The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
Recently I was at my fave N Florida gas station, the Cave Country Dive shop. I like it because it's clean, I feel welcome and I get to meet a lot of interesting people. In fact, it's easy to waste a morning visiting with all the cool peeps who hang out there and I find out who's going where and doing what. For the most part it's awesome. But today I met a new guy (name withheld) that alarmed me. Oh, he wasn't wearing horns and a red suit. In fact he was nice enough and was checking out my Sprinter Dive Machine. He was impressed with it to the point he asked me how I found the time to create it.
Indulge me to admit a horrible secret. I've met a lot of people and lots of people know me, but I can't remember most of their names. I'm not popular as much as I am notorious, so when someone comes up to me I have no idea if they know me, if we've ever met or maybe have even dove together. Even worse, if they do know me, I'm often too embarrassed to ask them their names so I just fake it. It was obvious to me by his question, that this guy simply had no idea who I was or that I essentially played for a living. To answer him, I asked if he had ever heard about ScubaBoard. Wow. The resultant descriptors were like a punch in the face. My beloved ScubaBoard was being described as being a mean place, full of bickering and strife where this guy named Mike Irvine would go around slamming all the non DIR divers. The forcefulness and conviction of his condemnation was intense to the point that I almost didn't reveal who I was. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It was supposed to be such a fine day and I got dumped on instead. Tentatively, I asked if he had ever been on SB. He hadn't. I then asked if he meant George Irvine III and he realized that this was the name indeed. At that point I introduced myself as the owner of SB and also told him that no, GI3 had never ever posted on SB as a promise he made to a good friend and that I found his description of SB to be absurdly wrong. I then asked him where his information came from and he said it was his cave instructor (name also withheld). Wow. His impression and opinion of SB wasn't even his own and yet he obviously believed it. I suggested that he check us out and he said he would, just to see who was right!
That's OK. I know that SB has its critics and they can be harsh. We have far more fans, but that doesn't seem to faze them. In any event, I try to learn from all my critics. Perception is everything on the Interwebs and SB is not immune to that. But then things got interesting. Elena was finishing her full cave cert with Jill Heirnerth and he commented that he was glad she didn't have one of those dangerous instructors like Capt. Jim Wyatt. I asked why he said that, and he told me that everyone knew how he killed that girl over at Peacock. Wow. It was a day of wows. I asked if he got that information from his instructor and he said that he had. His instructor also told him to watch out for Rob Neto and Edd Sorensen too. I laughed out loud since I had never met anyone who hated BOTH Rob and Edd. Usually they are in one camp or the other, so this was novel.
To say I was aghast, would be putting it mildly. Go to the thesaurus and look up the synonyms for aghast and I was all of them and more. Inside I was seething, but not at this guy. I was mad at his instructor. As gently as I could, I told him how wrong he was in his opinions of these people who he had never met. I added the caveat that I was personal friends with everyone he mentioned and that I was staying in Jim's house and that Jim was the one who got Elena started down the dark side.
Now, I can't remember if it was his car that had the sticker on it or if was the other guy who was spouting off about how bad someone else was because his instructor told him so, but I thought it was rather ironic.
None of the rumors I had heard this morning came off of the interwebs. All of them were a result of an instructor telling some BS to their students. Candidly, none of these rumors would ever survive on the internet and def not on SB. People would be calling BS so quickly their heads would spin. I reflected how often I have heard someone complain about SB or the internet and it became obvious where the real problem lay. I call them the Cave Politics, Rumor Monger and Gossip Guild. Let's call them the CPRMG Guild for short. These are the people running their mouths during surface intervals, trying to one up each other for the most horrendous gossip and slander they can come up with. "Did you hear about so and sos dive in XXX? That idiot's lucky to be alive!" "I heard that so and so broke standards when they took a student to XXX!" You certainly won't find their schlock on any forum. First, they don't want that viciousness traceable back to them and second, they know that someone will call them on their BS. Forums are a great way to get the truth out there and a wonderful way to debunk the CPRGM Guild's lies and distortions. Obviously, it's a horrible way to spread rumors.
So, how do we deal with this? First, I'm going to be sure to only spread good vibes in Cave Country. Second, when someone starts to tell me crap about someone else, I'm just going to stop them. If they were there, then I might deign to listen, but none of this second hand BS is getting any of my time or attention. Third, I'm going to tell their victims about what they said. That's right, if you talk ill about any caver or instructor, you can be sure I will make sure they hear what you're saying about them. Finally, I'm not going to pass judgment on anyone in absentia. You earn or lose my trust in the cave: not on the picnic benches. I'm not interested in bolstering anyone's ego by tearing down another person's reputation. Not even my own.
