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Dan Volker <dlv@ga*.ne*> writes:
> I have not made nasty slams at many list members.... and I have made no
> "religious" categorizations up until this Wrolf Courtney example. If his
> nonsense was to stop, you'd hear no more "religious" type dialog by me.
> I see him as a drug dealer entering a "decent" neighbor hood. Before him, it
> was not perfect, but it was OK for all of us....Now, I have to decide if I
> want to keep trying to get rid of him, or to just move out.
It'd be one thing for somebody to keep saying "no, you're fine diving a
steel tank/wetsuit/bondage combination" or advocating running the long
hose off the wrong post (you did see several people correcting Mr.
Walker, some more vehemently than others), but what I've seen from Wrolf
is more a constant questioning of "why???" and demanding answers.
I think Jammer gave the best answer to that, in his posting about his
apprentice year in the construction trade. New guys have to learn that
instruction isn't free and you can't badger those who know for the
answers. Sitting back and listening is a valid answer. Going to a good
instructor and paying him good money for his time spent carefully
teaching you is valid too; we don't see your friend JJ posting here too
often or giving advice for free; by all accounts he's one of the best,
but he's not cheap. Doing your own research helps too, but you have to
invest your own time in that and not try to obligate others to help.
At the new-diver level, "just because" may be a valid answer, but by the
technical level divers really do need to be able to explain the reasoning
behind things. Ideally the new technical diver would have been "around
the block" a few times as a recreational diver and be able to tell the
difference between chicken shit and chicken salad, but it's hard to
enforce that when people decide to start posting to Techdiver.
Explaining "why" in a group like this is of benefit to more than just the
person who asked; I may not think of all the questions, but I can try to
benefit from all the answers. And announcing that something is the right
answer isn't always sufficient. The logic behind that conclusion is
necessary to prove that it really is the right solution. It's especially
important when it's something like "The reason we do it this way is that
then in an emergency you can do such-and-such"; a person may be rigged
perfectly, but if they don't know the reasoning behind it, they cannot
react appropriately if that situation comes up.
I've seen over and over again in different discussion groups on the net
that a knowledgeable person will come along and post helpful advice in
response to questions posted by various newbies, but when posting the
same answers the second or third time around, burnout sets in. Add in
the fact that in most contexts bad info isn't life-threatening but here
it is, and of course your frustration level is going to go through the
roof. A lot of groups traditionally had Frequently-Asked-Questions lists
("the FAQ") with a compendium of the best answers, and that would head
off most of the common issues. That list would be posted monthly or so.
Nowadays web pages are a valid alternative; the excellent sites Ken
Sallot and Jeff Bentley have put up contain many of the good answers.
--
Anthony DeBoer <adb@on*.ca*>
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