By contrast, none of the things that an electrician would do, from "means and methods" to the NEC itself, are taught in an engineering degree program. There is no reason to anticipate that a person with a BSEE knows anything at all about safely performing electrical installation work.
And likewise, there is also no reason to automatically assume the contrary. I find this whole "Us versus Them" discussion to be very disturbing and egotistical (yes, I know you are a PE, I am speaking in general). The NEC was not created solely by electricians, but jointly by electricians and engineers (and obviously some idiot must have invited a lawyer or two just to screw up the wording :grin
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Yeah, there is a whole pile of engineers that lack the common sense to know how to turn a screwdriver, but there is equally a whole pile of electricians that are equally inept in their own right. I have seen questions posed on this forum from allegedly licensed electricians that were so patently pedantic that I was convinced they were from a DIY homeowner that also didn't know how to turn a screwdriver, yet they were gleefully answered by the forum.
Many of the tools and methods that you take for granted were in fact developed or set forth by the very engineers that you claim cannot fathom this industry. Many of the safety features and procedures you claim the engineer cannot fathom, were actually developed by the engineers.
In the 20 or 30 years that I have been associated with this industry, there is one aspect that I see most often with many (but of course not all) electricians, that I take great umbrage with, and that is the belief that as an electrician they believe that they hold a magical key to the locker of electrical knowledge. Maybe this comes about because they so frequently have to deal with people that have zero background, but they then forget that not everyone is as clueless as their daily customer.
I think that some of the responses in this thread are following this same omnipotent stance. That's fine when you are dealing with an old lady from Pasadena, but when you make this assumption across the board and including dealing with people that are more savvy than a blue-haired widow, it gets a little more iffy.
How could any lawsuit single out this website when its members can be anybody?
Because the owner of the website is not anonymous.
While the owner is not anonymous, the Law has already stated that he cannot be held liable for the information presented by forum users on his website forum. If a lawsuit were to be filed, it could only be against the individual presenting the information, and the owner of the website is held faultless, by Law.