Indulge me to admit a horrible secret. I've met a lot of people and lots of people know me, but I can't remember most of their names. I'm not popular as much as I am notorious, so when someone comes up to me I have no idea if they know me, if we've ever met or maybe have even dove together. Even worse, if they do know me, I'm often too embarrassed to ask them their names so I just fake it. It was obvious to me by his question, that this guy simply had no idea who I was or that I essentially played for a living. To answer him, I asked if he had ever heard about ScubaBoard. Wow. The resultant descriptors were like a punch in the face. My beloved ScubaBoard was being described as being a mean place, full of bickering and strife where this guy named Mike Irvine would go around slamming all the non DIR divers. The forcefulness and conviction of his condemnation was intense to the point that I almost didn't reveal who I was. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It was supposed to be such a fine day and I got dumped on instead. Tentatively, I asked if he had ever been on SB. He hadn't. I then asked if he meant George Irvine III and he realized that this was the name indeed. At that point I introduced myself as the owner of SB and also told him that no, GI3 had never ever posted on SB as a promise he made to a good friend and that I found his description of SB to be absurdly wrong. I then asked him where his information came from and he said it was his cave instructor (name also withheld). Wow. His impression and opinion of SB wasn't even his own and yet he obviously believed it. I suggested that he check us out and he said he would, just to see who was right!
That's OK. I know that SB has its critics and they can be harsh. We have far more fans, but that doesn't seem to faze them. In any event, I try to learn from all my critics. Perception is everything on the Interwebs and SB is not immune to that. But then things got interesting. Elena was finishing her full cave cert with Jill Heirnerth and he commented that he was glad she didn't have one of those dangerous instructors like Capt. Jim Wyatt. I asked why he said that, and he told me that everyone knew how he killed that girl over at Peacock. Wow. It was a day of wows. I asked if he got that information from his instructor and he said that he had. His instructor also told him to watch out for Rob Neto and Edd Sorensen too. I laughed out loud since I had never met anyone who hated BOTH Rob and Edd. Usually they are in one camp or the other, so this was novel.
To say I was aghast, would be putting it mildly. Go to the thesaurus and look up the synonyms for aghast and I was all of them and more. Inside I was seething, but not at this guy. I was mad at his instructor. As gently as I could, I told him how wrong he was in his opinions of these people who he had never met. I added the caveat that I was personal friends with everyone he mentioned and that I was staying in Jim's house and that Jim was the one who got Elena started down the dark side.
Now, I can't remember if it was his car that had the sticker on it or if was the other guy who was spouting off about how bad someone else was because his instructor told him so, but I thought it was rather ironic.
Dive More. Post Less.
Wow.
Wow.
None of the rumors I had heard this morning came off of the interwebs. All of them were a result of an instructor telling some BS to their students. Candidly, none of these rumors would ever survive on the internet and def not on SB. People would be calling BS so quickly their heads would spin. I reflected how often I have heard someone complain about SB or the internet and it became obvious where the real problem lay. I call them the Cave Politics, Rumor Monger and Gossip Guild. Let's call them the CPRMG Guild for short. These are the people running their mouths during surface intervals, trying to one up each other for the most horrendous gossip and slander they can come up with. "Did you hear about so and sos dive in XXX? That idiot's lucky to be alive!" "I heard that so and so broke standards when they took a student to XXX!" You certainly won't find their schlock on any forum. First, they don't want that viciousness traceable back to them and second, they know that someone will call them on their BS. Forums are a great way to get the truth out there and a wonderful way to debunk the CPRGM Guild's lies and distortions. Obviously, it's a horrible way to spread rumors.
So, how do we deal with this? First, I'm going to be sure to only spread good vibes in Cave Country. Second, when someone starts to tell me crap about someone else, I'm just going to stop them. If they were there, then I might deign to listen, but none of this second hand BS is getting any of my time or attention. Third, I'm going to tell their victims about what they said. That's right, if you talk ill about any caver or instructor, you can be sure I will make sure they hear what you're saying about them. Finally, I'm not going to pass judgment on anyone in absentia. You earn or lose my trust in the cave: not on the picnic benches. I'm not interested in bolstering anyone's ego by tearing down another person's reputation. Not even my own.
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