this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
17 points (87.0% liked)

Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2298 readers
239 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I think that there is a need here for the fact checking bot(I understand that a custom bot for health-related communities would be ideal, but even a general fact-checking bot is a step in the right direction).

Due to the sensitivity of the topics posted here,the fact checking bot could be very beneficial to remove the misinformation posts, which could be posted on the future.

The mod team could invite the bot that is used on the news communities.

What does the mod team here think?

top 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Health can be a very nuanced topic. I feel as if a bot would do more harm than good as it's incapable of identifying the little things sometimes. Also, bots learn from the Internet. If there's a general misconception on the Internet and we call it out here, the bot will think it's untrue.

I think it's best if we, as people who care about our health, look at these posts and use our own judgement instead.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

People with no training who care about their health, looking at internet posts and using their own judgement is the exact thing fueling the antivax movement...

[–] Sundial@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

You're completely right. That being said however, I feel as fact-checking via AI is jumping from one extreme to the other. There's too much room for error with having an AI monitor and fact check this kind of topic.

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

Worth highlighting a lot of people are not fans of the bot in the news communities for several reasons, but predominantly the biased source of its data.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 month ago

Really depends how the bot is implemented and what it uses as information sources.

[–] Awa@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a mod, I am not completely opposed to a fact-checking bot but I do not have experience managing one, nor do I likely have the technical expertise to incorporate one (would very likely need assistance in the event the population within this community wants one).

I would like to hear more input on ideas (pros vs cons) from community members and if anyone has suggestions for incorporating one if that is the popular opinion.

Personally, I prefer to have community members freely discuss health issues, sharing facts and opinions on commentary. Health can be viewed so many ways. While scientific research is the golden standard to support facts, one must consider other aspects of life that influences health such as history, culture, and individual experiences.

Ideally, I would prefer not to have a bot but would like to hear what the other mods and community members say. Thank you for sharing this suggestion.

[–] Awa@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Example: The recent post that discusses taping your mouth to decrease snoring with a "linked study".

I personally think that is not a safe practice despite what the article says. Moreover, looking at the amount/percent of down votes and reading through all replies, I don't see the value in a fact checking bot as the community members apply their own knowledge, critical thinking and personal opinions to the discussion, thus helping other community members form their own ideas of the "factfulness" of the initial post.

How would a bot fact check this?