Plumbers and union **** me off

Thread Starter

jaygatsby

Joined Nov 23, 2011
182
I just looked at a site for plumbers, and there was a stickied thread about how people who are not professional plumbers "are not welcome" on the forum... Then I thought of AAC and wondered, what if we said the same thing... "If you don't do electronics right, people die. We don't give advice to unlicensed hobbyists." Is it because of the union thing? Don't help your fellow man, unless they're willing to pay for it?

Or am I mistaken?
 

Georacer

Joined Nov 25, 2009
5,182
The answers to those two don't relate.

Automotive topics are a choice of the admins.

About overunity, the answer is the same about religion.
 

Thread Starter

jaygatsby

Joined Nov 23, 2011
182
could it possibly be then that it's a choice the admins made and the one not serviced has 'conspiratorial' tendencies?
The plumbing forum admins decided to not allow hobbyists. They decided not to help people who wanted to DIY. That's their right.

I don't know if it's a union thing. I assume so.. but I don't know. But I do think it's a stark contrast to AAC, where members help novices and beginners on a daily basis. Where does the difference come from?
 

Thread Starter

jaygatsby

Joined Nov 23, 2011
182
A good friend of mine, one of my best friends, came to another friend's factory where the other friend and I were working on a panel with 220. He is a union electrician so we asked for his help, since we were working with high voltage and all...

He said no and left the building. He wouldn't help even his buddies unless they were taking out small business loans to hire a union shop. Safety advice be damned.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
Plumbing is not the only profession with this sort of tendency. I think that the closer a profession is to being "something that anybody could do," the more likely its people (most but not all) are to be stingy with their information. It's like they don't have a whole lot to hold on to, so they clutch it as tight as possible. They wouldn't want a potential customer of theirs being taught across the internet by some other plumber how to easily fix their own busted toilet in 5 minutes and losing out on a service call. So they don't teach you, because they wouldn't want their own customers taught. They look out for eachother.

I guess electronics engineers don't really have to worry that much. A few adventurous hobbyists aren't going to nullify their reason for existing. The amount of people actually interested in this hobby is very small, and it's rarely a service-based thing, where somebody is going to "miss out" on work if we help them. these DIY electronics hobbyists wouldn't hire an engineer to design their automatic chicken coop door if we didn't help them.
 

GetDeviceInfo

Joined Jun 7, 2009
2,192
some of the best advice is don't go where your not qualified. Professionals in recognition of this will often withhold advice, to prevent unintended exposure, protecting both themselves and the person seeking advice. Trade unions, out of necessity, often strive to be the best in thier fields. Helping hobbists is simply not what they are about. But if you check with most professional organizations, it will be the same.
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
The good thing about this forum, ask your question about plumbing

or anything and you wiil get correct inffo on any subject.
 
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