I did not post what I did to "smack people around". I don't believe in that. The problems we are experiencing are probably due to our humongous size.
When a group is small and intimate you have to work things out to belong. Fights do happen, but there is a real commitment to resolve things. To forgive and forget and move on. This is driven by our friendships that we have for one another.
As the group size increases so does our collective anonymity. Fights don't feel like they need to be resolved as there are plenty of other people to be "chums" with. The commitment to make things work is gone and we don't feel as close to our community as we once did. Factions can form that amplify these differences and this will lead to increasing animosity among the different groups.
Left to it's own, we will have gangs wandering over scuba board terrorizing our citizens and marking their territories with spray pait! Cats will be sleeping with dogs and in short order we will have "rec-scuba" all over again.
Not on my watch! If I may be so bold I will suggest a few attitudes to be adopted.
1) Forebearance... Cut your board mates some slack. They are not trying to bring diving as we know to an end. You are not talking to them face to face either, so realise that something may be lost in the medium. Not everyone expresses themselves clearly.
2) Humility... ALL of us have done things that are "farm animal stupid". The first step is to admit them and the second is to step back and LISTEN. Old Timers need to remember back when they didn't know any better and newer divers should learn to not be so defensive. None of us are born with a set of doubles on our back, so we should remember where we came from and that we still don't know it all. Some of us need to realise that hours on the board do NOT equate with hours in the water.
3) Tact... You wouldn't go up to a perfect stranger and tell that they are an accident waiting to happen. Nope... you would probably take a different tack than that. So why do some people feel that you have to flame others to get you point across? You have got to work on your friendship BEFORE you slap someone in the face. Really. Be nice! Tell people how they are wrong without trying to humiliate them and they might listen to you. If they don't seem to accept your advice, then fine. Move on to someone who will. You don't need to insult them as you go... just find a more willing audience.
4) Citizenship... Become friends with the people here. You don't have to agree on everything to accomplish this either. But try to be a positive force on the board instead of a negative one. Be someone who will bring people together to learn and discuss, even to disagree. This may require you to think twice before you type... think thrice instead. If you want to see a rather "lively" exchange... go find where Roakey and I use to go at it. Boy that humbles me when I read those exchanges and as much as I would like to go back and erase the majority of them, I will let them stand. Hopefully I am a better citizen here now. Hey, I even like ol' Roak now too. Now I see his words through the eyes of friendship... not of dislike. Makes a HUGE difference. BTW, if someone asks you to leave them alone... LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! Find other threads to post in and stop hounding them all of the time.
Well, as Forest puts it... that's all I have to say about that.
