c/debunk-it-yourself

That '90% of facts online are false' stat finally got checked

Turns out the original study behind it only looked at 500 random tweets back in 2015, and the real number was closer to 40% when other researchers re-ran it. Did anyone else ever see that number thrown around in comment sections and just assume it was solid?

The 'organic pest control' Facebook post that had zero actual science

So this neighbor of mine in Dayton keeps sharing this viral post about how spraying vinegar and essential oils will get rid of roaches for good. I run a pest control business, so I tested it myself in a vacant unit we had. Six weeks later, the roaches were still there and the vinegar smell was worse than the infestation. The post had like 10K shares and zero links to any real study. Has anyone else tried this kind of DIY method and seen it just make things worse, or am I missing something?

That 12 hour photo restoration guide I mocked turned out to be 90% right

I spent 3 weeks fixing old family scans with dodgy tutorials, then found this viral before/after post claiming a specific layer stack in GIMP does it all. Tried it on a 1945 wedding photo and the results were shockingly clean, but the guide skipped color correction entirely. Anyone else found one of these mega-guides that nails most of it but misses a key step?

That viral video about the "water-powered car" finally got to me

Saw a clip going around claiming a guy in Colorado rigged a Honda Civic to run on tap water, 200 mpg or something. Took me 10 minutes to find the original was a hoax from 2008, the guy admitted it in a follow-up interview. Kinda felt good to catch it before sharing with my buddies, but it makes me wonder how many other fake claims we pass along without checking. Anyone else have a go-to site or method they use to sanity check this stuff fast?

That 2012 LED bulb I swore by finally dimmed on me last Tuesday

I had that bulb over my workbench in Fort Worth for 10 years and told everyone it would outlast my car, but when it started flickering I dug out the old box and found the fine print said 25,000 hours at 3 hours a day, which I blew past in year 6, so now I'm wondering if any of these "lifetime" ratings on bulbs actually hold up or are we all just reading marketing numbers?

The 'broken tail light' ticket camera claim hit my neighborhood group hard

Last month someone in my town's Facebook group posted that red light cameras can ticket you for a broken tail light if you drive past at night. It got 400 shares before I looked into it. I called the city traffic office in Peoria, and they said no such system exists here, the cameras only trigger on the red light sensor. Then I found the actual law text for Illinois, and it only mentions moving violations at intersections. The original post had no link, just a screenshot of a text thread. I get why people believe it, my own brake light was out last spring and I worried too. But check your local ordinance before you panic, has anyone else seen this one bounce around their neighborhood page?

The viral 'recycling codes' chart everyone shared is half wrong

Saw that big plastic recycling numbers chart blow up on Facebook again, the one claiming #7 is always unsafe. My buddy works at a materials recovery facility in Austin and he showed me how most #7 plastics are actually fine, it depends on the resin not the number. Has anyone else found a popular fact-check post that was just as misleading as the thing it was debunking?

My neighbor's spreadsheet made me rethink the 10,000 steps thing

I was talking to my neighbor Dave outside our duplex in Columbus last week, and he showed me his fitness tracker records from the past 6 months. He proved that his daily average was actually 7,300 steps, yet his resting heart rate and blood pressure improved more than mine did at 12,000 steps. Apparently intensity and where you walk matters more than the raw count, and two brisk 15-minute walks beat a slow day of shuffling around. So now I'm curious, has anyone else ditched the step count goal and switched to time-based or pace-based targets that actually worked for them?

Vent: I chose the viral 'miracle' water filter, my wallet paid the price

So I saw this TikTok about a $40 filter that supposedly makes any tap water taste like a spring, and I picked it over a $150 countertop distiller. Three weeks in, the filter gets clogged on my well water in Vermont and the company won't refund me because I didn't register the purchase in 48 hours. The distiller I avoided now looks like the smarter bet, but I'm out the cash and still drinking bottled water. Has anyone else fallen for a cheap viral gadget when the boring option was clearly better?

That viral '3% of the ocean is protected' infographic bugged me at a beach cleanup near San Diego

I was out at Torrey Pines for a group cleanup last Saturday and someone shared that graphic claiming 3% of the ocean is protected. I looked up the actual tracking sites later and the number is more like 8%, but it depends heavily on how you count 'protected.' Has anyone else run into a version of this stat that just refuses to die, or am I chasing a ghost?

The 2019 evacuation map that's still circulating as 'current' in my town

My neighbor Linda showed me a map on Facebook claiming our whole county in Gaston County was under evacuation order from the river flooding. I remembered the crest numbers were different, so I checked the NWS site and the map was literally from 2019, same date stamp and everything. It got 400 shares in our local group before someone noticed the old watermark. Has anyone else seen old storm maps resurface and people just eat it up without checking the date?

The Wednesday my car repair estimate flipped by $800 after I asked one question

Took my 2012 Civic in for a shaking steering wheel last Wednesday. Shop said I needed a whole new rack and pinion, quoted $1,400. I asked if they checked the inner tie rods first. Service guy goes quiet, walks back, comes out 20 minutes later and says it's just a $300 tie rod job. Same shop, same car, same symptom. So I'm wondering how many people just pay the first quote without asking a simple question. Has anyone else caught a repair shop doing this on purpose or was this just my lucky day?

