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...

 

[Lake Hickory Scuba]

Well, I'm not trying again....

No hard feelings, I appreciate you trying.

 

[kelemvor]

@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...

For what it's worth, and I'm fully aware my opinion is not really worth anything - I agree. I don't think there's anything deliberately nefarious going on with pros who hide the fact that they're a pro in most cases. I do think that whether they admit it or not, a pro usually has some affiliation with a shop or other business that sells dive gear. In my mind, that devalues their opinions on gear recommendations. It would be nice to be able to easily sort out the "customer" opinions from the "salesmen" opinions.

I think @The Chairman has already made clear his position and reasons for it, so there's not really anything to debate. However, I thought it would be nice to let @lowviz know that he's not alone in his perception that this is a less than ideal situation.

 

[kelemvor]

Who are you talking to? I am a 29 year old, unemployed tech weenie spending my day in my Aunt Li's basement reading on the internet about stuff I would like to one day go out and do if my skin would ever clear up, and I was not afraid to go into the sun. I read this because the increasingly shameful anime porn that I usually watch is becoming boring, and most of my WoW team mates have jobs during the day.

If you're ashamed of your internet porn habits, you probably shouldn't share the details on popular internet message boards...

 

[Kharon]

Classic SB: someone makes an agressive statement about how they believe the world should be ordered. Gets shutdown by a chorus. Hurts butt.

Agressive is one thing. A trumpistic put down is quite another and deserves rebuttal. Here's what he said after a number of honest replys:

Well then, that really speaks to my perception of dive professionals. No standards, no ethics.

 

[Kharon]

Best Practices for anyone employed in the Dive Industry is full disclosure. You'll earn a solid reputation by putting your professional affiliation(s) in your signature line. Real names, phone numbers, website URLs, Physical addresses and such are a perfect addition to your signature line. Think of them as benign, ...

Wow - in this day and age? Why not just add your social security number, credit card numbers, and bank codes? Do the words Identy Theft mean anything to ya?

 

[Wookie]

If you're ashamed of your internet porn habits, you probably shouldn't share the details on popular internet message boards...

Where do you think he got those particular habits. The Dark ScubaBoard. Are you not a member?

 

[Wookie]

No hard feelings, I appreciate you trying.

I'm just waiting for another phonecall from the Chairman....

 

[Bubblesong]

Aside from credentials, let’s not forget the “presentation arc” for postings here on SCUBABOARD. Starting out earnest and fully formed in all opinions, running the gamut of conflicting opinion and scorn, retaliating with Grumpy Goodbyes, that are NEVER final, resolving to do whatever good posting is possible, repeating the same information over and over, slowing down to only posting in interesting threads, (like this one), settling in for the long term, realizing you made some friends along the way, which might have been the point all along. You cannot know someone by their label or job title, but only by repeated interactions.

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

Well then, that really speaks to my perception of dive professionals. No standards, no ethics.

^Butthurt

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm a former dive professional ... retired from teaching a little over two years ago. Does that make my opinion any less valuable now than it was then? Was it ever valuable? Perhaps only to those who found what I had to say useful. But the pro certification isn't what gave me insight into the things I choose to post about ... it never did that, except from a rather narrow class management perspective. Almost everything I choose to offer on here came from either classes at a non-pro level or simply from diving and experiencing things that put what I was taught into context ... gave me an understanding into the "why" aspect of a given issue. Nobody needs to talk to a pro to gain that information ... all it takes is a reasonable willingness to listen, learn and experience.

As a pro I represented an agency I didn't always agree with. I love to solo dive, despite my agency's rather strong position against it. I once had someone threaten to "have my license revoked" because I did or said something he knew my agency didn't agree with. So if the point is that a professional certification somehow makes one's opinion more valuable, what of those of us who through experience have gained a perspective on diving that's at odds with what an agency teaches?

Some of our most valuable members over the years were not dive pros. I'm thinking BigJetDiver and Uncle Pug from the old days ... amazing divers with a talent for imparting wisdom that one simply doesn't gain from an instructor development program. Then there was TSandM ... she eventually made it to the DM level, but the majority of what she learned, and what she shared here on SB came from knowledge she gained independent of anything she learned in that particular class.

Instructor status doesn't confer knowledge, outside of a specific curriculum that is often at odds with what a given diver comes here wishing to learn. I know dive instructors who happily impart misinformation ... usually passed down from generations of dive instructors before them, and never questioned because of the source. I know dive instructors who can readily recite their agency's class curriculum chapter and verse ... and who lack any comprehension of the "why" behind what they teach. Any instructor worth the title should be able to offer a cogent explanation of the "why", and if they can't then they're simply telling you what they memorized, rather than what they know or should know. I find their opinions are often less useful than those of a non-pro who has gained a larger body of knowledge through experience.

I don't think any weight at all should be given to a diver's certification status ... pro or otherwise ... nor to the agency or agencies represented by those certifications. We all have things to contribute, areas of expertise, and varying degrees of ability to express what we know in ways that a wider audience can relate to. Those are the criteria by which we should be judged, and value assigned to what we offer.

Judge me by what I know, and by how well I can put that knowledge into words that mean something to the reader ... not by the number and type of certifications I might have. Most of those cards got tossed into a drawer and never looked at again.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)