I hear where you're coming from, but I disagree with regards to the HN community specifically. I hope most members here understand that there's a huge gray area

I hear where you're coming from, but I disagree with regards to the HN community specifically. I hope most members here understand that there's a huge gray area between our "extpertise-es." Personally, I have degrees in biology and env. science but I've been a software dev for 15 years. I'm not really sure where I fit in. Does that mean I can't have an opinion on environmental science topics because I'm "not in practice?" I can't speak for the medical advice topics (because I'm largely ignorant), but I always take the opinions on this site with a grain of salt. Just because we may not be "credentialed" doesn't mean our opinions are worthless or detrimental. Most of us are simply happy to contribute where we can, and we spend most of our time learning things that are beyond our comfort zone. After having been here for almost 5 years, I can suss out the wheat from the chafe, and I like hearing the variety of opinions regardless of their credentials. And most of the time I take the position of "student" trying to learn something from others. The breadth of expertise here is astounding, and I'm continually in awe of what people are doing. Could you be taking this too seriously? Ninja edit: softened my tone about taking things seriously (one of my personal shortcomings).