Bitterness of Scuba Instructors

[Bombay High]

. ...... or been divers for years, and bounces along the bottom on the reef .

Sounds like me

 

[FPDocMatt]

I don't think that posting on the Internet obligates one to a lower standard of etiquette.

People who are meaner or more hostile on the Internet than in person are still mean or hostile.

 

[SDAnderson]

These days, it's called the Chornaya



The Chornaya
See - a smiley so you know I'm just having a little fun and not being a meanie-beanie! Kumbayah, and all that!

 

[FPDocMatt]

See - a smiley so you know I'm just having a little fun and not being a meanie-beanie! Kumbayah, and all that!

Your point, I suppose, being that posts which are not mean are mis-interpreted as mean by the reader?

Someone posted in this thread that Scuba Board used to be a very hostile forum, that the current SB members are pussy cats by comparison. While I'm sure that's true, I think that there is still quite a bit of hostility and arrogance disguised as humor and sarcasm.

I think Scuba Board is a fabulous forum, by the way. It's just that the few people who are condescendingly sarcastic could be nicer, that's all.

And I've always wondered why some people think it's okay to be that way, and why others reading their posts give them a thumbs up. It's always the same people posting the denigrating remarks and the same people giving them the thumbs up.

For those who have cast aspersions on my lack of experience, I would have to agree with you. Someone said I've got more than 10 times more posts on SB than actual dives. Perhaps an even more telling statistic, I just realized yesterday, is that I've read almost as many books about scuba diving as the number of dives I've done.

I've thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the nice people on Scuba Board. I hope that I will continue to be welcome here. I hope that my expressed concerns about negativity do not make me a persona non grata here.

In 3 weeks I go on my third scuba trip. Counting down the days!

 

[The Chairman]

Someone posted in this thread that Scuba Board used to be a very hostile forum,

It was more hostile than it needed to be, but I don't think we could ever be considered "very hostile". That would be rec.scuba and even the deco stop. We've had our POV warriors from time to time, but name calling has always been against the ToS. Of course, some thin skinned folk take that to the extreme but we will always have those. It's a fine line to be friendly without becoming irrelevant. Disagreements, sometimes even sharp disagreements are what fuels our forum. If everyone thought and dove the same, there would be very little need for ScubaBoard. Sometimes people express their opinion of the person rather than the idea and that's when the ToS is usually crossed. Again, some people feel that any criticism is against the ToS (especially when it comes from me ) and that's just silly.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Ultimately, the reality is that posting on ScubaBoard is something folks do during the day when they have a few free minutes. Sometimes even the best instructor just came from a bad class. Maybe they just had a near mishap and are still fuming at what might have been. Maybe they just had to tell someone on vacation that they couldn't certify them today. Maybe they just had a customer chew them out because of an agency screw up they have no control over. Maybe they just found out that they aren't getting the extra night dive this week and they have bills to pay. Maybe they just didn't get any sleep because they covered last night's night dive and had to be on the boat at 6 am for the day shift. Maybe a thousand little things just conspired to make them snarky.

Everyone has bad days, and normal people, when they have bad days, do and say things that those who know them would never take to be indicative of their character, but which can come across as horribly off-putting to those who don't know them.

And there are a few bad apples. Every profession has a few people who really strive to give the profession a bad name. And there's no getting rid of such people no matter how much we would all like to see them go.

And there are a few idealists who are bitter that the world doesn't match their nirvana and see internet forums as places to complain about how nothing is perfect even though in their minds everything should be.

And there a whole host of other types of instructors, some great and some horrible, who post here and collectively come across as being pretty much like every other profession.

If one chooses to see the bad, you don't have to look far to find it. It is here, and it is here in abidance, and you aren't wrong for pointing it out.

If one chooses to see the good, the same is true.

It is foolish to try to excuse it or suggest it isn't here, but it is equally foolish t think it is a problem with a single cause or explanation beyond the reality that human beings are complex social creatures whose vagaries and emotions guide many a decision, for good or ill.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Your point, I suppose, being that posts which are not mean are mis-interpreted as mean by the reader?

Someone posted in this thread that Scuba Board used to be a very hostile forum, that the current SB members are pussy cats by comparison. While I'm sure that's true, I think that there is still quite a bit of hostility and arrogance disguised as humor and sarcasm.

