FRD, I don't think there are huge numbers of agents or operator employees here who fail to make known in some way that we are engaged in the industry. Many of us include identifying information in our signatures, for example, and our location is a dead giveaway! I honestly don't see any subterfuge.
Your point that individual customer feedback and satisfaction (or not) with a particular operator or a boat is important here in these threads is well taken. In fact, we all use past customer feedback that we gather in making our recommendations to our new customers, and we pass suggestions for improvement (especially) and expressions of praise (delightedly) on to the operators. For example, I've recently had a number of complaints from my customers that the DMs on a couple of the daytrip boats have been too busy during dives taking pictures which they burn onto CDs and sell to the customers. I think operators need to know that some people are complaining, and if they don't take heed, we can stop giving props to these operators here on this forum as well as stop recommending them to our customers. I've also just had some very positive feedback in regard to a particular tour leader on one of the dayboats, so I know that I can continue to confidently recommend that operator to my customers. If a recent visitor posts something of the sort here on SB as well, it's welcome information! So I have no quarrel with that aspect of your point of view.
However, you do come across as seeming to think that we dive industry members are a nuisance in the forum, here only to rope in business and nothing more. I respectfully beg to differ with this aspect of your viewpoint, if indeed I am reading you correctly. Yes, we are interested in promoting the destination, but there's no hard sell here. There are no sock puppets (like you find on TA and TT for example) here in SBs Thailand forum making repeated identical spam posts in favor of a particular agency/operator or marketing trips and events. Everybody who replies to a post actually addresses the question asked! (See my own and stevenl's responses to amaliast's request for information above, for example.)
I am of the opinion that our contributions to the forum are very valuable. As Batfish correctly points out, agents have a general overview of the industry here that nobody else does have. Boat operators have only one major product to sell and former visitors have seen just a small slice of the industry. Agents see it all. The only thing we really promote here in the forum is the destination because we have such a large variety of options to offer our customers that the main objective here in the forum is to give people the information they need in order to decide when to come in order to do the kind of diving they are hoping for! With a bit of luck, they will find our advice useful enough to encourage them to click on that signature at the bottom of the post. And if they do, they have come to us voluntarily, giving us the opportunity to work with them as clients rather than simply as board members seeking and offering information.
Your point that individual customer feedback and satisfaction (or not) with a particular operator or a boat is important here in these threads is well taken. In fact, we all use past customer feedback that we gather in making our recommendations to our new customers, and we pass suggestions for improvement (especially) and expressions of praise (delightedly) on to the operators. For example, I've recently had a number of complaints from my customers that the DMs on a couple of the daytrip boats have been too busy during dives taking pictures which they burn onto CDs and sell to the customers. I think operators need to know that some people are complaining, and if they don't take heed, we can stop giving props to these operators here on this forum as well as stop recommending them to our customers. I've also just had some very positive feedback in regard to a particular tour leader on one of the dayboats, so I know that I can continue to confidently recommend that operator to my customers. If a recent visitor posts something of the sort here on SB as well, it's welcome information! So I have no quarrel with that aspect of your point of view.
However, you do come across as seeming to think that we dive industry members are a nuisance in the forum, here only to rope in business and nothing more. I respectfully beg to differ with this aspect of your viewpoint, if indeed I am reading you correctly. Yes, we are interested in promoting the destination, but there's no hard sell here. There are no sock puppets (like you find on TA and TT for example) here in SBs Thailand forum making repeated identical spam posts in favor of a particular agency/operator or marketing trips and events. Everybody who replies to a post actually addresses the question asked! (See my own and stevenl's responses to amaliast's request for information above, for example.)
I am of the opinion that our contributions to the forum are very valuable. As Batfish correctly points out, agents have a general overview of the industry here that nobody else does have. Boat operators have only one major product to sell and former visitors have seen just a small slice of the industry. Agents see it all. The only thing we really promote here in the forum is the destination because we have such a large variety of options to offer our customers that the main objective here in the forum is to give people the information they need in order to decide when to come in order to do the kind of diving they are hoping for! With a bit of luck, they will find our advice useful enough to encourage them to click on that signature at the bottom of the post. And if they do, they have come to us voluntarily, giving us the opportunity to work with them as clients rather than simply as board members seeking and offering information.