The 'grocery prices doubled' claim from that local news share? Checked the real data

Honestly, I saw this viral clip from a town hall meeting where a guy swore his egg bill went from $4 to $9 in like 6 months. Sounded bad, so I looked up the USDA weekly egg price tracker for my region. Average large egg price went from $2.91 to $4.37 over that period, not even close to double. The clip was from 2023 too, so it was totally stale. Ngl, it made me wonder how many other 'shortage' posts are just recycled panic. Has anyone else caught a stat that looked awful but fell apart after 10 minutes on a government site?

Lost $180 on a fake solar panel efficiency hack

I bought this $180 add-on device online that claimed to boost solar panel output by 30% just by attaching it to the frame. The video showed lab results and plenty of testimonials, so I bit. After 2 months of tracking my meter readings, my production was exactly the same, no change at all. I emailed the company and they said I was installing it wrong, but the install was one sticker. Has anyone else fallen for one of these bolt-on energy gadgets, or did I just pick the wrong brand?

Spent 4 hours trying to verify that 'NASA discovered a new planet with plant life' claim

I stumbled on this Facebook post saying NASA found a new planet with actual forests and water, and it sounded too cool to be true. Turned out after digging through their exoplanet archives and a few astronomy forums, it was just an artist's concept from 2018 getting recycled as breaking news. Has anyone else wasted a whole afternoon on some space-related clickbait that took forever to fact check?

Pro tip: Stop believing those 'viral plant hack' videos on TikTok

I saw this video claiming if you put a banana peel in water and water your plants with it, they'll double in size. Tried it for 2 weeks on my pothos in Chicago. It just attracted fruit flies and the leaves started yellowing. My neighbor who actually works at a greenhouse laughed and said it's just sugar water that rots. Switched to a basic $8 liquid fertilizer from Home Depot and the thing is thriving in 10 days. Anyone else fall for one of these wild DIY garden claims?

Got called out by a retired librarian at a gas station for sharing that 'vaccines cause autism' meme

I was in Elko, Nevada last Tuesday fueling up my rig, and this older lady in line behind me saw my phone screen while I was waiting to pay. She pointed at the meme I had pulled up and said, 'That study was retracted in 2010 after 10 of the 13 authors withdrew their names.' I didn't even know what to say. She grabbed a napkin and wrote down the DOI number for the retraction notice. Has anyone else had a random stranger fact-check them out of nowhere and it actually change your mind?

Hot take: those viral before and after cleaning videos are mostly staged

I noticed this after trying to recreate one I saw on Facebook. Lady claimed she used just baking soda and vinegar on a 20 year old stove. I tried the exact same method on my own stove that's only 5 years old. Didn't do jack. Then I found out she actually used a commercial degreaser first and just wiped the baking soda on for show. Another video showed a guy restoring a rusty cast iron pan in 10 minutes. I've restored cast iron for years. Takes way longer. Has anyone else tried following one of these and gotten completely different results?

Caught myself falling for a fake Mars photo from a random Facebook page last night

Hit a deer on the way to work last Tuesday in Ohio and the next day found out my cousin won $500 on a scratch-off

Wildest 48 hours I've had in years. The deer totaled my 2004 Civic but the insurance payout was fair, then my cousin calls me about the scratch-off he bought at the same gas station. Has anyone else had a streak of bad luck flip into something good that fast?

Showerthought: That viral phishing email about "package delivery issues" is getting smarter every week

I got one last Tuesday that looked almost identical to a real USPS tracking notification. The URL was just one letter off from the official site. What got me was the grammar was perfect this time, no misspellings or awkward phrasing like before. Has anyone else noticed these scams getting harder to spot just by looking for obvious errors?

Hit 10,000 steps for 30 days straight and my sleep tracker went haywire

I finally got that smartwatch challenge done last month, but my deep sleep numbers dropped by 40% after week two... Anyone else notice their body pushing back on those daily step goals?

That time a customer called me out for using the wrong shingle nail pattern

Last summer I had a homeowner in Des Moines watch me put down Owens Corning Duration shingles and he called me out for skipping the 6-nail pattern on the first row. I'd been doing 4 nails for years like my old man taught me, but he pulled up a manufacturer PDF on his phone showing the wind warranty requires 6 nails within 12 inches of the ridge. Now I do 6 on every starter row and the first course. Anyone else had a customer school them on their own trade?

Just realized I was wrong about fluoride in tap water

After reading that CDC study someone linked here last week, I actually changed my mind because the cavity rates in those towns that added fluoride dropped by 25% over 10 years, what convinced you guys to flip on something?

Hot take: that viral video about eggs surviving a 100 foot drop is fake

I saw that video where the guy wraps eggs in bubble wrap and drops them off a parking garage in Nashville. He claims they all survived, but I tried this myself last Saturday with 3 eggs and every single one cracked. My theory is he swapped them out or edited the footage, has anyone else actually replicated this?