It must be a trait that spreads throughout anyone in the electrical/electronics game.
I frequent the Phased Electrical Forum. If anyone makes a slight error everyone jumps up and down saying they are wrong, read the rules blah blah blah, anyone who does DIY is a mass murderer hahaha. Everything has to be backed up by a Wiring Rules clause number or Australian Standards volume otherwise its the end of the world.
Heaps of good technical data is the only reason I go there, good fun for a laugh though.
Yes, but the difference with that forum is that people are staking their reputations and livelihood on that information. If you reckon something is the way it is, you had better be prepared to back that claim up with evidence.
Being an electricians forum you would expect people who post there to be able to find a clause in the Wiring Rules, if they can't they aren't much of an electrician are they?
The other thing that a lot of non-electricians don't really understand is that the Wiring Rules are written into state legislation, ie, they are law. If they aren't followed you are breaking the law, and electricians can, have and will be prosecuted in a court of law for not following them.
Mock all you like, but it is serious stuff.