Headed For Tech...

[bradymsu]

Iguana Don,

I have no opinion on Rodale's in either direction. But as someone with a background in statistics, it wouldn't be too hard to attempt to prove/disprove Warhammer's hypothesis.

What you have to do is take the past five years of Rodales and count the amount of advertising done by a number of companies in the same league. Then compare in the proper formula the amount of advertising done to the ratings Rodale's has given the equipment to see if a moderate or strong correlation exists.

This would give you a pretty good idea if Rodale's was heavily influenced by advertisers or not. Of course other factors come into play. For example, even if we don't agree they're tops in regulators, most would agree that ScubaPro is at least pretty good. Because they're a large company we'd also expect them to have been able to buy lots of ad space. Still, the research could be enlightening.

It's interesting to note that Rodale's have been very attentive to this topic recently. I think it's been the subject of two of the editor's articles in the front recently.

 

[Warhammer]

Yep, they do, and a fine job they do. It's a shame they don't review dive gear. Rodale's on the other hand, to my knowledge, has never claimed to be the "Consumer Reports of Diving". Unlike Consumer Reports, Rodale's is in business to make money, plain and simple. Along the way they test some gear, they've never claimed to test all gear for all divers, and publish the results of those tests. They have recently claimed to have been purchasing some of their gear for testing. They claim to be honest in their testing procedures and until someone can offer "proof" that the opposite is true, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since that's my nature.

How does a mere diver prove them biased? Well, that's the $10,000 question, isn't it? And if I knew the answer, even though I like you, I wouldn't tell you. I'd collect the $$.

 

[bradymsu]

Thinking of the statistics bit on Rodales a bit farther, you should only count advertising before or in the same issue as the rating. You'd naturally expect an advertiser to buy space after good rating and I imagine Rodale's has gained and lost money because of its ratings.

Of course I doubt Rodales would ever award the $10,000. There's a number of ways to approach this logically. It's like arguing if Gore or Bush got the most "actual" honest votes in Florida. I just wish Rodales would quit calling me to renew my subscription the month I get my second issue! For some reason, I'm getting three copies a month now at the same address and I've only paid for one. Anyone want my extra copies?

(By the way, since this particular post seems to be non-objective.....I think Gore really won Florida and that WKPP is not the elite in the tech diving world, certainly not among northern cold water wreck divers. But that's another issue. I just felt compelled to poke Lost Yooper and the DIR/GUE/Halcyon crowd in the ribs in good fun!) -

 

[Lost Yooper]

I can take a ribbin'! I'm still laughin' about the Gore comment. Now that's a good one!!

Mike

 

[Iguana Don]

The recount was performed and paid for by the media and guess what? He lost by an ever greater margin. Well for once the media has done something good.

And for your statistics approach (which is very good), check out GUE's accident record, they speak for themselvs.

Just had to poke the non-DIR/GUE crowd in the ribs.

ID

 

[bradymsu]

Iguana Don and all,

Again, it depends on whose report you read and how they did their count. One media study said Bush would have won. Another came out the next day and said Gore would have won.

As for DIR and the accident rate for GUE, as I was told recently, "If you die diving, you're not diving DIR. It's not DIR to die." So based on that logic, you're right. DIR has a zero fatality rate.

 

[Warhammer]

Originally posted by bradymsu

As for DIR and the accident rate for GUE, as I was told recently, "If you die diving, you're not diving DIR. It's not DIR to die." So based on that logic, you're right. DIR has a zero fatality rate.

LOL! That was a good one, Brady.

 

[Iguana Don]

But if you look and the deaths and look at the statistics, you will see.

How many more of you will have to die before the light bulb comes on?

ID

 

[Warhammer]

Show us the statistics, Don. I'm willing to listen, but I don't think there is anyway to get impartial statics. Why? I'd say it's a safe bet that the majority of divers aren't DIR, so therefore the majority of deaths also won't be DIR. And I'd say that the majority of DIR divers are well beyond the level and training of a mere OW diver. And the OWs have the most deaths of anyone on the statisics I've seen. So it's unfair to compare a highly trained and experienced DIR diver to newly certified OW diver, don't you agree.

What would be impressive to me is for someone to prove that my non-DIR approach to my diving enviroments is more likely to cause me death than a DIR approach. And I just don't think that's the case at all. DIR is fine if you're penetrating caves, boats, and etc, but for a recreational diver like myself who doesn't do caves, I just don't see the need. I think my setup is perfectly safe for my diving and the vast majority of the diving public must agree, since they dive something similiar.

 

[Atomox]

Two words can describe this approach........

lemmings

yet

Brad