[abowie]

Quote: (Originally Posted by EBT)

Yeah ok, so Im the grumpy twat... anyway, my 2 pence worth (see that, thats a real currency, none of your "euro" muck!)

What I like about Rebreather World is that its so global, open minded (except for those dodgy saffers) and accepting.

If people want to organise local dives/buddies, let them specify a location in their message title. Maybe we've got divers from the UK visiting asia, who wouldnt see the advert otherwise.....

I'm with you. We're grownups. If I want to go diving with Chriso, Steve, Scuba Vixen etc, etc I'll PM them.

Marmite does taste ****ing horrible too, BTW.

[Scuba_Vixen]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Louby Lou)

Erm... er... I going to regret this But I agree with Zak on this one.

The beauty of Rebreather World and its biggest strong point over other forums is that it is global and has been from day one. Looking at the members map the spread of members does not really appear to have a particular concentration area that stand out from the rest. We're just global in every way

By starting to split forums down into location I think the streamlining that the site has in terms of the number of forums could get complicated. And to be honest where do you stop? America gets split into 4 areas, Oz into the same because of their sizes - what about Canada then and Europe. It could just get mad with a forum for each area.

If appears to have worked for over a year fantastic the way it is. People have been meeting up and diving regularly together. You have certainly had all the guys up in erm... was it Finland or Norway (sorry if wrong location - but the one with all the ice ) and there's been Cedric and Meg guys out in SEA, and then there's all us lot over here.

Like Zak said, maybe a forum policy for posting in the buddy wanted area is to state area/ location at the start of the thread title. Maybe:

Vobster, UK - Sunday 2nd July - Buddy Wanted/ Bimble Dive


I do agree with Zak, and I'm not a grumpy twat

I'm with you and Zak and Andrew here, ...

If there really is a need to seperate by regions, how about these two:

Those who dive in the water

Those who dive in their armchair


Seriously, though, It works too well just as is.



Darlene

[Steve]

I'm with the non believers on this one and think it is too hard of a job Stu and probably counter productive. Even if it was broken down by states within countries it would be unusable. For example, I'm going on a bit of a road trip diving within my home state of WA in a couple of weeks. The cave is 3,500km from my house.

I think the only real tool along these lines would be to be able to search for members within x km of a city or dive location. A column in the members page could be the ticket.

[Chris]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Steve)

I'm going on a bit of a road trip diving within my home state of WA in a couple of weeks. The cave is 3,500km from my house.

You Sir are a bastard , Enjoy your little cave trip,

Cheers
Chriso

Jaded and jealous not to be coming to the Blue

[silent running]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Scuba_Vixen)

I'm with you and Zak and Andrew here, ...

If there really is a need to seperate by regions, how about these two:

Those who dive in the water

Those who dive in their armchair


Seriously, though, It works too well just as is.



Darlene

Ha Ha Ha! I 4th the notion, thanks Darlene.

Most people already let you know where they're from, how little attention do you have to be paying not to notice this? And right now, it's only in the fine print. And who cares that much anyway? What difference does it really make? Good advice is good and bad advice...

Yes you can ignore a local forum if you don't want to be part of it, but this creates extra complications if you don't get along...
"What's your problem?".
"Nothing, I just happen not to agree with you, even though you live down the road from me."
"See you at the dive shop."...

I have noticed that the Rebreather forum on Scubaboard has been very quiet lately, probably because most RB divers have migrated to Rebreather World. Fine, not so many of us, makes it easier to pool the knowledge. Another forum on SB, which is country specific-Philippine Paradise Divers-has become, IMHO, a very closed loop. Predictably, it's lots of greetings/pleasantries and agreement about how great PI diving is and how nobody else "get's it". Would this be likely to make an outsider feel like participating? I don't think it's the fault of the regulars on that forum, any group which is small can easily become insular...

I have received PMs from all over the world, all welcome. I would hate to think that some dude from France, or Indonesia would hesitate to contact me because my local group is NYC USA. Even if we don't mean it to, it trumps almost everything else they might know about us.
Right now, we are all on the same basic footing. Let's keep it that way. -Andy

[RichClark]

Quote: (Originally Posted by EBT)

Yeah ok, so Im the grumpy twat... anyway, my 2 pence worth (see that, thats a real currency, none of your "euro" muck!)

