[YachtForums]

I just saw John's follow up comments after I posted and have to say... I whole-heartedly agree with his remarks.

So, now that we're all on deck, let's see if we can address some boarding rules...

I've got my hands full trying to keep get this ship out of port. I can't do it alone. I need a good crew. In order to attract passengers, this cruise has to be FUN and INFORMATIVE. If they see a mutinous crew, they'll book another trip. Starting this summer, our passenger list is going to swell like a tsunami.

I'm doing the best I can to bring useful and entertaining information to YachtForums. If newcomers to this voyage see bickering, personal attacks, profanity or testosterone laden comments, they'll go elsewhere.

None of us wants this to happen. All we have to do is...use common sense, courtesy and decency. Essentially, if you don't have something of value to add to the discussion, stay below deck. If someone's comments are truly making yours screws cavitate, then use a little diplomacy in your response. It's a simply formula and it makes the ship sail much smoother.

I sincerely apologise to anyone who I've taken exception with. But I believe I would have contacted you directly on the subject and explained why it is so important that we steer clear of stormy seas.

[trouty]

agree with most of what Carls said, re boarding rules.

That said, consider this.

With the advent of email as well as private messages, lets say a member and I converse by both mediums at length and find we have a lot more in common than we thought.

Lets say we strike up a genuine 'unspoken understanding" with cameraderie and so on - heck we can even take the razz out of each other without getting upset - but treating it in the good natured manner in which it was intended and npo ones feelings are hurt bye it.

How is CARL who's mooderating all this (deliberate misspelling!) to know that we are just shootin th breeze for siome light entertainment.

Theres every chance the thread will get mooderated for proably wellintentioned reasons - but in the priocess take a lot of the daily rough n tumble out of the board which many enjoy.

Don't anyone tell me they dont enjoy a drink or two at their favourite club, bar or whatever after work or of a friday afternoon, - because of the skylarking with their colleagues there - with whom they feel confident and safe to let down their hair a little and just be themselves.

If it's a formal place where I have to maintain some politically correct bullshenhyzer standards with people I already know well - then i'd probably rather find somewhere else!.

So I think from practicle experience mooderating and developing the odd fishing website downunder in years past that - Carls got a tough job in front of him.

I wish him the very best of luck with it.

Cheers!

[YachtForums]

Guys,

Thank you for all of your responses. I think this thread has been beneficial to all of us, especially me! Just so you know... I'm not a judge. Not a jury. Not a cop. I'm just trying to keep all the code working and make a few decisions that have to do with the quality and content that we are presented with.

I think the majority quorum has spoken and we'll let the thread stand. I never really wanted to delete it. I could have done that when it first popped-up. I just wanted to address the same thing that seemed to irritate all of us... the Thread Title. I don't have problem with products and services being posted, or hyperlinks to the same. There are many of these already on the site and they generally don't conflict with our *current* sponsors.

The first rule on this cruise is... you must have fun! If there we're "stuffy" people onboard and you couldn't loosen your neck-tie... that wouldn't be any fun. On the other hand, if there's a bunch of rowdy characters, nobody will want to board that boat either. I think we can find balance without me being the ballast.

Everyone with me on this?

Carl

[CTdave]

Carl
Is this the time where I should post one of my semi obnoxious pictures? lol Only kidding.
Your doing a fantastic job & I think it's great that something that was a little questionable was put up for the members to vote on!! Keep up the good work!

Troutly, all very good points! Good on ya mate! (I'll keep my "other Aussie slang off the board).
John, Bob, Joe. Qocean had a good point which I also agree on but you guys make very valid points. I actually can not take sides on this one.

[SSV]

I would like to formerly apoligise to any of your readers who were upset by my posting. I can clearly see that the message I initially posted was rather hard-hitting and contraversial to say the least. It was honestly not meant to offend nor scare-monger in any way.

I do agree that I should have just posted a tamer message offering our services so please accept my apoligies.

I have digested everybody's comments and am of the overall opinion that our service is unique and worthy. One of the threads indicated that we should not be promoting our services because other companies involved with security act more covertly. Please understand that our service is also there to act as a deterrant to terrorists and by raising our company profile and making hostile factions aware of our existance we hope to PREVENT mischevious activities below the surface.

I am an ex-Roayl Navy Diver, I have intimate knowledge of what is involved with underwater sabotage and I feel that there is a very real threat out there. We can all fool ourselves as much as we like, do we really want to exist under a false sense of security or do we want to face these threats head on and make stand firmly in their way?

I am also a commercial diver and have carried out many tasks on ships hulls and I assure you that there is far more margin for error in diver surveys as opposed to a structured hull inspection in our submarine.

My team and I have worked extremely hard to get this business off the ground. We have all invested large amount of money and time, both of which are never in abundance with us.

