In Reply to: Re: No problemo posted by Captain JSW on April 24, 2007 at 22:50:29:

>The Captain may produce a bias opinion in order to self promote their charter. And possibly to compete with other charter businesses
Well, I'd trade a trip report for some self promotion.
>The Captain is not diving (or should not be). They are not in a responsible positon to rate the passengers enjoyment of a trip, in or out of the water.
I dunno. I've been on many trips where there were two Captains aboard. Mike Roach used to regularly do a tank. In any case,
the Captain can give an evaluation of weather, vis, temp and what divers comment on. Besides, your use of the term
"responsible position" is meaningless and the Captain is in a position to make comments on the trip. He's the one charged
with occupying the "responsible position" on the vessel. The Captain's job is to observe everything going on and be
experienced enough to deal with it.
>If the Magician dive boat operator is aloud to spam everytime the Captain posts then it should be an open "market" for everyone else.
The whole problem and why Chris had to make a ruling on this in the FAQ was because one group of people abused the board. They
were artists of walking the gray areas and stepping over the line to abuse. There is an inherent gray area when a Captain
writes a trip report. No matter how much it adds to the BBS and the community, someone can claim it is self promotion, spam,
etc. just because they say "This is Captain Fishlove from the diveboat suchnsuch". Well, I've never been fooled. I know abuse
when I see it. There has (rarely) been a case of abuse on the BBS coming from a diveboat Captain. They have never been the
problem. I think it is great when the Captains make reports and frankly, my opinion is that the Captains should be exempt
from the spam ruling on the FAQ until such time as it becomes a problem. They are in a unique position and they were never the
ones that abused the BBS. I don't expect them to start. They could be a great adition to the BBS. I do wish they would post
better observations of diving conditions though.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt