Can we stop doing this?
I don't think saying this is "pretty much confirmed" is useful unless someone is actually able to hang their credibility on the line with consequence.
(Heck, I even think it is possible that J-35 may show up at Zhuhai, but there is nothing in the written text that actually presents new information which makes us think it is "pretty much confirmed")
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I'm seeing people some people youtube and twitter now writing the idea that J-35 had flown from Liaoning, which is just the result of people playing telephone due to unconfirmed rumours and vague statements being stated overconfidently on places like SDF, permeating to twitter, and then exaggerating that to conclusions which are outright false or unconfirmed.
Given SDF is a place where some people are also on other sites/youtube/twitter, and we probably have a population of lurkers that post elsewhere, IMO it is very important that members here who have active social media or on other platforms, as well as senior posting members here, exert some restraint and ensure that claims are written with minimum exaggeration and maximal evidence base, and for all of us to be selective about what we actually post to other social media platforms.
If something is unconfirmed or if something seems a bit too tantalizing, IMO stop and just don't post it -- there is no benefit to be the "first" if the risk is that you make a mistake in the general public space and then it brings disrepute to PLA watching credibility. And even if it is asking questions widely to the general public on somewhere like twitter, asking questions too publicly and openly also damages PLA watching credibility if it is done so to a space where others do not know how to interpret it.
Sometimes things are better left in this forum and explicitly NOT posted elsewhere until we have a grasp or a degree of sufficient confidence about something.
@Deino, @5unrise
