Well, that's my first site suggestion so i hope i don't screw anything up.

My suggestion is rather simple: to create a new rule under "Prohibited behavior and content (text, links, images, videos etc.)":

No asking any kind of health/medical advices!

Good arguments on why this Site Suggestion should be implemented:

Do i really have to explain? It's too damn dangerous and i'm talking about people's health, life and death IRL here.

There are people asking for health/medical advices mostly in General Help forum; just two examples from the first page:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=64773035&f=34
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=64767952&f=34
- Well, d2jsp is a gaming community and i'm pretty sure that 99% of the members here - including myself - have no knowledge about medicine. And what about that other 1%: no serious doctor gives medical/health advices without seeing a patient or at least interviewing him/her. Such medical/health advices given in d2jsp - even with the best intentions - may have lethal consequences in worst cases. It may be, that it's even possible to sue d2jsp for misleading medical/health advices in some countries. There can be only one advice is such cases: Go see the doctor!

We're gaming community, but let's not play with people's health.

(Sorry about the second option! :))

I agree, too many trolls abound who could care less anyways. I don't think you could get a really serious discussion on such topics most of the time. Granted, there will be some good discussion occasionally but in my opinion, not enough to offset trolling and other activities.

+1 for you.

I would say it varies from case to case and how serious the issue is.

But I do understand what you are saying as well.

And rules can still be enforced for users who is giving advice to people who is giving false infomation that can actually harm someone.

I think that a simple fix to this would be to make a rule about adding sources to your information to whoever is giving the advice.
Why is this better?
-Limits trolls to having to do research
-Askers will have to read up a little bit before consuming anything
-Presents options

By prohibiting people on simply asking is not needed. Most people with life threatening illnesses wouldn't bother posting on here anyways...

Edit: I nulled my vote because, I think the issue is not people asking, but the people trolling. What I stated above is a much better solution.

This post was edited by mikool on Oct 3 2012 12:09pm

well, adding sources doesn't necessarily mean adding reliable sources... and people with no medical knowledge (the vas majority of this forum), wouldn't necessarily always be able to tell the difference between a reliable or a non reliable advice

Regardless, someone looking for advice from someone that's not a doctor will do independant research. Better to have multiple sources being shown from people that have some general knowledge. There are people that know a good deal on health related topics. It's not like people are asking about what to do with their cancer.

Edit: I doubt there are that many people who give advice on medication and health without knowing something. You can tell for the most part if someone is trolling or not, its not that hard. Specially if they had to go look up sources, you can tell a good advice from non.

This post was edited by mikool on Oct 3 2012 04:03pm

First of all - thanks for your input!

I don't think that trolling is the main issue here (if you take a look at the examples in my first post, no post there qualifies as "trolling" and i'm sure mods can easily deal with trolling in such threads). The main issue is the best intended advisor who do not understand his/her responsibility and the complexity of one's health problems!





I'm sorry, but i can't agree. Any advice about health problems can't be given without knowing the characteristics of the person's organism - like allergies, contraindications etc.! There is simply no way, that anyone here has such knowledge! Ever more - the best intended health/medicine advice without knowing the characteristics of the aided's organism can turn his/her not-so-serious disease into a life threatening illness in worst cases.

Let me make a simple example. Let's say someone has a stuffy nose - the most "innocent" disease - and he/she asks for a help here. You had a stuffy nose yourself some time ago and your doctor suggested Sudafed - the most "innocent" and traditional drug - which helped you so you suggest him/her to use it. But there are many people who are allergic to Sudafed! They can experience rash, hives, difficulty breathing, tightness in the chest etc. You can't possibly know if the aided is allergic to some component of Sudafed or not, his/her doctor do! And you have probably no clue what to do in the case of allergic reaction. So you may do him/her a grave disservice in giving such a "innocent" advice.

That makes even the best-intentioned and knowledge-based health/medicine advice here a Russian roulette for the aided (more or less).



It's impossible in two reasons. First - there are so many different sources in the web that varies from pseudoscientific crap (hazardous to everyone's health) to peer-reviewed medical journals widely accepted in scientific medical community. Following some health advices from the web can be more damaging to your health then shooting a bullet to your head. Who's gonna make a difference, who's competent enough here to evaluate such sources? And secondly - there's simply no universal care which is suitable for everyone, not even for the same disease (see the previous section). Even if you use a reliable source of information, it doesn't mean, that it's suitable for the aided.

The whole idea of my suggestion is not to prohibit something. It's to protect people from possibly damaging their health by seeking help from the internet gaming community. There's only one place they should turn to seek for a help - their doctor.

+2

I voted no. If they're dull enough to not see a doctor or do some research themselves then that's just natural selection doing it's thing. Harsh, but true.

Voted yes; I think people should just ask their doctor instead of asking unreliable sources.