Get ready. Here's my rant about the KnitNet article, warning you all not to take knitting advice from amateur enthusiasts but rather only from those whose "financial well-being are linked to the quality of information." Okay, I'm not making any money from this site, so clearly everything I have to say about knitting (or otherwise) should be taken to be unreliable crap.

One might ask if this is perhaps the motivation behind KnitNet starting to charge for subscriptions - to gain credibility? Alright, that's unfair. I know that many people have used their video knitting primers to learn to knit and patterns to make wonderful items. Even when their articles and advice were - gasp! - both free and on the internet (beware, the alleged signs of untrustworthy advice)! Hmmmm.... How did all those people manage to discern good knitting advice, of the sort offered by KnitNet, from the other free advice lurking out on the net, of the sort KnitNet wants to protect us from? Well, Regis, I'm gonna have to go with B. We're not total idiots, thank you, and are inundated nowadays with so much information that we are already always judging each piece of advice (including yours).

So you're a contestant on Survivor and one person comes up to you and says, "Dude." (they talk like that, you know) "Dude, don't trust any of these other people, they're all lying all the time. Let me tell you what's going down. I'll give it to you straight." What do you do? Well, "whose livelihood depends on getting it right"? "Dude. I toootally need the money. It's not just a game for me." I can trust him now, right? What I really take issue with is this rule they give us for determining whom to trust. There are loads of people who despite (and indeed because of) financial considerations, lie to and manipulate us. And it's very hard to trust someone with motives ($1,000,000 or advertising revenue, perhaps) when they tell me not to trust anyone but them. And on a personal note, I really don't like it when I sense that someone is insulting me (either by calling me stupid or impugning my character).

It's not that I'm against this sort of an article in general. Of course people should be aware that search engines are coughing up every-damn-thing that uses the terms requested and any nut/genius could have written what they find. But we're talking about KNITTING here. (I'm gonna go out on a limb and just trust most of you guys and gals, 'cause I see no reason why you would be offering insane or dangerous KNITTING advice.) I wanna see this type of warning given to - no, forced onto - students, parents, voters, citizens. And regarding things that are truly important and truly difficult to judge well, like politics and life. Not 'the knit stitch'.

P.S - Thanks to Jamie for pointing out the article in her blog and giving me a reason to rant and then go calm myself down with a little knitting.
P.P.S. - Knitty rules!