The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is real here. The difference is that, for many computer and computer-adjacent topics, the principals will often chime in. That gets

The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is real here. The difference is that, for many computer and computer-adjacent topics, the principals will often chime in. That gets you a level of authoritativeness that's hard to match. Even within computer topics, though, you see authoritative-sounding comments that are just wrong. That happens like clockwork in any thread having to do with undefined behavior, for example. I also know a little about Covid (having a minor in molecular and cell biology, and obsessively consuming resources like TWiV for a while), and the median amateur virologist comment here is just a howler. Occasionally you'll have people who really know what they're talking about comment, but it usually gets drowned out. The key, then, as always, is to read everything critically. Then there's some real insight to be gained here.