One Contest to Debunk Them All

in contest •  7 years ago  (edited)

Ok. It happened. I’m running low on ideas, at least what to debunk next. So, I thought, it might be a nice idea to create a little contest. Quite often, the contests or challenges one can find on this platform are useless as fuck. This one will be different. I promise.

Since the curation team of the @steemstem community is currently quite generous in supporting my posts, I deem it a decent idea to give something back to the community. I’m such a nice guy, I know.

animal-wildlife-pasture-horse-brown-mammal-1339112-pxhere.com.jpg
Source

You guys have only one job to do: provide me with interesting topics, which I can dig into.
Since I’m an evil capitalist, I think your efforts shall not be in vain and I am going to compensate every idea I decide worthy to be debunked.
I haven’t decided yet, how much I am going to pay for each selected entry, but it will be at least 3 SBD (maybe more, depends on the payout) and I will mention you in the post as well.

“Wait, only 3 SBD? Dude. This is not even worth getting out of bed.”

Well, then don’t. I couldn’t care less. If no one submits any entries, I will save SBD, that’s alright too.
For all you other guys: have you ever asked yourself, whether something was true or not? Submit the idea to me and earn some easy money. 3 SBD is still more than many people earn on their posts – and you only have to submit a question and get a bit lucky. And maybe you get even more. Seems fair to me.

Ok, what to do exactly?

  • Write a post with an idea worth debunking.
  • Explain why it’s important to dig into this one.
  • Use the tag #debunkdonkey (don’t ask).
  • DON'T submit your ideas below this post. Please.
  • There is no fixed end date to this contest, since I’m always looking for new ideas, so feel free to submit whenever you like, I will check regularly.
  • Wait until I chose your idea, wrote an article and received the rewards.
  • Profit.

The people who have already provided me with some ideas are automatically winners, as soon as I’m covering their topics. First come, first serve and stuff.

But wait, how can you be sure, I’m not just going to screw you over, take your idea and not going to reward you? You can’t.
This is, where you need a bit of faith – or knowledge of social pressure. Since I’m part of the Honor Member Team of the @steemstem community, I would be nuts to put my (and probably the community’s one as well) reputation at risk in an attempt to scam you. So, IF you realize, all my promises were empty, and I did indeed rob you of your idea – call me out openly and let everybody know, what a big fraud I am.
I will do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen.

There is so much pseudo-science in the world and I think, it’s always worth fighting for a more rational approach to deal with the hardships of life. Now you can become an even bigger part in it and get paid for your efforts – sounds like a fair deal to me.
It’s up to you. I’m waiting.


Feel always free to discuss my ideas and share your own thoughts about the things I’m writing about. Nobody is omniscient and if we all walk away a bit smarter than before, we’ll have achieved a lot.
Thanks for reading and stay sceptical.

@egotheist



Make sure, to check out #steemstem for more science related content.

Debunk-Tuesday

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I know you explicitly said not to do this on the comments but I don't really feel like writing a whole post of debunk ideas and uninspired and half-hearted posts are a no-no. A little respect for the readers, right?

As for ideas, I'm totally getting them out of my granny's and other old folk's reccommendations over the years:

  1. Don't eat and bath/get into the pool/get into the sea etc or you can have an embolism. This one I actually more-or-less cleared a few years ago, but it would still be interesting to read about.
  2. Don't drink coffee (or other hot beverages) and then a cold one or you can basically die out of the temperature difference. The cold-first-hot-after order is allright, though.
  3. One glass of beer after exercise helps recover fluids and lost electrolites (okay, not an advice from my grandmother, but from my beer-loving sports buddies. We never stop at only one glass, though).
    4.Oysters and such are aphrodisiacs. It's a must in my country to see vendors on the beach shouting 'vuelve a la vida' ,' rompecolchón' (meaning 'come back to life' and 'matress breaker') while trying to sell you surprisingly non-fresh looking oysters and clams out of a mayonese jar, claiming they will revitalize your sex life. Never tried, but I can't help but wonder.

Those are the ones that come to my mind, I hope you find at least one of them interesting enough to write about.

Happy debunking!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Ah, remembered another from my grann's collection: Do not swallow the seeds of fruits such as passion fruit, guayaba, tomato, granada and such, since they could cause apendicitis. To my understanding this can happen if you have an already inflamed appendix, but otherwise it's probably a myth... right?

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Why do I even make rules, if everybody ignores them anyway? ¯\ _ (ツ)_/¯

<3

Hi @egotjeist. I have to think about this a bit more. But the first thing comming to my mind, is the story about cardio-protectivity of red wine (flavonoids) that was in the news some years ago. If the story is still true (i.e. there is more supporting data around) it would be nice for the wine lovers, if not it would be another proof of the concept that „you can‘t have the cake an eat it.“
#debunkdonkey

You just reminded me of adding another rule: no ideas below this post :D

It's alright the one time, since I didn't specify it beforehand - but for everybody else: I want a post and explanation why I should focus on this idea in particular.

About your idea: I will see what I can do about it :)

Since I really like this series, here we go.

I mostly just read and comment, so my feed is still empty and I'd like to keep it that way until I decide to start posting, so I'm going to comment here. If that excludes me from the prize money that's fine.

Some ideas (in german):

Orgonakkumulatoren (I love this one! It's a bargain too!)
Heilsteine
Heilen mit Magneten
Ionenzahnbürste - Sehr uneinheitliche Studienlage.
Elektrosmog
Stoffwechseldiäten

Maybe it could also be interesting to take a look at the marketing techniques and the building of a (cult)-following of alternative remedies in general (radicalization, emotionalizing, black-and-white thinking, rhetorics etc.).

Hope that helps.

I'd like to keep it that way

It's alright. Since they are my rules anyway, I might be able to bend them if needed :)

How about debunking capitalism? ;-P

Just (half) kidding. Seriously, I have some ideas, but I will make those posts myself. Sorry.

:P

It's alright, if no one submits, I can only save money :)

Ok I am in will post soon.

This is not in any way connected to what this contest is all about.

https://steemit.com/debunkdonkey/@cokra/here-with-a-small-idea

Well friends, my idea would be, when the drawing contests eh stories that make short video images to check that the drawings eh ideas are not taken from the Internet, that would be useful to say