A good mechanic will ask and find out when he doesn't understand something. A bad mechanic will put something back together in the order they think it should go, even though it doesn't quite make sense.
This is such a good and accurate parallel to MANY situations and to all people in life.
I absolutely loathe the type of employee/colleague who will "always" answer (making one up if they don't know), and highly respect those who will try to find out but always 100% honest admit when they don't know.
The irony is the first person THINKS they are paying homage to accuracy and information, but actually doing the opposite.
The most accurate thing to do is own up to how familiar or unfamiliar you are on something, and then with that disclaimer in place, give your opinion.
I try to do this even on AWF. Someone asks me about some code, and I might say, "I'm only lightly familiar with ______, but I have a feeling the general consensus on this issue leans toward _______". This way the OP can accurately assess my advice- in light of my disclaimer about only being lightly familiar. That's the max accuracy point.
I'm even MORE careful to do this as my post count goes into the many thousands. The last thing I want people to do is assume, Gee, with 7k posts, he must be some kind of an expert. (HA). Then there are AWF'ers who literally just post as many responses as they can, including the "I'm not sure" ones, just to get their post count up. Then there are those who come across like encyclopedias even though they have no clue of the subject material! OK, now I've gone from preachin' to meddlin'. Sorry