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I've been reading and occasionally posting to Techdiver almost since its
inception. And before that on other lists and services for nearly 12 years.
One thing that has always been a constant is that there are always
opinionated people on such services. SCUBA and especially Techdiving seems
to attract that personality type. Some keep it to themselves, others feel
compelled to share their thoughts. Sometimes that's good, sometimes not.

Techdiver has always been an especially open, no-holds-barred forum for any
and all ideas related to the subject and that is good. What is not good, in
my opinion, is all the personality BS that flies in every direction. We
could do with more signal on the signal-to-noise ratio. But some stripes
can't be changed and I'd rather have the discourse than not, so I have hung
in there, mostly listening, sometime questioning, occasionally contributing.

But every now and then we get new guys on the block who feels compelled to
rid us of the forces of evil on the list and spend a lot of time howling at
the wind. threatening, cajoling and complaining. Outslamming the slammers in
volume (in both senses of that word) and trying to speak for the "silent
majority" who are said to be tired of the BS.

What usually ends up happening is they emit a last harrumph and move on,
tired of the noise, tired of the fights, but unwilling to stand their
ground, often unsure of what ground they are standing on. These divers are
like someone going to a Heavy Metal concert, complaining about the noise,
but not content to just recognize their mistake and move on. They feel
compelled to grab a mike and bitch at the band first like anyone in the
audience cared. 

I'd love it if we could reduce the noise, I'm sure there are plenty out
there who feel that way, because there's a helluva lot of signal here. But
failing that I'll keep hanging in and filter out the static myself. I do
have a suggestion for the whiners, though. Start your own list, maybe the
Polite Divers List. Any takers?

Later,

JoeL

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