At what point is your credibility shot? (KR)

[Roger Hicks]

Maybe I've worked in insurance too long (35 years) but I was wondering, the other day, whether anyone who sets themselves up to provide professional advice (i.e. advice for which a fee is charged) should be carrying professional indemnity insurance.

KR aside, there are numerous websites which offer views and comments which might lead someone to spend money which, if the advice / views / technical data proves to be wrong, could be an expensive mistake.

Striking a balance between saying "in my opinion, this lens if the best ever made and you'd be stupid not to buy one" as a throwaway opinion is one thing. However, if you are paid to make such comments or make comparisons across ranges of products, produce evidential photos to back up claims and receive money into the bargain, that may be something else altogether. I wouldn't like to try to tell a judge the law on that one.

Then there's the thing about, do your research then get off your derriere and go and try one before you buy one. Personally, I wouldn't buy anything worth more than a few ££ unless I had the chance to check it out and make the call for myself. IMO, too many of us rely too much on what others think and abdicate too much responsibility for making our own decisions.

Dear Paul,

Highlight 1: Yes, you have. There are things no-one can insure against, and not getting on with a camera is one of them.

Highlight 2: It would be hard to imagine a case in which the judge would have any difficulty in deciding the case in the reviewer's favour, Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256 Court of Appeal notwithstanding.

Highlight 3: Absolutely. You also need to know a bit about the subject, especially on the internet where confident assertions of complete nonsense are common currency.

You have to try to learn individual reviewers' preferences, prejudices and priorities. I've even been known to buy books on the strength of negative reviews, when I know that the reviewer is a semi-literate buffoon and that I am very likely to enjoy stuff that he specifically attacks.

Too much in any review is opinion, and qualified opinion at that: any sane reviewer is likely to say, "This will probably suit people who like A, but may not not people who like B".

But liability insurance? Hardly.

Cheers,

R.

 

[eric rose]

What did you do before the internet? When you wanted information on a lens or camera you could go down to your local camera store and fondle it, bug the heck out of the sales staff and/or ask your friends who may have used the gear. That approach still works for me. I don't trust ANYTHING on the internet.

As far as KR is concerned, don't you have more pressing problems to worry about? Like lying cheating politicians, you know the people who can actually affect your life.

 

[Huss]

The upside about KR is that he got me to rediscover rangefinder cameras, and shooting film.
And I thank him for that.