What I like about Rebreather World is that its so global, open minded (except for those dodgy saffers) and accepting.

If people want to organise local dives/buddies, let them specify a location in their message title. Maybe we've got divers from the UK visiting asia, who wouldnt see the advert otherwise.....

I tend to agree, I don't see the need to sub divide the forum based upon location. I rather see one single forum and a little discipline in the subject line and peoples profile.

Zak, it's not often you see this many people agreeing with you

Cheers

Rich

[NeilHolden]

HI,

I have to say I'm with the 'Nays'

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

Neil

[Janos]

Quote: (Originally Posted by RichClark)

Zak, it's not often you see this many people agreeing with you

Maybe an admin type could change Zak's original post so that he's in favour of the new forums?

I must say that I'm in favour of keeping it as one. I tend to mainly use "New Posts" anyway, and then catch up with the KISS forum.

Keep It Simple.

Janos

[Gibbon]

Regional areas - perhaps one for Imperial users oh actually no why dont you just ban Imperial measurements from the site in the terms and conditions? Or put it under a historical interest diving section? My foot is nowhere near 304.8mm long so posts including imperial stuff have to be put though altavista bable fish before I can make any sence of them what so ever. 300feet underwater is just 150 divers why dont you just say that?

Possibly an Ebay Fraud section just so that they are all listed together to make it even easier to spot repeats (perhaps people should include the text from said auctions so that it is easy to search for repeated text rather than using google - this would be a valuable feature within a year or so for people looking to purchase on ebay). I am winning an Inspiration for 80,100UKP right now

But it seems that most people use the new posts function and hence read anything of interest.

There is a lot of generic info mixed into each of the specific rebreather sections but there is a search function, if the top levels are made more specfic as above then lots of gems of info people add that are off topic would be more easily missed as people would only search that forum. Perhaps there are some general areas that could be self contained that are not really rebreather diving specific:

Wet&Dry suits, gloves & hoods
Fins
Harness, Backplate & Wings
Reels, Spools, DSMBs & lift bags.
Clylinders & Valves
Regulators

But these areas are reasonably well covered on other sites - so perhaps that is a defining issue do people want to make Rebreather World their only diveforum? If so then the above sections could rapidly be populated with some quality information.

Gimp Masks and gags, sorry Full Face Masks and loop retainers would seem to be worth a section of its own.

A list of suppliers for oddments of hardware would be good - perhaps this could be kicked off in the form of a section with a format dictated so that information can be collated later. Valves, orifices, hoses, connectors, O-rings, pressure gauges..

IMHO The use of sections should be for people to use for research so that they can focus on a list of questions and answers regarding individual items like those above, hence reducing the strain on the search function and increasing the useability of the site.

Perhaps the separatists should go and start their own local forum with all the associated problems already identified......

[RonMicjan]

Stu, how about in the members list, provide a region breakdown, one would then select the region one lives in, rather than type your own version, then we could search by region. For instance, I wanted to know how many folks were in my area, do I search by Oregon, Portland, Pacific Northwest, PNW, or by every local city around portland? Everyone calls their locale something different, but if it was a drop down box with limited possibilities, one would have to pick the best closest choice. This could be tied to the google map maybe. USA by state and zip code, oregon alone is 320 miles by 400 miles, which is larger than quite a few countrys.

If one was going to travel, then one could pick the region and search for members there. If you dont want to be contacted for that reason, have a box to check for that.

When I belonged to the BMW motorcycles owners of america, we were sent a book that listed all members by region, no names, just phone numbers and interest. If someone had a shop, you would specify tools and space, if you would like to visit and meet just for coffee, you would specify that too. I had a breakdown, blown clutch, in the middle of montana, used the book, found a guy who came 60 miles to pick me up with a truck, took my bike and I back home, set me up in the garage and then he and his wife left on vacation and asked me to lock up when I was finished.

We might have such a section, where members could say:

contact me for parts, service on xyz brand of CCR
coffee only
local dive sites
boat available
gas fills and scrubber
place to stay while in area

etc. could we take a poll to see if there is interest before you put the work in?