Time for a new forum?

[John_B]

oh yes, the smell of elitism and censorship.

Only the government can censor something (by making it illegal). The right to a free press assumes you own your own press -- or in this case website. And, no, free speech doesn't extend to someone else's property. If you don't like the rules you are always free to run your own website where you make the rules.

John

 

[Sloth]

Personally I would prefer if fundies people were allowed "read only" access.

Will if you would volunteer to be a mod then you can keep us fundies in our place

Less face it for the most part it is the fundie divers that provide the "DIR" answers around here and that does kind of suck.

You either have fundie divers like myself that have gotten warped off the kool-aid and believe in the strict “nazi” interruption of what DIR is or you have the care free hippie fundies divers with the "you can dive solo if its in the spirit of DIR" interruption.

Somewhere in the middle is what it’s really about and I think it takes someone at the Tech2/Cave2 or higher level to really channel it and help keep this place in line.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

C'mon Bob,

I take exception to that.

It is in the interest of the board to serve the greatest number of divers with legitimate questions who desire legitimate answers.

People are wanting to ask questions, but afraid of being held up to ridicule, humiliated, laughed at, and generally treated like crap in that forum. Clearly it isn't meeting the needs of those who have interest in the topic, particularly our newer members.

Yes, the purpose of threads is to converse and debate. Even argue, supposing its done in a reasonably professional manner.

But ridiculing people, humiliating new divers, and generally heading onto those threads to sling smack, banter, toss around BS, and act like morons, no....thats not the sort of controversy that management desires.

When I get back there, you owe me a beer...

Lets get back out into the San Juans again!

Doc ... anytime you want to head out, I'll buy you all the beers you want ... AFTER we're done diving the San Juans. I'll be heading up there with Uncle Pug in a couple of weeks ... got any frequent flier miles to use up?

I DO wish folks would learn how to discuss things without all the trash talk ... but y'all really GOTTA get the perpetual trolls outta here. Things would calm down a lot if those who just came here to play "whack the DIR guys" would get banned from the forum. I find it ironic as all hell that JeffG got banned from this forum for a long time for a lot less than goes on in here just about every day ... and he, at least, knows a little something about DIR ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Doc Intrepid]

oh yes, the smell of elitism and censorship.

can't stand criticism? any idea worth having is worth defending. if you cant defend it, maybe you should rethink your position (retreat).

Dude, let me give you a word of advice.

I don't know you yet, so you might be joking.

But if you aren't joking, your post is a sterling example of the BS that clogs this forum.

Don't come in here and start verbal vomiting about elitism and censorship, especially in this particular thread where we're trying to discuss what to do about morons who render the forum less useful than it could be.

This is not a forum where anyone needs to "defend (or) rethink their position"

If you want to provide DIR answers, go for it.

If not, go to another forum.

Let me know if you were just kidding around.

Doc

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Doc ... anytime you want to head out, I'll buy you all the beers you want ... AFTER we're done diving the San Juans. I'll be heading up there with Uncle Pug in a couple of weeks ... got any frequent flier miles to use up?

I DO wish folks would learn how to discuss things without all the trash talk ... but y'all really GOTTA get the perpetual trolls outta here. Things would calm down a lot if those who just came here to play "whack the DIR guys" would get banned from the forum. I find it ironic as all hell that JeffG got banned from this forum for a long time for a lot less than goes on in here just about every day ... and he, at least, knows a little something about DIR ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob, you're on! My contract is up in April, 2008, and I'll be moving from Russia/DC back to PNW. I'll call you when I'm back in town to set up some charters. (And I can't wait to get back to the San Juans!)

We're working on improving the forum. We want to hear some more ideas from the guys first, before making any moves. Whatever happens it needs to produce a more user-friendly environment.

Doc

 

[Doc Intrepid]

"You either have fundie divers like myself that have gotten warped off the kool-aid and believe in the strict “nazi” interruption of what DIR is or you have the care free hippie fundies divers with the "you can dive solo if its in the spirit of DIR" interruption."

It isn't only fundies divers who spout a straight line.

Inquire into Lynne's conversations with various GUE personalities. There are GUE definitions and constraints, older as well as newer, that need to be better understood and communicated, lest we lose whatever relevance we have previously been able to claim.

 

[Sloth]

It isn't only fundies divers who spout a straight line.

Inquire into Lynne's conversations with various GUE personalities. There are GUE definitions and constraints, older as well as newer, that need to be better understood and communicated, lest we lose whatever relevance we have previously been able to claim.

Yup, the debate between 30/30 vs 25/25 for example.

There are internal DIR debates at all levels, the problem here is you have so much static noise generated by people who have never been exposed to DIR, no longer care to be "DIR",are guessing what DIR is, or are outright trolling.

Probably the only place to get the current (GUE) DIR answer is on the Quest mailing list or directly from an instructor.

 

[TSandM]

Probably the only place to get the current (GUE) DIR answer is on the Quest mailing list or directly from an instructor.

Well, those are certainly the top places.

Really, there are a lot of questions about DIR that can be answered quite well, even by relatively novice DIR divers. "Do I have to have a BP/W to take Fundies?" (Yes) "Are split fins DIR?" (No.) "How do I find a class?" (Write to the closest instructor.) If you want to talk about the reasons behind the new sequence on the valve drill, you're probably better off on Quest.

 

[dsteding]

I'm only going by your profile(and if it's not up-to-date then shame on you), it seems to me to be ridiculous to have someone with only fundies Mod this forum. No wonder that few with above fundies level knowledge post here on a regular basis. The inmates are running the asylum.

Well, if others would step up, I got no problem in not doing it.

Thing is, most of what needs to happen is keeping the ridiculous trolls out of here. Witness some of the responses to my post. Okay, I can do that. Would I police what is a DIR or not DIR answer? No, any poster--new to DIR or not--is going to have to learn enough on their own to think for themselves and separate the wheat from the chaff.

Let's face it, this forum is whacked. That is unfortunate. But, if there was one last effort to turn it into something productive, I'd happily be a part of that.

Brian, I know your reputation and have read your posts. While irreverent at times they also have some good pieces of information there. I'd think that if anyone would be qualified it would be someone with your experience. If not, I'd say we all jump ship and go somewhere else . . .

Let's find some tech 2 cave 2 types to mod this then. Oh wait, they are probably out diving and don't give a crap.

 

[dsteding]

oh yes, the smell of elitism and censorship.

can't stand criticism? any idea worth having is worth defending. if you cant defend it, maybe you should rethink your position (retreat).

Sure, agreed, it is worth defending. So, maybe-just maybe-we can have a "does DIR suck forum." Or a "I'm insecure and worried about the goose-stepping, non-silting, all-black wearing, frog-kicking divers" forum. Something along those lines.

The whole entire point here is to try and answer questions about a particular style of diving. Don't like it? Fine. Don't have legitimate concerns? Okay. Just don't post here. Pretty simple.

Doc, kudos to you for trying to get this forum back in shape-beers on me when you get back to Seattle.