Is "the first rule of Scubaboard is that you don't talk about Scubaboard?"

[irishsquid]

Thank god for Rum

Christmas Gift!

 

[koozemani]

Then everYday should be Christmas!

 

[cardzard]

I love the new avatar Irish

 

[irishsquid]

Thanks! I've used that for 2 or 3 yrs. now at Christmas time. The cap fits my head rather nicely don't you think? Of course a dunce cap would also!

 

[buddhasummer]

I was recently in Indonesia on Bunaken and met an American diver so on the off chance asked if he was a SB member or had ever heard of, turns out he was I was pretty excited to meet a fellow SBer in the flesh, my first. On my diving travels I have never met anyone who if the toptic of SB/diving forums comes up was a member or who had even heard of such forums, I have done my bit to spread the word. SB can be a great place for information sharing, recommendations and generally to meet some really nice people sure there are some weirdos, maybe I'm one of them, but that's no different from any population sample in the main I think the majority of people are good and have good intentions. Merry Christmas.

 

[SeaCobra]

SeaCobra:



I see your point, but consider these. If I walk into a dive shop, and just the owner working the desk and I are there, and we strike up a conversation, let's say he tells me:

1.) That he believes Brand A dive computers are much higher quality & easier to use than Brand B, and...

2.) That diving air down to 150 feet is no big deal, just fine, he's done it at the Blue Hole off Belize a bunch of times.

What accountability is there? What follow up?

Now, let's stay I go to the Suunto or Oceanic sections of this forum and post that one or the other is more durable & has a better interface across a range of models. Or I go to the Advanced section & share that my local dive op. is telling me deep diving on air down to 150 ft, instead of the usual 130 ft, is fine and safe as long as I watch my air supply & use a big tank, and that nitrogen narcosis in such conditions is over-rated.

Am I not likely to trigger some people contesting these views?

ScubaBoard is an online forum, sort of like a virtual meeting room, and only as good as the posters who choose to participate in a given topic. That said, it seems the open public nature of it affords some (not perfect) quality control, and the large & involved membership quality info.

Richard.

We all learn in different ways. Some do well with eLearning while others prefer a physical book. Some can be told what to do and others need to be involved. There are members of Scubaboard that are the resource, SB itself is not a resource (just my opinion). Just as a brick and mortar dive center is not a resource, but the people inside it are. I encourage folks to find a quality dive center to do business with, a quality instructor to learn with and to spend less time at the keyboard and more time getting involved.
I can see what you mean by your example, but at least with a physical dive center you know exactly who the source of the information is. It is not a screen name, but a real person that you can go back to. And I have seen where other posters jump in to correct or clarify information, but what if the OP is not subscribed, or checking back in? What if someone reads in a thread that deep air is ok, and there are a few of those, but never even posts in the thread or checks back but goes forth with this information.
Again, we have the same result.

 

[SeaCobra]

You have the right to slime our community just as I have the right to call you on your Shenanigans. To be clear: I didn't call you a name. I called your contention bone headed. IOW, I attacked the idea and not you. Why do people make statements and then get so confrontational when people disagree with them? Are you that threatened by the disagreement? Not only do you take criticism personally, you take disagreement personally as well. You first complained about people not being held accountable, and now you are complaining for being held accountable. Which do you want?

The best part about having your understandings and beliefs challenged is that it helps to refine them. Personally, I find such an exchange invigorating as I try to understand reality as it applies to me. I have no qualms in postulating certain things, and I don't mind if the criticism I engender for it is a bit acerbic. Even gold needs the heat of fire in order to become more valuable and so it is with our assumptions and conclusions. In the same regard, the dross never likes the heat and withers away complaining about it all the while. Sharp disagreement is part of the accountability you seem to think is lacking. Yet another myth put to rest here.

Oh yeah, before I forget again... I did call:

:gans:​

This whole rant is laughable. Now, I am not insulting you, just saying your post is silly and inane.

I have gladly spent a lot of years working in professional dive centers and now own one myself. In those years I have had occasion where someone walks in and asks my opinion on something, such as diving deep on air. After sharing my learned opinion, I have heard on occasion, ‘well, I read on the internet that deep air is ok as long as I use a big tank and watch my spg’. Now, I have a list of scuba sheepskins as long as your arm, including Instructor, Course Director, Tec Instructor and my Captain’s License. So, why is some unknown screen name from North Dakota more important than a degreed live person standing before you?

The answer is simple; because I did not offer the information the customer wanted to hear. He found validation on the internet and wanted more support. Admittedly, people will do the same thing in person as they do on-line.

I do believe that the internet; its forums and websites, can hold valuable information, it is just not my primary resource. My library and my rolodex are.

Now I am in a bit of a conundrum, as there have been references to the positives of Scubaboard. In order for me to counter I have to cite negatives on Scubaboard. And I have absolutely no desire to run down Scubaboard or the internet or talk ill of any of the members.

I simply have a different opinion than you do, that is why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors. I am not stating that I am right or that you are wrong. Perhaps you should read that book, ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’.

My opinion, the one that you call bone headed but I call honest, remains unchanged.

 

[The Chairman]

My opinion, the one that you call bone headed but I call honest, remains unchanged.

And uncensored. People can read your contention and the several who disagreed with it and come away with their own opinion. There is room for more than one opinion here on just about any subject. I would point out here, that all of them appear to be honest as well. Unlike yours, some are even substantiated.

That being said, I only took exception to one part of your diatribe that has nothing to do with what you are speaking of now. Rather than get side tracked by your straw man, let's re-read that point, shall we?

If someone "grinds their axe" about a particular company or product, there isn't any follow up.

I pointed out that this is absolutely false. Most axe grinders realize a lot of "follow up", and you are experiencing that right now. I get the fact that you have a "list of sheepskins as long as your arm" and you seem to believe that this makes you infallible. I covered this phenomenon in Post #3 of this thread. No matter how many degrees you have, you are still wrong about the follow up. No, I don't expect you to capitulate the point, as you are way too busy being insulted that I had the temerity to disagree with you. Some people find insult where none was intended. Even in the midst of experiencing such "follow up" you seem embattled to prove that your contention is less than bone headed and you have not succeeded. My mother called that arguing with a sign post and taking the wrong way home. Yes, you're pretty good with strawman arguments that seem to have me saying things I did not. Let's stick to the point.

So that you fully understand, there are different types of "follow up" that occur here on ScubaBoard. The most common type is organic and perpetrated by the rank and file ScubaBoardian. So far there have been at least six people who have disagreed with varying sentiments in your post. How's that for follow up? Then there is the type of follow up where staff intervenes within the thread, as well as when staff contacts the entity in question to alert them of the situation. No matter how you look at it, this forum is based on such follow up and there is a lot of it. In fact there is so much follow up, that I found your assertion of "there isn't any follow up" so completely absurd and clueless as to be bone headed. Sure, I could have used a lot of qualifiers like inane, myopic, absurd etc. Instead, I chose "bone headed". Yes, by your statement, I get that you are unwilling to have your opinion changed by actual facts and that's OK: You're still welcome here. So are the people who followed up with you. If we all agreed there wouldn't be a point to ScubaBoard.

 

[SeaCobra]

Perhaps I am wrong, I still do not see it. Yes, you have done follow up. But in a recent conversation (done in person) with Sherwood Scuba about their SR1 reg and negative comments posted here on Scubaboard, they did not experience the kind of follow up you describe. Likewise with Dive Tech in Grand Cayman.

 

[The Chairman]

Can you provide a link to these? I would be interested in what was/was not said. Sherwood even has their own forum here on ScubaBoard, so I am surprised they did not follow up on those statements.