Posted by MHK on November 02, 2000 at 18:22:37:
From my point of view this list has gotten totally out of control and what could be a good a valuable resource has taken a turn for the worse. For my part I'm sorry and have decided to give this list one last shot and if nothing changes I'm gone.
I should have handled the Frank Farmer situation better than I did, but what I did, I did and people can either accpet it or not and there isn't much I can do to change it at this point.
But for my part I think it was a built up frustration as a result of having just one too many dumb arguements about semantics, definitions and just plain old bullshit... This list has become much too pedantic and so much energy get's wasted on spliting hairs that it is nearly impossible to make a point short of writing a thesis with 50 references and lately even the references are getting challenged..
Everyone who has been following any of my posts knows where I stand on the issues and I have been a DIR advocate ( some would say evangaletically self-appointed ) and while I agree that everyone has the right to dive any way that they want, I'm speaking from the heart ( and I have no financial interest whatsoever in the dive industry ) when I see so many diver's getting killed in what are easily preventable accidents.. Complacency kills in our chosen sport and not everyone has the same level of skill, physical ability, anxiety level, problem solving capabilities etc. etc. so I feel strongly about certain blanket statements. One size doesn't fit all so when I see shop owner's putting out * How to Solo Dive * lists and 30+ year diver's putting forth unexplainable positions but yet I get bogged down in debates about semantics it get's too frustrating to deal with and sometimes I react..
Whether you agree with me or not is your perogative but from here on out I will no longer engage in debates about semantics. If something isn't clear you are free to e-mail me privately and I'll see if I can clear it up.. I just started a new business and I no longer have the time to research citations for issues that I have long ago researched. If you want citations e-mail me privately and I'll get to them as soon as I can, but I'm no longer holding up information exchanges due to red-herrings.
I stand by every word I have ever posted and I have a good track record of backing up my positions.. I'll point out that most of what I have digested have come from the Workman, Buhlman, Weinke, Hamilton studies so I'm passing along information compiled by some of the best scientist of modern times. Trust me these aren't my ideas, these are issues that have been tested by the Navy and the commercial guys long before they get to the recreational world...
So in short, if you want to debate semantics I'm NOT playing, if you want share ideas by all means I'm in... But I simply don't have the time to defend every sylable that I write so from herein out take my words with this in mind.. You can agree with them, you can ignore them or you can ask me questions about them, but I'm out of the semantics game for good and will no longer respond to such games...
Later