AskMe Etiquette

October 16, 2009 5:19 PM

Making recommendations against a physician or business on AskMe?

In this post, anonymous is looking for a gastroenterologist.

I had a terrible experience with a gastroenterologist in NYC a few years back, who failed to test for or diagnose an underlying gallstone problem while treating my esophageal reflux. Wound up in the hospital for emergency surgery.

I don't have an axe to grind, but do think anonymous might benefit from a mild warning about the physician, with a "ymmv" disclaimer, of course. Is it kosher to do that in the thread? Obviously, I can't MeMail anonymous.

posted by zarq to Etiquette/Policy at 5:19 PM (14 comments total)

I would suggest going through the moderators.
posted by scrump at 5:24 PM on October 16, 2009

This is one of those areas where I think some improvement to the anonymous mechanism of question asking should be considered. An anonymous question frequently is a touchy subject, and answers to that question some folks would rather not have associated with their name. Often this is solved with an anon email addresses, but as this is not required often folks wind up in a situation similar to yours.
posted by bigmusic at 5:24 PM on October 16, 2009

I think so, it's all in the purpose of finding a good one, as the question asked...
posted by setanor at 5:25 PM on October 16, 2009

We've had some cases where that sort of comment has been found by the professional in question and it's turned into a headache. If you really think someone's been horrible and is worth avoiding, some sort of "Don't go to this doc, memail me for details" comment is okay. A long horror story of he said she said is less great. We'd like people to be honest and at the same time if someone's looking for suggestions the anti-suggestions are less important unless the doc has already been suggested. So, use decent judgment and don't get too graphic unless you want poor old mathowie to get hate mail from the doc in question years from now.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:25 PM on October 16, 2009

If you really think someone's been horrible and is worth avoiding, some sort of "Don't go to this doc, memail me for details" comment is okay.

That's a good idea. I can do that. :)

So, use decent judgment and don't get too graphic unless you want poor old mathowie to get hate mail from the doc in question years from now.

Will do. I'm all for keeping hate mail to a minimum!
posted by zarq at 5:31 PM on October 16, 2009

And thank you Jessamyn, for responding so quickly.
posted by zarq at 5:31 PM on October 16, 2009

We've had this come up before and I still don't understand the problem. Yes, you can tell true stories about bad things businesses have done. At least until they completely own the government and make it illegal.
posted by DU at 5:39 PM on October 16, 2009

The "problem" is as Jess laid out...
posted by HuronBob at 6:11 PM on October 16, 2009

I see the problem mostly with the presentation of the answer. "This doctor sucks and doesn't test for X thing" is a lot different than "When I went to this doctor I wasn't tested for X thing and it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I'd never go back."

It's that factual statement versus the opinionated one.
posted by theichibun at 6:17 PM on October 16, 2009

It's okay to dis Microsoft or Ford, though, isn't it? Is there an easy rule of thumb about how to draw the line?
posted by box at 6:53 PM on October 16, 2009 [1 favorite]

I dunno, I'm not a doctor but I think that anecdotal cases like that might mean that he's a bad doctor, or might mean that he made a mistake on that one case, which doctors do.

I just don't like the idea of trashing a doctor's name on a public website based on the say-so of one person on a messageboard, particularly when the question wasn't even about that particular doctor.
posted by empath at 6:59 PM on October 16, 2009

One anecdote is not "trashing".
posted by DU at 7:27 PM on October 16, 2009

i can see discouraging askme discussions involving a professional service turning into an impromptu forum for BBB like ratings - there are already alot of websites that offer consumer evaluations of professional services (the one always on the back of MotherJones for example). Not only does this ward off nasty complaints for the MeFi PTB, but even given those could be quashed, I don't really think that is the content askMe is geared towards (imo obviously).

rather, as said above, wouldn't this be a great reason to expand the "anonymous" capabilities - ie, you can still send mail to the poster of an "anonymous" question so that a user who desperately wants to dissuade a poster in their geographical area from a particular individual has a mechanism to do so.

and - as said above - that would probably come in handy for alot of "anonymous" posts
posted by sloe at 9:39 PM on October 16, 2009

One anecdote is not "trashing".

Well considering askme's google-juice relative to any given doctor, i would imagine it would be the number one hit for the doctor's name almost immediately. And it would probably result in some damage to his reputation and business.
posted by empath at 10:31 PM on October 16, 2009