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Quero:
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Reporting A&I topics to DAN
- Thread starter Jim Lapenta
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Blue Sparkle
Contributor
I am curious about this. Given how easy it is to set-up a news alert via Google or similar (keywords: Scuba, accident, die, etc.), or to skim the A & I sub-forum here from time-to time, it seems odd that DAN would want to rely on second hand contacts trickling in from divers who just happen to read about these incidents in the news themselves. If all of us who read about an incident in the news contact them, they might have to handle hundreds of reports (given the number of people who read about these incidents) for each incident. Maybe I'm missing something obvious though?
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driftin' by
Contributor
Why would he notify DAN? He wasn't at the scene and the information he has is from a news article long after the incident and long of being first hand.
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OP
The reason is that DAN relies heavily on interns and is not able to assign one person to do nothing but watch threads and news reports. They would rather have their people compiling data and analyzing it. In addition many times accidents do not make it into the news on the net. Not every newspaper has a website and many that do have no one trained in diving to write the stories. A trained diver who witnesses an accident is not going to call DAN and say "Joe Schmoe died yesterday in our local lake when his OXYGEN ran out." Someone on scene as happened when a couple of fatalities happend with in days of each other can provide them with a much more accurate account, perhaps provide names of contacts that the papers don't even have and avoid much of the misinformation that is put out.
Why he would notify them is because that is what DAN is requesting. They are changing the way the will release stats and instead of just releasing numbers will be working on actual recommendations. Short answer - If you don;t want to do it fine. No skin of my butt. But considering what DAN does for the dive community as a whole, and the fact that it was a personal appeal from Dan Orr himself, makes it a small simple request that is not out of line. It also seems to me that it demonstrates that you really care about your fellow divers by getting involved and helping them with their efforts.
Or just drive on by the people bleeding by the side of the road cause that's what the EMT;s get paid for
Blue Sparkle
Contributor
I can understand them being short on time. But what it sounds like you/him are asking for is that we SB'ers, when we see a news article on a SCUBA accident, that we report it to DAN. My thinking is that since hundreds (or more?) of us see these news articles, that if hundreds (or even 10) of us do as asked and report them to DAN, that would take much more of DAN's time than for them to, say, skim this A & I sub-forum once per week to see what was newly posted.
True, but as I understand your/DAN's request, it is to have those of us who are linking to a news report here in the A&I forum (like in this thread where you said you hoped Don had reported this to DAN), or reading about an incident on the web, to report them to DAN. So by definition those reports would be here in this sub-forum, or on the news sites, wouldn't they?
I do care about DAN and my fellow divers. That's why I'm trying to make sure I correctly understand what they are requesting. And although I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon, if what they are asking for does not make sense when I read it, then my natural reaction is to think that either I am misunderstanding the request, or that maybe they have made a mistake (the way we can sometimes do if we set up an idea but accidentally find out later that it doesn't make sense for some reason). So I thought I would ask, but I seem to have annoyed you or made you question my sincerity in helping DAN and the community.
Or just drive on by the people bleeding by the side of the road cause that's what the EMT;s get paid for
But this post is a link to a news article on the web that was linked to by Don, as are most of his posts (and thank you for them, Don). Don was not there as a first-hand witness. From this thread and from your mention of DAN's request in another thread, I had got the impression that DAN had requested that we report this type of thread to DAN. I don't see how you jump from that to thinking that I would drive (or swim) by actual people in trouble?
OP
They want to hear of every accident. I can't make it any clearer than that. This was clearly stated in the request from Dan Orr. They can look at them and combine the same incident when necessary. The reason they wanted the request for this put this way is because they know that when you make a request like this, more often than not, 1 out of 10 or 20 or even a hundred will actually do it. Because too many assume that the guy named "somebody else" will do it and in the end the guy known as "nobody" does. It is the same priciple as those who see an accident or come upon one do not stop even if there is no EMS on scene. Because somebody else will do it. Rather than ask why, ask why not, and make the call or send an email. How hard would it be when posting an incident like this to just copy and paste to an email and hit send?
