Post messages to the appropriate discussion group. When appropriate, use private email instead of posting to the group. Don't waste expert readers' time by posting basic information. Looking only on internet give a false sense of completeness. If something in the printed literature contradicts what you find on the net you will never know unless you look also in the printed literature.
Authority can be difficult to ascertain.
At this point anyone can have a web page and often anyone does. Many web sites are commercial. Much of printed literature is still protected by copyright. Not all journals in a given field are on the Net. I don't even know what proportion of them are on the net.