"Any body can post any thing here with no peer review, no editing, no fact checking."
'Which is a good thing ... I know that freaks the old foghies out but it is'
It's really not. It is what it is. Neither good nor bad.
Old fogies aren't 'freaked out" by it. We're just weary of having ill-informed, ignorant or just plain dishonest Internet bonsai crappola (and crappola in general) presented as "fact." In bonsai, I can't count the times I've seen obvious worthless junk being sold as authentic bonsai with an accompanying price tag. All it takes is one look at 98 percent of the 'bonsai' sold on Ebay, or a look at some guy's YouTube video purporting to show how to repot a bonsai... Sorting through the chaff to get to the wheat is a real issue for many starting out. This kind of thing was true B4 the net, but there was much less of it and it wasn't as readily available.
The good thing about this is that Internet will eventually teach people to exercise critical thinking, at a mass scale. In the past, we had our "leaders", and we regarded them as authorities. Most of the interaction was personal, so there was little room for dissent. Now, we have a shitload of data to sort through (good and bad), and we are required to turn this data (good and bad) into "information". In the process, we have to use a lot of analysis and critical thinking. So, I think that this is a good thing, since it empowers the masses, and takes away some of the control from the "authorities". The flip side is that the price of freedom is risk. Life just got riskier (just like in the jungle), and those who cannot think for themselves, will lose.
There was a time when the written word was almost automatically assumed to be true. This was the time of our grandparents. These days, the written word is cheaper than the spoken one, so you better use your judgment carefully.
By the way, this is why I use my real name on the forums, instead of calling myself XZY7977. It's my way of saying, that I stand by what I say, and take responsibility for it. I know that there are valid arguments for using screen names, but in my view, anonymity is the breeding ground for deception, and I don't want to be in that place.