Interesting stat in Accident and Incident Forum

I just did a quickie average on the first two pages in this forum and noticed that in views where someone is noted as dead or disfigured, there is a greater than 8 times viewer rating than on non-fatal/disfiguring posts.

On average views with a dead/disfigured person within the first two pages of this forum: 9,690

On average views with no obvious dead person results, but perhaps a lesson could be learned: 1,174.

What does this say about us as a diving society? Do we really want to learn about safe diving, or do we really want to just read about how others screwed up and died?

It says that if someone died we want to know about it. What happened? Is it someone we know? Is there something to be learned from it.

If someone posts that they had a close call because their dive computer quite working...we may have seen those posts before and not be all that interested in it.

If someone died, it's a sure thing that something serious happened and therefore we may want to read that post.

I would expect the lessons gleaned in any discussion to make more of an impression if they are somehow imbued with life-and-death consequences. Which is why the discussions here are worthwhile, in my opinion, whether they pertain precisely to the incident at hand or not. That said, I suspect that your statistics are explained by the same fascination with the lurid that causes rubbernecking on the highway.

I suspect that the reason some incidents get more attention than others is that interest generates more interest. For example, I do not customarily look at any specific forums, though perhaps I will start. Instead, I go right to "New Posts" and will either look at as many as I have time for or the first few pages of them if none really catch my interest. Thus, if an incident is not interesting enough to be on the first few pages, I'll probably never see it. I wonder how many others are like this.

By way of example, there are some rather old threads on SB that have not seen recent posts. However, from time to time, someone will be looking around and spot one of these and add something ... often inappropriately given its age. That will get in to the top of "new posts" where there will suddenly be a flurry of additional posts. Then it will drop back to obscurity. I will not mention any because I don't want to dredge up anything that should be laid to rest.

Uraluni:

1,174.
What does this say about us as a diving society?

Click to expand...

Nothing. At least nothing peculiar to "diving society."

Uraluni:

I just did a quickie average on the first two pages in this forum and noticed that in views where someone is noted as dead or disfigured, there is a greater than 8 times viewer rating than on non-fatal/disfiguring posts.

On average views with a dead/disfigured person within the first two pages of this forum: 9,690

On average views with no obvious dead person results, but perhaps a lesson could be learned: 1,174.

What does this say about us as a diving society? Do we really want to learn about safe diving, or do we really want to just read about how others screwed up and died?

Click to expand...

What does it say when you take the time to compile the stats?

Steve50:

What does it say when you take the time to compile the stats?

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Heh. Good question. It was just something I observed. Looking at the numbers only took about 5 minutes, so there was very little effort put into it. I was simply noting that there appears to be more of a morbid curiosity interest beyond a real interest in dive safety.

Uraluni:

Do we really want to learn about safe diving, or do we really want to just read about how others screwed up and died?

Click to expand...

Start a poll. :banana:

I think the statistic is misleading. News comes out that an incident
Has occurred, a diver is missing, may have passed or injured.
I check the post multiple times for updates.
When a post is made by the diver involved, I may not always check
It again because I may have all the info I
Feel I need and much less speculation is done
And it becomes a post of advice.

I'm re-checking for other divers who may have been
On scene or has more info from other sources.

via Mobile Device

evad:

Nothing. At least nothing peculiar to "diving society."

Click to expand...

Exactly. We're all just humans. It's human nature to be interested in tragedy. That's the reason for looky-loo traffic back-ups on the highway near accidents. It's the reason network newscasts include all the horrible stuff in the first part of the show. It's just the way we are.This is certainly not unique to divers.

But with that said, I think there is a different reason entirely that so many divers come to this forum and read these threads. It's not to be "looky-loos" - it's to learn.

I frequently come to this specific forum and read up on scuba accidents NOT because I'm morbid and want to get my jollies reading of others' tragedies, but because I want to learn all I can learn to ensure that nothing like that ever happens to me. I learn more from this forum, as well as the Near Misses/Lessons Learned and the Mishap Analysis forums, than I learn from any other information source on scuba diving.

Personally I think every diver should scan this forum occasionally...if only to remind themselves of just how dangerous diving can be, and how the consequences of foolhardy behavior can quickly turn fatal. It gives us a renewed respect for how serious we really do need to take all of our training and safety precautions.