Help! UTH/Thermostat not giving me the proper Temp

Originally Posted by denman

YouTube is a terrible source for reptile information??? The majority of the videos are all done by professional Reptile owners/breeders. Put YouTube aside, am I actually supposed to believe that these Reptile owners/breeders are total idiots who don't know what they're talking about? Wow.

That's not what I said.

I said that the "top-down" format is bad for information sharing -- that's because there isn't a good way to go back and forth and critique, and then improve, and then re-critique, and finally get to something where all the relevant info has been taken into account. That back and forth is how information sharing needs to work, in order for it to work. Just like we're doing in this forum thread, where people have to come to get clarity on stuff they saw on YouTube. QED.

I said that content creators' motivation is suspect. This is because many video posters are advertising a product or business or public persona -- not simply providing information. So not only do they have to prioritize making themselves look good, but they often need to produce content when they have nothing to say but need to draw attention to their channel anyway.

I said that the comment section is mostly Russian trolls. This may be overstated a bit (though not on, say, news channels -- take a look at all the bots there sometime; it is wild), but again there isn't a real opportunity for back and forth discussion on finer points, so drive-by comments are common and because they're funny they are good for attracting attention to the video.

I did not say anyone was an idiot, and did not say anyone doesn't know what they're talking about. FWIW, I actually know Richard at RR. He's a very decent person, and a very experienced and knowledgeable keeper. Every time I speak with him it is a pleasure. I'm pretty certain that if he were in this discussion here he'd admit the points that Jason and I are making, especially in light of the fact that the method he suggested isn't working for you. Again, top-down vs back-and-forth.