Posted by Wayne on December 29, 2000 at 09:33:18:
In Reply to: Re: What's the matter with you ? posted by AADIVER on December 29, 2000 at 08:55:08:
Good spelling as if carefully checked. Good use of CAPS for expressive BBS writing. Carefully thought out and a good memory. I'll bet it is easy for any of us to look and see the same writing style and narrow it down to a couple of likely suspects! But then we would have to figure out why they would hide? Why would this person be too embarrased to stand up for her/his own beliefs?
What bothers me is there is certain jargon that "tech" divers use. I am not opposed to jargon as it is a function of our technical society. We use it in engineering, management, marketing, and even diving.
In diving it is often used to demonstrate self-perceived superiority by knowing a secret phrase. I guess it is too hard to do secret handshakes in thick gloves! Jargon is constantly evolving. To keep up, we often ask questions. The only reason for not providing instant answers is if you want to keep the jargon the exclusive property of your little club.
In this case, a diver asked the origin of a word. This is often an important part of understanding both the use and connotation of the word and also the attitude behind the word. When this was asked, look what happened!
Rather than just say, "I do not know, but here is the first use of it that I can find in literature." which was done by a more responsible poster, we now have all this bluster and personal attack -- even citing another jargon question that was asked about. There is only one answer that stands out in my little mind. That is the person in volved here is so afraid that their "all knowing" status will be tarnished if they say there is something that they do not fully understand. How very sad. How sad for the sport. And how sad for the decent DIR folks that must be out there.
Wayne