Why this Sub-Forum is Here.

[Diving Dude]

Gareth, l think the idea behind this forum is great but l think the majority of YDers already had this view.

Whilst taking nothing away from the mods and boss man Jay, YD it is and always has been 'self moderating' ie. if some kn*b attacks a poster for posting about a numpty situation the 'old lags' usually step in.

Take as an example Garfies experience on the Markgraf, what a knob he was, but he knew it and didn't need anyone telling him. He didn't get it here, if he had there were lots of people who would have stepped in and explained the YD ethos to the offending person.

Now this didn't happen on other sites, which you are a moderator on our little Garfie got the shite kicked out of him on 'Backslappers.com'?

But, l suppose that's the difference, on here there's less (hopefully) egos to maintain and therefore people should feel free to post about anything.

<<Disclaimer>>
As usual it's late, l'm tired, had a scotch or two so all of the above is b*ll*cks.

[GLOC]

Just cleaned up some threads and moved them to a more relevant section. The idea behind this section is so that people of all abilities can learn something; don't be afraid of telling people your mistakes, YD is good enough to shout down the criticisers if they are being negative, and if YD isn't, the MODs are

Please keep the replies/comments on topic though.

Thanks

[ray]

Hi.
After over 35 years of diving I can say that the best way is to learn by other peoples mistakes, try not to make them yourself it hurts more, Allegedly!!!.

Here's to the next 35 incident free years.

[captainnemo]

Hope it isn't seen as a hijack to offer the hope that my impending trip to Scapa doesn't give me due cause to post on this site, post-Scapa!!

Happy to say that up till now my diving has been relatively unadventurous with a pronounced tendency to bin dives where things start to unravel or the comfort zone starts to shrink. Probably should have selected username captain cautious but how cool would that be?

What would be cool is if this thread were never actually needed but most of us are going to be spanners at some point or other, the trick would be to pass on the message minus the ego. Let's hope that GLOC doesn't get lumbered with a second career filleting dive horror stories.

Most of the glitches could be avoided by buddy check but a surprising tendency toward confidence can sometimes result in assumptions. I assumed that a hose would transfer between a BCD and a non-standard wing....that cost me a dive.

Anyway, good thread concept, respec' to the Man!!

[GLOC]

Thanks.

Hopefully you won't be posting horror stories when you get back because you have learned from others

Safe diving everyone.

[Eoin]

Agree!

[captainnemo]

Couple of lessons I learned up at Scapa:

Probably the best site in the world (and it used to be Danish apparently so perhaps the Carlsberg schtick ain't all advertising!!)

A good skipper on a good boat make the whole thing a lot more pleasant: without wanting to sound like a brown-nose I thought the combo of Hazel and the Valkyrie must be pretty hard to beat.

Preparation makes the dive but there is no way to prepare for the sheer size of the German WWI wrecks. I think the real benefit will come from a second trip in a year or so when I'll have the equipment and confidence to spend more bottom time on these monsters.

Nuff said!!

[GLOC]

This sub-forum has had some flak recently because of Big Si's incident where people have commented on what happened. As has been stated to in the miriad of threads following this, there shouldn't be slaggings!

However, as has also been stated, for other's to learn people from a mistake, it needs to be publicised. If this was not the case, then the annual BSAC report which lists incidents and accidents would not be of any value. The problem, as I see from that document, is that it does not list first hand what happened and as in many cases, the devil is in the detail. This sub-forum provides the level of detail for many people to learn from, especially the mental/human factors issues which have lead to many of the incidents from occuring in the first place.

I re-iterate that this sub-forum is for people to describe what happened so that other's may learn from their mistakes. Importantly it also requires the diver(s) who had the incident to state what they think went wrong and what they would do to in the future to prevent something like it happening again. Such examples could be lining off in poor viz, don't dive with failed primary light in very dark conditions, don't get nark'd off your tits and don't be afraid to thumb the dive if need be (all from Garf's Markgraf incident).

However, if the diver hasn't realised what they did wrong and omitted from the post (because we are not mind readers!) then it is really behest on the more experienced people on the forum to provide positive constructive criticism so that others can see what should have been done - this maybe specific or maybe generic but must not be a personal attack or agency specific. There are alot of experienced people on YD, but at the other end of the scale there are also a lot of inexperienced divers who cannot work out what the issues were and as such they need to explained.

Another point is something I listened to on the way in to work this morning. People are afraid or fearful of feedback because they do not have the confidence to face the issue that is confronting them. If someone does not want to post here because of fear of ridicule because of a simple mistake they have made, they have a lack of self-confidence. By providing positive criticism you can increase that person's self confidence because you inform them of what they missed (if they didn't know) and as such you reduce their (and others) chances of the incident occuring again. In addition, you improve their self-confidence because you acknowledge that they had the guts to face up to their mistakes and as such they are more likely to admit their failings (which others can learn from) in the future.

However, if you do not want to post under your name, I again re-iterate, that you can PM me the details and I will post under my name and maintain that anonomity. I would ask that if this is the case and other divers know the incident in question that they do not break the anonomity either as this defeats the purpose of an anonomous post!!

If you have any comments about this sub-forum, please let me know and I will see what I can do. There was a suggestion about having a standard form to use but knowing how lazy people are about filling in forms, it is unlikely to be used!! However, if I get a majority response on this, I will see what I can do.

Regards

[defender90]

From my point of view as a keen NOVICE this is an absolutely brilliant facility and a BIG BIG thank you to you for doing it and thank you to those who have had the confidence and good will to contribute. I was foolishly in my own mind popping myself up out of the 'novice diver' bracket but have now plonked myself firmly back down into the 'novice need to learn and practice a lot more' section thanks partly to reading contributions on here and from a few stupid complaisant mistakes of my own which I hope I will shortly have the confidence to share on here.

Thanks again!