Should we try a Roll Call?

[DjS]

DjS
Dj or Donna
Murrieta
Riverside Co

OW March 04 18 dives and wanting more!!!

 

[MyDiveLog]

screen name: MyDiveLog
real name: Phil
location: Yorba Linda
county: Orange
note: 295 dives, Instructor. 5 kids and a scuba addiction; who has time for anything else?

 

[Turtle Diver]

Turtle Diver
Mark
Carlsbad
San Diego County
115 Dives

 

[sijtse]

Handle: sijtse
Real name: Mark
City: Manhattan Beach
County: L.A.
Comments: OW for about a year - 30 some dives, all cold water, am ready to start hitting PV again this winter. Tahiti in the spring. Love the water, frozen or thawed.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Not at all, as evidenced by Shaka - this just lets people know who are current (or new) and reading and those who simply exist but have been absent. It provides an easy reference to find someone in So Cal (or Lo Cal). Why rain on our parade? Rain is precious - damn the Zoni's for stealing the water we were stealing first, damn them!

No actually, it's a good question. Once we have this list of So Cal divers, what do we do with it? How do we maintain it and make it available to people?
This is a question on two levels: there is the technical problem of keeping the list current and presenting it in a useful manner, and there is the organisational/social question of how we think the collected information should be used. How does one remove oneself from the list is an obvious question.

In fact the best mechanism anyone has found so far is an opt-in mailing list. this is self regulating aand preserves privacy, although iit has its own problems.

Maybe Scuba board should host mailing lists (although it is hard to push ads that way)
The idea of building a voluntary ad-hoc community around this sort of board is interesting to me and I would really like to hear people's opinions.

Peter

 

[neil]

Hey, am I the only one in Ventura Co.?


real name: Neil
location: Ventura.
instructor
Can my cat Speedy be our mascot?

 

[headhunter]

Not to poop on the parade, but your Row Call sort of defeats the purpose of the Scubaboard profile doesn't it? Can you guess where I'm from? What do you plan on doing with this fun little list once it's complete? Oh well, enjoy yourselves.

This is a good question.

This is not intended to replace the profile. Think of this as a "regional short list". Since we have over 30,000 members here at SB, it's not always easy to find some of the local people here in SoCal. The Florida Conch Divers have done this and that's where I got the idea.

Once the list is a bit more complete, I plan on putting it at the top of the SoCal forum as a sticky thread. Again, this is what they have done in the Florida forum and it appears to be helpful on a local level.

I hope that the list actually turns out to be useful.

Christian

 

[headhunter]

No actually, it's a good question. Once we have this list of So Cal divers, what do we do with it?

I agree that it is a good question. I believe that the list will serve to make it easier for people to find each other in SoCal. On a few occasions, I've forgotten someone's screen name and it's taken me a bit of digging to find them. With a "local directory" like this, it may save some time.

How do we maintain it and make it available to people?

For now, I guess I've self appointed myself to "maintain" it. I don't think it will be very time consuming after it's initial creation. If it becomes more time consuming, I'll just ask our Florida members who maintain that list what seems to work best for them.

As far as availability goes, I plan to take a more complete version of the list and post it as a new sticky thread at the top of the SoCal forum. This way it's always easy to use and find.

This is a question on two levels: there is the technical problem of keeping the list current and presenting it in a useful manner, and there is the organisational/social question of how we think the collected information should be used.

I believe that a minimum of info should be kept on the list and that using links to a persons profile would allow people to keep their own info up to date. That's why I have not posted the number of dives people have. That is info that changes rapidly, so if we link to the profile it's not necessary for one person to continually update everyone's info. I've also tried to avoid putting any "commercial" info in the comments, such as links to web sites. I'll probably go through everything later and clean things up a bit.

The information should be used as I mention above. This is really no more info than is already on the board. There are no email addresses, phone numbers or addresses. If people have that info in their profiles then they have control over it there.

How does one remove oneself from the list is an obvious question.

Certainly anyone who does not want to be on the list will be removed. One can either contact me or if it is a matter of urgency, I'm sure a mod can just go into the post and edit it. I don't expect this to happen very often.

In fact the best mechanism anyone has found so far is an opt-in mailing list. this is self regulating aand preserves privacy, although iit has its own problems.

I believe that mailing lists serve an entirely different purpose than discussion forums. This "directory" would simply be there for the purpose of aiding in communication between people who participate on this board.

By the way, since you have expressed a concern about privacy, I have not added you to the list. If you would like to be on it, just let me know.

However, I'm really not sure how one's privacy would be affected with a list like this. The only thing that I can think of along those lines would be when someone gives me their full name to post. I had someone do that earlier today and then upon second thought they asked me to remove the last name. I promptly did so.

Maybe Scuba board should host mailing lists (although it is hard to push ads that way)
The idea of building a voluntary ad-hoc community around this sort of board is interesting to me and I would really like to hear people's opinions.

I hope that this serves as a tool to further people's ability to communicate with each other. I see this as an experiment attempting to add more utility to what has proven to be a fantastic discussion board for most of us. I'm hoping that it aids in communication among members locally thereby adding to the board's relevance in our diving lives.

Let's see how it pans out!

Christian

 

[mccabejc]

ScubaBoard screen name: mccabejc
Actual Name: Jim McCabe
City: Upland
County: San Bernardino
Quick comment: OW in May '04, have 16 dives so far. If you're looking for a weekend buddy, let me know.

 

[headhunter]

Just an idea but I think it would be useful and kind of cool to make the username within this roll call a link to the persons profile... It would be easier to get in contact specifically with the people in your area... Again it's just an idea and you can toss it to the side or integrate it, your choice... If you don't know what I mean I have "fixed up" the list for my area below... Headhunter if you want me to do edit the rest of the list just shoot me a pm or something and I'll handle it... Doesn't take more than like 2 seconds a name...

- San Diego County (6)

Abratty - Allen Bratty - San Diego

divebuddysean - Sean - San Diego

divinman - Terry - San Diego -Not an underwater photographer, just a diver with a camera

Gomer Piles - Brian - San Diego

moonie - Amy - San Diego - Diving is intriguing, gets more interesting every day! Diving Dry Rocks!

ShakaZulu - Roy - San Diego

Sorry it took me a while to thank you for this idea. I was just too tired last night after 2am to type anything more in a coherent fashion. It's a great idea and makes the list more useful.

This idea had actually occured to me AFTER I got the initial creation of the list done and I decided to wait until I had time to go over the whole list. You're right it only takes a couple of seconds as long as it's done it as the list is created. It took a little longer to go back and do them after the fact.

The link from each screen name to a specific profile may allow me to further simplify the list and greatly shorten some of the comments. I don't want to eliminate the comments completely because it adds some personality to an otherwise very dry list.

Thanks for the motivation to get it done.

Christian