Reader's Choice Awards - Scuba diving

[Rhone Man]

I was flicking through the 2010 Reader's Choice awards in Scuba Diving magazine (available online: 2010 Top 100 Readers' Choice Survey | Scuba Diving Magazine). Some of the awards I couldn't really argue with (best diving the Caribbean? 1. Bonaire, 2. Cayman, 3. Curacao), but others looked pretty dodgy to me (St Martin as having the second best wreck diving in the Caribbean (does St Martin even have any real wrecks?), and Martinique not even on that list).

I was a bit surprised not to see more about the Red Sea (which I had always been told was the great Mecca of reef diving, although I have never been), or Truk Lagoon (same comment, except for wreck diving). It was also a bit weird to see people try and compare tiny places (like Bonaire) with massive places (like the Red Sea and British Columbia).

 

[robint]

It is the "reader's choice" and so the subscribers to the magazine vote on sites they have been to and liked. You really aren't going to see as diverse choices as you would if it were a worldwide magazine.
Also, some of the people who are choosing are only going to one dive destination over and over. So in their minds, that one place is the best. They have to get a certain number of ratings per destination for it to get included in the counts...so there must not have been very many Truk visitors rating but plenty of St Martin visitors on the site.
That is why a few years ago, Jamaica actually made the list in one category. It is all about numbers of votes, not reality. Remember, garbage in/garbage out.

How many times have you been on the site to vote? I try to go on there immediately after every dive trip to rate the dive op and resort.

 

[Rhone Man]

How many times have you been on the site to vote? I try to go on there immediately after every dive trip to rate the dive op and resort.

Touche!

 

[Doc]

It is the "reader's choice" and so the subscribers to the magazine vote on sites they have been to and liked. You really aren't going to see as diverse choices as you would if it were a worldwide magazine.
Also, some of the people who are choosing are only going to one dive destination over and over. So in their minds, that one place is the best. They have to get a certain number of ratings per destination for it to get included in the counts...so there must not have been very many Truk visitors rating but plenty of St Martin visitors on the site.
That is why a few years ago, Jamaica actually made the list in one category. It is all about numbers of votes, not reality. Remember, garbage in/garbage out.

A perfect explanation of why this magazine generated drivel should be ignored.
...but is, nevertheless, unlikely to be.

 

[robint]

A perfect explanation of why this magazine generated drivel should be ignored.
...but is, nevertheless, unlikely to be.

I agree, but I still subscribe because I like all the pictures.
I just don't take any of the articles very seriously anymore. The companies that spend the most advertising dollars get featured in their travel stories now so they have lost all credibility to me.

I also found an article a few years ago which had a gorgeous photo of a diver on a wall. The photo was spectacular, the wall was so vibrant with color. Then I thought maybe I had seen the photo before - I happened to be looking back through a whole stack of their magazines (my husband keeps them for a couple of years in a bookshelf) and I found the photo. The only problem with this was that it was advertising a completely different destination! I pulled the magazine out and put the two photos next to each other - it was the exact same photo!!!! The old article was about Bloody Bay Wall in Caymans, the new article was about Cozumel! BUSTED!!! They used the same photo for both articles! So now I take even the photos shown with a grain of salt. I like the pretty pictures, enjoy them for what they are, but don't necessarily believe they were taken at the spot noted in the article.

This is true of all magazines, though, not just Scuba Diving Magazine.

robin