I think this is showing that the internet can be mis-used, as can traditional medias as well. I have always supported scubaboard, and you, and can't really imagine how you could be villified for what scubaboard has achieved....if you refer to a specific legal battle, you know all of us are behind you on that.
As to the mis-use of groupofcheap, I think it is an extremely powerful way to get people to make a choice primarily because of some huge percieved SAVINGS , and with diving, the mindset needs to be about what is good, and functional...Diving should not be lead with price at the expense and non-existence of all else.
The Internet did not explode as a great method for sleazy marketers like cheapgroups-are-us, to push junk with. It began as a great way to get research information out, then more information, then traditional websites showing services and products, etc. It has evolved, and the cheapgroups-R-us types are now globbing on, and de-evolving the good directions of the net that once dominated....
Just remember back to around 1996...you could do a yahoo search for a company or a product,( if they were on the web yet) , and the actual company would come up in the first 3 responses to your search..... Today, you could get 8 pages of nextag or other third party advertisers, that are NOT the web pages you are looking for---they have overwhelmed the search engines to the point that the company you are looking for can be almost imposible to find.
Right now the cheap-groups-R-us type advertising is a threat.... It is this thinking that has Americans buying junk from Taiwan instead of made in America.....I had a kitchen with appliances in it from 1972, that we finally upgraded to the best we could find at Home Expo in 2006....The made in America appliances from 72 lasted 30 years..the best of the new stuff ( pretty much all with "made in Taiwan" parts) are already on the 2nd or 3rd warranty repair, and are of no where near the quality of the 70's and made in America..... and this is what you get, when you allow the MEDIA to control public perception of value with cheap-groups-R-us type top of mind advertising.
I just dont want to see dive instruction get any closer to "made in Taiwan", just so it can be CHEAPER.