....one thing is clear, jax was wrong to reach out to try and get james fired.
Reasonable people understand this right away. Only those leveraging her free labor or the delusional wouldn't agree.....
I'm not sure what free labor she does for someone, but the question comes down to this: Does the employee represent the company they work for on social media? My company policy is this: If you work for me, you will refer all company related questions to me. If someone on FB, ScubaBoard, CDF, wherever asks a question about policy, trips, costs, or whether I'm an butthole, I want to answer that question. Yes, I'm a butthole. If you ask an employee of mine "How much does it cost to go to Cuba?", the answer is "that depends". Then I can go further in to how much a trip to Cuba costs. If Jax has a problem with one of my employees, I'd like to hear about it, even though I am unlikely to do anything about it except maybe discuss it with the employee, however, we will have a united front and the same story to tell the complainer.
I'm not sure Jax was "trying to get James fired". Maybe she was, I didn't get the PM she shared with the owner of CCDS. I don't know James. I do know Jax. I find her to be a reasonable and easily excited person. She sometimes takes things too far, much like a SJW when she gets an idea in her head. She has very strong feelings about things. She is a reasonable diver, far better than she thinks she is, but has room to improve. She lives in Arizona, where she doesn't get the opportunity to dive every day like some of the rest of us do, so she fills her time that I might spend in the water on the internet wishing she were on the water. She is on a fixed income, so her diving time/money is highly regulated. I understand why she asked if the NSS/CDS weekend would be worth her time and money to attend, and she got crapped on for asking the question. Then it all went to hell. I understand why Curt answered the way he did, I sometimes get tired of listening to "internet divers" and "Quarry Divers" too, but I try hard not to crap on them, because Mom taught me that if I can't say anything nice.....
So, if you don't want to deal with "Internet divers" or "quarry divers", perhaps online forums aren't for you. If you come online for the exchange of ideas and experience that can be found here, you also have to put up with the parts you may find distasteful. The board wasn't set up for any of us individually, but for the community as a whole. Yes, I understand that some folks like to gather near like minded people, and if that's the case, go gather where Jax isn't. But sometimes, in my experience, she comes up through the cesspool with a nugget of gold that makes her being here all worthwhile.
So really, to answer her question, there are a number of presentations at the NSS-CDS weekend that might be of interest to a budding/novice cave diver. Whether it's worth the drive/cost is a decision you will have to make for yourself. It would personally not be of interest to me, you will not find me there.
