Solved: Who am I talking to?

[lowviz]

@The Chairman

Dear sir,
Would you consider making dive professionals (DM and above) immediately distinct from 'just divers' on this fine social board? I gain a lot of insight by being able to determine the 'flavor' of the poster and have recently been greatly surprised to learn of their professional status. I find this to be most unsettling.

It matters. You (posters) are or aren't posting as a professional. The unwashed massed don't always know this. Your SB persona does not reflect this as it should. No, we aren't all the same. Professionalism comes with obligations, titles, and transparency.

Show yourselves...

 

[MichaelMc]

There are some good thoughts in this thread on striving for even discourse on a topic that serves no matter who you are talking with. I think coming to an understanding of the subject is the best model. Sharing what you know so all, including you, can learn. Increasing the questioner's understanding if they did not know, or the answerer's understanding if the questioner had extra info that they can contribute. That may not mean all agreeing, just that different views, and the rational behind them, are understood.

But viewing this as a place to practice debate techniques with a focus on winning your side does not seem the most helpful to the community. Nor does throwing lots of random stuff out there just to see how people react. Proving you know the most is pointless, generally someone always knowns more. Contribute your knowledge where it may help. Learn where you can.

 

[lowviz]

There are some good thoughts in this thread ...//...

I agree, yours included. I appreciate good feedback and yours is just that.

...//... But viewing this as a place to practice debate techniques with a focus on winning your side does not seem the most helpful to the community. ...

I'll answer as if you are addressing me. I have no side to win. I love a good debate/discussion and this has been one of the best. Everyone seems at ease and willing to shoot from the hip.

...//... Nor does throwing lots of random stuff out there just to see how people react. ...

My random stuff is just an effort to focus on a part of the discussion that I find interesting. This is a very random thread and thus I must appear totally unfocused.

-note to self: Try to appear less random.

 

[MichaelMc]

I have no side to win. I love a good debate/discussion and this has been one of the best. Everyone seems at ease and willing to shoot from the hip.

Love of the debate with no side, can be a bit frustrating to others that thought it was about learning something, if the focus is just on the fun of keeping arguing/debating. All the constructed twists and turns may leave them wondering if it is really that complex and controversial, and just give up. This is in the basic forum which is to serve new divers. I think the pub has more embrace for random argumentation if that is the goal or joy.

 

[lowviz]

There is an accepted solution to this. Hit report and ask a mod to move the thread to a more appropriate forum. The backroom will make the call. I started this in Basics with the intent of keeping everything friendly. Random does not concern me in the least.

However, I disagree that the pub is where it belongs.

 

[dmaziuk]

I still remember the consternation in 1974 when the first digital IC dual inline packages were being stamped with a four-digit date code and 74XX as the product code. I like to think of that as my welcome to the digital age.

Yeah well. We had to bang rocks to make ones and zeroes but I don't count from there. I count from September 1993: million monkeys with typewriters and poor search engines trying to find a word of Shakespeare in there.

And I keep typing.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I don't know about others who hold professional memberships as divemasters or instructors with agencies and organizations, but more than once PSAI has requested that I delete or change posts or videos I've contributed to social media. I've tried to behave in social media like I might in real life by showing respect to others. I've also tried to post professionally as one who'd be considered a dive pro, but I have also thought about not advertising a professional rating in any way. Truth be told, I think my agency might prefer that. I can only imagine some of the fallout some pros might experience if their pro status and agency affiliations were a must. It does change the way one might choose to participate and the enjoyment they might get by participating in social media.

Unfortunately, diving doesn't have an Olympics or a Super Bowl. We are more or less an invisible sport where certification ratings are a poor way of ranking a diver's KSA's. The "instructor" rating has somehow come to be equated with a gold medal standard when it's really more comparable to being a school teacher. Despite all of the ways colleges and course directors train educators and states and agencies attempt to vet public school teachers and dive instructors, looking back at our educational experiences in school and in scuba, most of us would agree that mediocrity rules the day.

Also, "teaching" and "learning" are natural human activities and not confined to the world of experts. Which is why message boards are popular as both a place to learn and a place to interact. In the Hanoi Hilton, the pilots shot down over North Vietnam employed their own tap code on the walls to communicate and carry out relationships while isolated from one another. I would bet than rank was a distant second to every other aspect of keeping up morale in a P.O.W. camp.

As we tap away on our keyboards or devices, hopefully we somehow make our little bubble better, teaching, and learning from each other regardless of rank or resume.

 

[RayfromTX]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread has been moved to Site Support/ Suggestions which is the more appropriate location for it.

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[Steve_C]

I had a conservative but not bigoted roman catholic father. His sister had an affair with a priest while married and her son became a sex therapist. He was as far to the right as you can get short of the Alt-right. She was to the far left. When I was eight and sitting in grandma's purple living room at Easter time it was really dull. (Before TV). Finally I would say something innocous about American Indians and sit back. It did not take long before Dad and sister were yelling at each other. She accused him of being a nazi because he thought the reservations had a drinking problem, (he had been on reservations many times) he accused her of being some sort of communist. It could go on for quite a while and got very heated.

I enjoyed it as an eight year old. Somewhere along the way during the next 64 years I grew up a little bit and now prefer the sharing of information and informative or humorous stories.

 

[lowviz]

...//... Somewhere along the way during the next 64 years I grew up a little bit and now prefer the sharing of information and informative or humorous stories.

Please allow me to extend that thought from my perspective.

I was born wired as an engineer and a humanist. Perturb the system, observe the response. Do no harm.

I am not, and have never been, an agent provocateur. I somewhat resent the implication. Plese show me where I denied someone their self-esteem, intelligence, or worth.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Yeah. I'm lost where lowviz is behaving badly. Last I knew, Pete & Bob were headed toward divorce.