The only incidents Don could report to DAN are the ones he knows about, and he already posts them here. So DAN could conceivably monitor this forum to gather accident info and cut out the middle man. DAN could then do their research from that point and further research is needed because scuba articles in the newspaper are dreadfully written.
OP
Exactly and that's what they are asking. Report it to them. That was the whole point. If they had the personnel to do so then yes, they could monitor this forum and on TDS, and Spearboard, and so on. The point is they do not have the resources to put someone on that job full time 24/7 and how many incidents get posted, get a few replies, then drop off the radar.
Ya know what? Never mind. Not worth me getting aggravated any more over. Everyone can do what they want. Take action or try to "understand", offer other methods, or sit on the sidelines. I'll do what I can to honor their request. A very simple request. They asked for info to be made to them in a certain way by certain people(ie the dive community as whole). They have already thought it out and chose this as the way they'd like to get it. I'm not going to waste time second guessing their reasons. I'll leave that to others.
FYI the two incidents in Ohio would never have come to their notice as fast as they did if not for a NAUI instructor who had also gotten this request and took it upon himself to honor it. It really inconvenienced him from what he told me. It took all of 10 whole minutes out of his day:shocked2:. But if that's too much for some I understand (NOT!).
Ya know what? Never mind. Not worth me getting aggravated any more over. Everyone can do what they want. Take action or try to "understand", offer other methods, or sit on the sidelines. I'll do what I can to honor their request. A very simple request. They asked for info to be made to them in a certain way by certain people(ie the dive community as whole). They have already thought it out and chose this as the way they'd like to get it. I'm not going to waste time second guessing their reasons. I'll leave that to others.
FYI the two incidents in Ohio would never have come to their notice as fast as they did if not for a NAUI instructor who had also gotten this request and took it upon himself to honor it. It really inconvenienced him from what he told me. It took all of 10 whole minutes out of his day:shocked2:. But if that's too much for some I understand (NOT!).
Blue Sparkle
Contributor
I'm sorry that it came across like I don't care. I do care, and I can appreciate being over-tasked and under-staffed. It's disappointing to me that you read my posts and assume that I am the type of person who does not care and does not contribute.
It still seems to me that one DAN person checking the A & I thread would be more efficient than one DAN person fielding dozens (or more) e-mails from we who read about the incidents here or in the news. I'm not one to just throw technology at every problem, but with people such as Don making regular posts to the A&I forum, I would think technology could really help DAN to get information in the most efficient and time-saving way. Say if they used a daily or weekly forum notice from A&I along with a Google news alert for appropriate terms.
It's not that I want to leave important duties to "others" to do; it's that I can't tell if ten, twenty, or fifty "others" have already reported the same news article. I don't want to be the one making DAN sift through the 31st e-mail of the same article.
I can completely understand contacting them if we are first-hand witnesses to an incident. But that is not what we have going in this (and similar) threads.
It still seems to me that one DAN person checking the A & I thread would be more efficient than one DAN person fielding dozens (or more) e-mails from we who read about the incidents here or in the news. I'm not one to just throw technology at every problem, but with people such as Don making regular posts to the A&I forum, I would think technology could really help DAN to get information in the most efficient and time-saving way. Say if they used a daily or weekly forum notice from A&I along with a Google news alert for appropriate terms.
It's not that I want to leave important duties to "others" to do; it's that I can't tell if ten, twenty, or fifty "others" have already reported the same news article. I don't want to be the one making DAN sift through the 31st e-mail of the same article.
I can completely understand contacting them if we are first-hand witnesses to an incident. But that is not what we have going in this (and similar) threads.
OP
I'm done. I relayed the request according to their directions. It's up to the dive community to do what they will. I'm not in their office, I don't work there, I don't supervise the interns. Again it's what they want. Why they want it that way is not important. If it becomes an issue I'm sure they will let us know.
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