which people do you trust as far as their answers go on yahoo answers in the fish section?

My criteria is about the answer & not the person. Good people can give bad advice from time to time. Additionally part of the allure of this site is allowing people to talk out of their wazoo & test their intuition.

Well rounded organizations are not made up of well rounded people. They're made up of people who are great in one area, and not so great everywhere else. This section is like that... Don't ask me (an invasive species guy) junk about your goldfish. Taking human nature into consideration, I would develop a BS filter for the answers themselves & not make up some list of trusted people.

I look for:

A. No cut & paste answers of verbose text. This is the worst.

B. No one sentence answers with no explanation of their personal experience. The complex issues in this section are not well suited to yes & no answers without some justification.

C. Answers that don't directly address my question & instead offer general information are often somebody paraphrasing something they read.

I generally ignore the + and - signs since many responders will selfishly click the - sign in an attempt to make their answer more palatable and I attempt to find verification for what people wrote by searching for it on google.

If somebody told me to dump 3 tablespoons of salt per gallon in my tank, that's a thing I could do a google search on....

These are really hard questions to answer.

I would also be sure to add Dreammaker and NoSoop4u to that list. We may not always agree on things and have different ways of getting from Point A to Point B, but I have never seen either of these guys tell anyone anything that was just flat out wrong.

Something else to consider is not just the person, but the topic as well. If I have a Goldfish question, I will ask Finatic. If I want to know about Discus, I'm going to hunt down the Soup Nazi. (Obviously not the only things they know - just examples)

Everybody who has been in the hobby for a long time has a lot of knowledge. Some have more experience in certain area than others, so I try to stay open to other ideas.

There are quite a few on here for whom I have a great deal of respect and faith in their answers. Making a list is really hard.... But I know them when I see them.

yay im on the list :D

i agree 100% with what vort3xyz has said the whole thumbs up/down game gets old REALLY fast.. i'm very selective with whom i add to my contacts file.. if anybody's really THAT interested you can look in there

also the Top Contributor badge means jack-diddly about a person's knowlege, it just means they are here alot...

i've seen people with 100 posts all of which are the most rediculous answers imaginable that are TC's...

no one will ever like every answer that someone gives. and everyone has off-days, and brain-farts when they answer a question. no ones perfect...

but it's still nice to be put up for consideration :D i still can get over that, lol, my face is so red right now

This can be very dicey and lead to a lot of flame wars...

I have lurked here for over a year. I rarely ask or answer.

This place is a popularity contest for many posters, perhaps a springboard to their own web site.

That's fine, gotta do what you gotta do.

I am a partner in a fish store. We are successful at keeping fish, not so successful at making money.

There is no way I'd drag my name through the mud or my company's. You have to ask what motivates the answerer. Unfortunately more often than not, it is to feed his/her ego.

Better to find a local store with a proven track record for your questions.

I don't ask to many questions but when I do I go right for Craig or CopperHead, s Big G. Dan or Ian. Soup Nazi (don't remember SN) or CatxCat. There are a few that give quality answers.

I really trust and appreciate the answers from "deR" he always gives the best answers to EVERYTHING. I still wonder why he doesn't have the Contributer title after all his great work.

Edit - damn posted on wrong account :(

finatic, BIGgourami, really kinda everybody you mentioned but the person i trust the absolute is BIGgourami

well trust people who give u scientific approach and have ans similiar those on the net when u research a thing or two

there are so many great people on here, but Ian and Finatic are great.

me lol