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...

 

[RayfromTX]

@Dizzi Lizzi HA!

Yes, I had just had my fingers burned on a thread and was proceeding on little cat feet. I appreciate that input.

What happened? It would be nice if you could put your op in context.

 

[lowviz]

@RayfromTX

OK, so I just ran through a boatload of past PM's. First I owe @Tug a ring!!! Jeez!!!

Anyway, I remember being hammered for being too blunt on some thread that I can't find right now. Shortly thereafter, I was somewhat taken by something that @Dizzi Lizzi posted. I remember well that I explained that there is no such thing as being friends anymore. It is now this creepy 'follow you/follow me' crap.

(I think that can be prosecuted...) We agreed that following each other would be appropriate. She is an extremely intelligent medical professional, most wonderful sense of humor.

Time passes and we are friends.

 

[Akimbo]

Would you consider making dive professionals (DM and above) immediately distinct from 'just divers' on this fine social board?

I'm not sure if this meets your objective but we now have separate banners for Divemasters and Scuba Instructors.

These badges are added when members are approved to access the Instructor to Instructor forum.

FAQ - Restricted Access Forums

Restricted Access Forums ScubaBoard has a number of forums that require members to take specific actions to access them. These forums also exclude all search engine indexing used by services like Google and Bing. Opt-in Forums (no approvals required) The following forums can not be accessed by...

scubaboard.com

 

[MichaelMc]

The OP sash is a great add. Thanks for all the great changes.

 

[lowviz]

I'm not sure if this meets your objective but we now have separate banners for Divemasters and Scuba Instructors.

I like it! I think that these new banners would be beneficial to newer divers who may not know who they are talking to. Nicely done.

 

[happy-diver]

And I thought it was about the content and not the office, unless you are talking about the President

 

[Akimbo]

And I thought it was about the content and not the office, unless you are talking about the President

You are right, the content "should" stand on it's own, but that requires a great deal of reading and study before it realistically can.

Remember that only about 20% of the people reading ScubaBoard are members. Your comment can also apply to displaying the number of dives and Reaction Score. Both can be a useful indicators for new readers.

Our best indicator is that most of our guests find their way here through search engines like Google and Bing. It is a fair bet that many (most?) of these people are interested in becoming divers or are new divers who are not equipped to judge the relative value of content alone.

All Internet forums thrive on asking questions and diverse opinions, not all of which include the reasoning to back them up. This makes it very difficult for inexperienced people to spot knowledgeable answers versus those from a land-locked couch-potato who can't swim and likes to play Jacques Cousteau on the Internet.

 

[boulderjohn]

I still belong to a couple FaceBook scuba discussion groups, but I don't even look at them anymore. What I saw was too often the same. Someone would post a question, and in no time at all the thread would be flooded with misinformation posted by people who didn't know what they were talking about. In the midst of that misinformation would be posts with accurate information from people who really did know what they were talking about. You had to know the people writing those posts to know they were the true experts, and anyone else would dismiss those accurate posts because they were decidedly in the minority.

Those FaceBook discussion sites were thus a great source of misinformation for new divers who had no way to judge the quality of the information they were getting.

In classical rhetoric, ethos is the critical part in which the speaker establishes his or her credentials. Now, you can argue all you want as to how accurately one's training and experience reflects those credentials, but they are at least clues.

 

[CT-Rich]

I still belong to a couple FaceBook scuba discussion groups, but I don't even look at them anymore. What I saw was too often the same. Someone would post a question, and in no time at all the thread would be flooded with misinformation posted by people who didn't know what they were talking about. In the midst of that misinformation would be posts with accurate information from people who really did know what they were talking about. You had to know the people writing those posts to know they were the true experts, and anyone else would dismiss those accurate posts because they were decidedly in the minority.

Those FaceBook discussion sites were thus a great source of misinformation for new divers who had no way to judge the quality of the information they were getting.

In classical rhetoric, ethos is the critical part in which the speaker establishes his or her credentials. Now, you can argue all you want as to how accurately one's training and experience reflects those credentials, but they are at least clues.

False information on Facebook? How could such a thing exist?

 

[boulderjohn]

False information on Facebook? How could such a thing exist?

A good example is a recent pair of threads on ScubaBoard related to the potential for DCS (not lung overexpansion injury) in very shallow water. People offered a variety of opinions, but eventually studies were presented by true experts, including Dr. Simon Mitchell, showing pretty conclusively that you aren't going to get DCS shallower than 20 feet. Those obviously knowledgeable posts ended the discussions.

In contrast, someone asked a question about that on a very popular and well known scuba discussion site on FaceBook, and a handful of true experts posted the same kind of information, but they were drops in the bucket of false information. I am sure the overwhelming majority of people reading that thread were convinced that you can get DCS in a bathtub.