Observations and sympathy for the Pilots on PPRuNe

[Freddy Cessna]

I was just reading the Turkish Airline thread about the possible hard landing, and it is quite noticeable how the world splits into 2 main camps it seems. Those who do not want to speculate or guess about things before a very thorough investigation takes place over a period of several months, and those who love a good gossip!
I didn't want to start this chat on the Rumours section as I feel bad for the pilots who have to wade through the well-intentioned but ultimately perhaps slightly clueless amateur sleuthing that goes on and gets in the way of their professional interest in things.
When you see someone writing the phrase "let's just wait until the investigation" or something similar, I get it, but what's the harm in speculating? It is after all a forum, not a newspaper.
The other thing that was very noticeable on the thread about the GermanWings incident, was the amount of people who not only could not be bothered to read the whole thread, but were quite open about not being bothered to read it as they "had a life" and so clutter up the thread again annoying most of the professionals who are trying to get to the bottom of something that must have been horrific for them to have to contemplate all the forth-coming ramifications for their job.
I don't want to get in the way of the pilots as they chat about their work, but I do want to say thank you for being allowed to read all this stuff on such a great forum, so I hope this out of way thread is the place to do it.
I drive trains for a living and well know how armchair experts can "sometimes" be a bit annoying on forums, but it's also a great way to learn about the pitfalls of a great profession, and show one's admiration of the skills being displayed by pilots.
As a punter, thanks to you all.

[Hotel Tango]

Or indeed vice versa :E

[LadyL2013]

I think a problem is when posters post things as fact, when they really aren't. This then gets picked up by media people who lurk here and before we know it, almost word for word, posts on here appear in the media.

It was especially telling in the Germanwings crash thread when people were posting info about mental illness as fact, when actual mental health professionals we're telling them they were wrong. Same goes for other areas when actual pilots are telling people, who've never flown more than a flight sim in their life but post as if they know everything, they are wrong.

Problem is the sensationalism that often comes from the uninformed sounds far more juicy than the reality often is and this is how misinformation spreads.