Thank you, dgrauman, for PMing me to let me know this thread was active again after 9 months. And thanks to SteveJobs1950 and Sorrows for your recent comments.
In my trip reports I do of course give my opinions - and in this case they weren't all positive - but many things (decor, amenities, aircon, hot water, food, entertainment, wifi, how the diving is done...from a zodiac, chase boat, main boat...any land excursions offered, etc, etc) I just try to document so that people know what to expect, so that they can make a decision according to how important that is to them.
I have no problem with people questioning me more deeply, for the reasons Sorrows mentions. And I understand that some people who love Raja Ampat will think that I must be wrong about everything I said, because I was wrong to say I wasn't that impressed with RA diving.
Once the thread got ugly, what really drove me away from SB was the lack of oversight by the moderators...
I saw TinPanMan's post on Friday morning and I immediately PMed a moderator saying I thought it crossed lines (personal attack) and should be edited. She said they'd take a look. 24 hours went by and the thread continued to flame. I finally broke down and responded myself on Saturday morning. And then the thread to continue to flame for nearly 48 more hours. It wasn't until Monday morning that Quero - who'd been reading it over the weekend, he'd 'liked' some of the posts - edited the thread and gave us all a warning. But this was after he/the other moderators had let it go on for 3 days.
I am active on a well-known travel website; it's volunteer, I'm not their employee, but I have been designated as one of their Destination Experts. If a situation like this had occurred on those forums, the posts would have been deleted within minutes. SB, in contrast, seems to be much more of a Wild West.
We've actually just returned from a trip that included 5 nights on a dive boat in Fiji. The boat wasn't gorgeous and the diving wasn't amazing - it was off season, we knew that going in, and it was indeed rainy - but the crew was wonderful. They made the trip. I've hesitated to post another SB report, but your recent comments have made me consider it...
Thanks again, and happy diving in 2014!