engaged within their OWN group, not send them elsewhere. Motives, common sense and Facebook groups do not always go together and it's important to be able to sort out the nonsense.

Nonsense is not just limited to one type of online group, it's found in every group. It takes a discerning person to sift through it and determine what is the truth vs. opinion. Of course we all have opinions, but there's many online opinions that are misguided or expressed with a motive, ignorance or naivety. By naivety, I am referring to "lack of experience, wisdom, or judgment." The weather, politics, food, housing, activities, generalities and much more are all subject to nonsense. Motives include the patrons who genuinely do not like or want snowbirds or anyone else invading their communities. Even though they chose to live in seasonally populated areas, they openly despise what they consider to be intruders and try their best to overtly or covertly dissuade. 

An example, a general question about what is the weather is like in a particular area during the winter is not uncommon. Answers range all over the place, but the most infuriating are when a local or someone with an agenda gives an extreme answer such as "It's freezing cold, we have temperatures in the 20's, fountains freeze and it's awful, you don't want to come here in the winter." When anyone calls out the person who posted the answer, they get defensive and point out, "Well, one time years ago we had a frozen fountain, here is the photo to prove it."

Had the question been posed as, "What is the most extreme range of temperatures will I find in the area?" then by all means, give the extreme hot, extreme cold, worst case hurricane, tornado and storm situations and anything else that has ever happened once in a lifetime or even once in a season. However that's not the intent of what was asked. The intent of the question is, "In general, what is the weather like?" I recommend also fact checking answers by looking online at the mean temps as reported by the weather authorities in a geographic area. Ask the same question in different groups or in different ways to see what many people respond with, not just one who acts like they are the self-appointed final authority.

There's an acronym to remember not just for evaluating answers in online specialty groups, but for any information posted online. It was developed by Michael Caulfield of Washington State University, Vancouver to help evaluate whether online content is credible and reliable information. SIFT: S Stands for S as in stop, take a moment and pause before responding or taking action; I = Investigate the source/s; F means Find alternate facts and cross check coverage and T = Trace back to the original source.

For snowbirds, "S" first and foremost indicates "What is the impact of the answer/s for me as a snowbird?" Look at the motives, intent and make decisions based on multiple sources, multiple questions phrased in different ways and consistent answers that can be fact checked.