I think Scuba Board is a fabulous forum, by the way. It's just that the few people who are condescendingly sarcastic could be nicer, that's all.

And I've always wondered why some people think it's okay to be that way, and why others reading their posts give them a thumbs up. It's always the same people posting the denigrating remarks and the same people giving them the thumbs up.

Matt, sometimes it's a matter of perception ... in fact, I'd say more often than not. Some of us like to tease people ... especially people we like. If our comments are aimed at someone we know, they usually know how to take it, and often respond in kind. To an outside observer it may look like hostility ... particularly on internet conversation where tone and body language are missing. To someone new to the forum, what's also missing is context ... and so comments that are meant to be joking or teasing are often mistaken for something they are not meant to be.

Internet conversation is something of an artform ... and like all artforms, it takes time to get it right. I don't see nearly as much hostility on ScubaBoard as you seem to ... and I suspect it's simply because I've been here longer, and have come to "know" the personalities ... so when I read some of these comments you take as hostile, what I read is someone teasing someone.

One clue is that people rarely "Like" a truly hostile post ... and when you see the same people "Like" the same posters, that's a clue that they're teasing each other ... probably they know each other. Nuances like that are sometimes more difficult to pick up on the Internet than they are in real life.

For those who have cast aspersions on my lack of experience, I would have to agree with you. Someone said I've got more than 10 times more posts on SB than actual dives. Perhaps an even more telling statistic, I just realized yesterday, is that I've read almost as many books about scuba diving as the number of dives I've done.

Ah, that's one of those useless cliches that comes up here way too often ... very similar in fact to the "Do a search" thing you mentioned in another thread. But it isn't just aimed at the inexperienced ... I used to get that one regularly before I turned off my Posts display ... and I have over 3,000 dives. But I've been here 10 years, and have averaged about 3,000 posts per year. Comparing number of posts to number of dives is silly ... I've already got a half-dozen posts just this morning ... and I ain't even had breakfast yet.

I've thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the nice people on Scuba Board. I hope that I will continue to be welcome here. I hope that my expressed concerns about negativity do not make me a persona non grata here.

We're a big community, Matt ... most will welcome you, some won't. That's true for all of us. Again, the nature of the Internet is such that there will always be a vocal few who come to these forums specifically to get a rise out of people. If you take their bait, they'll target you specifically ... not because they don't like you, but because you are providing them the "entertainment" they came here for. That's true no matter what forum you go to ... and the bigger the forum the more likely you're going to be to run into those people. Don't feed the trolls ... if you do, they keep coming back for more ... if you don't, they eventually wander off in search of someone else who will.

95% or more of the people who use this board are very nice, very welcoming people. Focus on them, rather than on the 5% or so that come across in ways that irritate you. Ignore those ones ... negativity is contagious, and you don't want to let them infect you.

In 3 weeks I go on my third scuba trip. Counting down the days!

And hopefully in the interim you'll have picked up on something here that will help you have an even better time ... that's what most new divers come here looking for, after all ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It was more hostile than it needed to be, but I don't think we could ever be considered "very hostile". That would be rec.scuba and even the deco stop. We've had our POV warriors from time to time, but name calling has always been against the ToS. Of course, some thin skinned folk take that to the extreme but we will always have those. It's a fine line to be friendly without becoming irrelevant. Disagreements, sometimes even sharp disagreements are what fuels our forum. If everyone thought and dove the same, there would be very little need for ScubaBoard. Sometimes people express their opinion of the person rather than the idea and that's when the ToS is usually crossed. Again, some people feel that any criticism is against the ToS (especially when it comes from me ) and that's just silly.

Speaking of criticism ... Pete, that outfit is so outta fashion ... ditch the Santa suit. It's mid-March ... rabbit ears are the appropriate attire ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

And there are a few idealists who are bitter that the world doesn't match their nirvana and see internet forums as places to complain about how nothing is perfect even though in their minds everything [-]should[/-] used to be.

There's more how I see it ... a tendency by some to want to return to a past that, in reality, wasn't nearly as perfect as they remember it being ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

ditch the Santa suit. It's mid-March

Talk about being out of touch with reality... I am not wearing a Santa Suit. However, sometimes Santa wears a NetDoc Suit. Stop embarrassing yourself by posting such stupidity! (I probably didn't even need the smileys here, but it's safer that way!)