Marking Jumps and T's

[Aotus]

interesting read...i don't want to find an arrow pointing the wrong way because someone else thinks arrows are for something other than pointing the way OUT...

 

[ScubaInChicago]

I think (someone) took the Sally Struthers, Earn your cave diving cert at home course.

 

[boulderjohn]

Actually I am amazed at this thread and how it has evolved. What I hoped would be a civil discussion rooted in logic and critical thinking/analysis, has in part a degree of unwelcomed bravado and testosterone.

I am beginning to think it is a cave diving thing.

I am an occasional participant in threads in Caver Divers Forum. Since most of those threads deal with world-wide water conservation efforts, I am only interested in a fraction of the topics being discussed. Lately I have been very frustrated by the fact that every thread in which I am interested and have even participated has degenerated into ridiculous off topic idiocy. For example, the thread on the recent death in Ginnie Springs, in which a diver died trying to exit on a dive in which he did not bring enough gas to deal with potential emergencies, ended after someone made the comment that no one has ever died from bringing too much gas. Now, does anyone not know what the person meant by that? Well, it turned into a total mess when people started to talk about some incident when someone had trouble handling multiple tanks, etc. It was simply inane and had absolutely nothing to do with the thread. That pretty much ended all meaningful discussion.

In another thread dealing with buoyancy issues, I mentioned the obvious fact that all technical divers, including cave divers, have to begin their dives significantly overweighted because of all the gas they have to carry. Again, does anyone not know what that means? But no, we can't have a meaningful discussion about the actual topic because people had to quibble over the use of the word "overweighted." Post after post went on and on about how if you need all of that weight, then you aren't really "overweighted." That ended the discussion. No one apparently wanted to participate after that.

I could give other examples, but I think you get the idea.

It reminds me of something that was written in the grammar book that was required in my Freshman English class in college more than 45 years ago. It said something like, "If someone asks "Can I go to the bathroom?" only an English teacher would not know what that means." For some reason, some people have a need to pounce on things like that and ignore the actual topic of discussion, and for some reason those people seem to thrive in the cave diving commuity.

 

[Superlyte27]

Agree with you completely John.

 

[kensuf]

WTF JUST HAPPENED? Did [-]AJ[/-] Superlyte just make a post that wasn't argumentative and judgmental while mocking and ridiculing? Am I in an alternate reality? Did the world just explode and I'm the last one to find out? HOLY CRAP.

[-]WheresWaldo[/-]John just accomplished the impossible.

 

[PfcAJ]

Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

 

[kensuf]

Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

I actually think this place is relatively civil in comparison to other forums.

Cave and technical diving tend to draw a number of strong willed individuals to the activity, and whenever you have a collection of strong willed individuals, you are bound to have some conflict. The cave diving community has a long history of people arguing about silly stuff. As an example, rumor has it, the NSS-CDS came into existence because Sheck Exley was kicked out of the NACD. And I'm sure someone will argue with me on this one.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

I actually think this place is relatively civil in comparison to other forums.

Cave and technical diving tend to draw a number of strong willed individuals to the activity, and whenever you have a collection of strong willed individuals, you are bound to have some conflict. The cave diving community has a long history of people arguing about silly stuff. As an example, rumor has it, the NSS-CDS came into existence because Sheck Exley was kicked out of the NACD. And I'm sure someone will argue with me on this one.

I thought the other forums had less censorship...I thought wrong, it happens.

 

[boulderjohn]

I thought the other forums had less censorship...I thought wrong, it happens.

My sense of a comparison is that a lot of the moderation in other forums is more invisible than it is here. This is certainly not universally true, but when we moderate a thread in anything more than a minor way, we will usually leave a moderator note saying what we have done. I have rarely seen anything like that in other forums. One thing we don't announce is when we take punitive actions against individuals. When we have someone who we feel is too frequently violating rules, disrupting threads, etc., we may well ban that person, either for a set period of time or forever, from specific subforums or from ScubaBoard altogether. I recently saw a post in which someone wondered why a certain individual had not yet participated. I wanted to chime in with a "don't hold your breath" post, but that is not the sort of thing we do.

I also have a sense that some forums are quick to take sides in disputes, something we try to avoid. For example, when there was that episode with NACD a while ago, most forums dismantled the NACD site to show their support of one side of the dispute. We chose to remain neutral by taking no action.

If I had been a moderator on CDF, I would have taken out the off topic stuff mentioned in my last post to keep the thread on topic.

 

[kensuf]

But you're not a moderator of the CDF, and it's not your forum. If you don't like that particular forum, or the way it is run and moderated, then you do not need to participate in it.

In my opinion, sitting here complaining about the [-]lack of[/-] moderation on another internet forum does no good and just makes you look like a grump. It's definitely not "professional," and I'm not sure how it is meant to be constructive.