Originally Posted by
AlphaMindz
I was going to respond to everyone individually but upon further consideration that would be a bit too time consuming for me as I am at work, but hopefully I can touch on most of your replies with this post.
I'm aware of the fact that many pro body builders have very little knowledge about what they're taking and how AAS work as they just follow the advice of their coach, but they're also not running around giving people advice. I've spoken to advanced guys and they often have no problem admitting that they don't know how all this shit works and they just eat and train hard and leave the rest up to their coach.
A lot of you guys went straight to size. I wasn't focusing purely on size as I used the word "development" and that can be in various areas. Size, leanness, strength, proportion, etc....
You guys made valid points in terms of just because someone isn't bigger than you doesn't mean they don't have good knowledge....and I agree with that 100%. I'm just saying I feel like it would keep things more genuine if we could see what someone has been able to achieve and also help us determine if the person giving the advice has learned what they're talking about through experience or they're just repeating something they've heard someone else say.
Take Kelkel for example. His avatar completely preserves his anonymity while clearly showing he's a beast.
Obs' avatar fits perfectly to his personality on this board lol, also preserves his anonymity, and also shows he's a beast.
And recently Mr. BB put up an actual pic which I respect and appreciate.
I just think it makes the interactions on this forum a little bit more genuine, that's all. Quite frankly, if my post offended you then you have to ask yourself why? I wasn't being disrespectful in any way, and I wasn't discrediting anyone either. I'm simply stating that it would be nice to see the physique behind the advice and would keep people from embellishing and giving unwarranted advice....to an extent, of course, as when dealing with people on the internet we'll never be able to weed out 100% of the posers.
Of course we use our discretion and our best judgement in deciding who's advice to follow and who's advice to ignore. That's needless to be said. However, if having a picture of your physique WAS a requirement to give advice on this board, I assure you it would limit some of the ego and misrepresented information I've seen guys throw around.
Mack, I'm not sure what that comment was about lol. I never claimed to be huge, but I have made great progress in the last year and if you're so much bigger than by all means show us in your avatar. See this is exactly what I'm talking about. Guys making claims of how big they are and what not, with zero accountability. Now, I like you Mack so I'm surprised you of all people called me out like that, but we're all adults here so by all means, thank you for sharing your opinion. And, yes, obviously I would be smaller if I wasn't on gear!
To sum this up I'd just like to reiterate the fact that by no means am I saying that if you're not bigger than me than you don't have valuable information. In fact, I'd like to retract the part where I said I don't wanna take advice from someone who isn't beyond me in development. I can see that being flawed, fair enough.
However, I still feel that it would create a more genuine environment if people had to show what their physiques looked like. Not their face, or their name, or any other identifying factor. Just their physique.
At the end of the day I'm grateful for this forum and everyone on it. There's no hate here. It's something I've thought of many times since I've joined and still believe it has credence. I appreciate all the feedback that was given on this and who knows, maybe some guys will take it upon themselves to update their avatar with a visual representation of who they are, which on a body building/ fitness forum would be their physique IMO (even if it's a dated picture of them in their prime). Thanks for hearing me out.