We feel that there is such a need for our service as we can serve to;

* Save money in hull inspections
* Save money in insurance premiums
* Save time in - our service is swift
* Offer the most thorough in-water hull inspection service
* Video the inspection
* Take crew members in our submarine allowing them to participate

There are so many more benefits and I urge anybody who is interested to visit our website and digest exactly what we are capable of.

I myself am risking virtually everything to launch this business, I believe in our service so much that I am prepared to put my neck right on the block, as they say 'if you are gonna' be a bear... you better be a GRIZZLY!'

Finally, I would like to request that if you feel strongly about what we do then please take the time to fully digest who we are and what we are aiming to achieve, click this link and learn about us www.subseaventures.com We are a highly experienced team of divers who have worked in diver training, military operations, saturation/mixed gas diving offshore, film & tv diving and so much more. We feel that we have so much to offer and we do know what we are doing.

Thank you all so much for your interest and feel free to email me anytime.

Kindest regards,

Jonathon Conte

[Capt. Joe]

Originally Posted by John B

Joe,

I understand where you are coming from. However, I disagree and heartily commend Carl for introducing boundaries to what is acceptable to post.

Given the focus of this forum and the market it is targeted to, I do not see the intended audience being too keen on the typical "it's the internet so anything goes" mentality. My experience has been that moderated forums are far more productive and active than those which are free for all's with no regard to common courtesy. The only problem occurs if the moderator has no flexibilty - and I have seen nothing to indicate that here - quite the opposite.

John I think you misunderstood my post.
Please. Of course I do not condone NOT having boundaries. Carl and I have had a couple of PMs back and forth in regards to this, and I am actually quite militant about order and appropriate courtesy amongst members and respect for member's intellectual property!, as a board administrator myself (of a board for Marine Surveying professionals).

I merely pointed out that the logistical aspects of the services described or at least eluded to in the post appealed to me, and could forgive the inappropriate introduction of it, if the service had some real merits.
I guess my technical interest suppressed the instinct to register one below the belt...

But, no I am not a fan of deleting threads and I only delete when obscenities warrant. Otherwise, closing down a thread is a very elegant way of ending something that should not go any further, albeit may still have some educational purpose to be left up - someone had already said this here...

[YachtForums]

I dunno guys...

I'm sitting here behind the screen... shaking my head and laughing.

Mr. Conte, you need not apologize. You have a viable business that is interesting to mariners and I appreciate you making us aware of the same. However, you should have stopped with the apology. Instead, you steered the conversation right back into (and this is just my opinion) more self-promotion with another hyperlink.

This thread was REALLY about how our members want this site to evolve. I'm sorry, it was not so much about your service and how competitive or justified your business is. I'm going to step away from this. If others want to address this, then by all means, I'd be interested their comments and I'll take the action appropriated by the concensus of our members.

This gentlemen's follow up post is the exact reason why I chimed in on this thread to begin with. If I'm wrong, or looking at this with jaded eyes, then I am open to being corrected. Either way, it's up to our members, because they decide what they want and do not want on this forum.

Carl

[Capt. Joe]

OK, I digested that, and got my answer from SSV:
"* Offer the most thorough in-water hull inspection service"

I have never inspected from a submersible, but have done so with SCUBA. For me, the sub would not replace the intimacy I associate with grabbing onto gear or laying hands on the antifouled surface of a hull.
Wish you the best of course...
I can see contractors such as yourself being hired to patrol major harbor waters sometime in the future, but I can also see small, inexpensive (well relatively) robotically guided surveillance subs being implemented in the not too distant future.
Harbors like Norfolk come to mind for implementation of such subsurface assets...

[John B]

Joe,

As you said the technical interest caught your eye, for me it was the opposite - LOL

SSV/Jonathan's last post obviously show's he has a real product; the original wrapper was hard for me to look past.

Jonathan,
I totally can relate to starting your own business and wish you well in your venture. This forum is a good venue to try and promote your product. From a credibility and market perspective your last post is FAR more effective than your first

Carl,
Re: SSV's last post, while it is still a pitch I think it's fine - he explained what his product/service is which was probably appropriate under the circumstances. Link wasn't necessary again, but hey!

Personally, I find info on new/different products and services to be interesting and like to see that type of thing here. You have certainly dug up some cool things which are definitely fun to read. Ultimately you're the captain of this vessel and will need to determine what's acceptable from vendors and what is not from a promotional perspective.

This is pretty funny. No harm, no foul....

[Capt. Joe]

I am sorry guys, the follow-up I did not like. It was to much self promo with little insight into the meat & potatoes.
There was no mention of any of my specific questions and the post offered no technical or other interesting stuff to grab onto and learn from.
If it was me, getting a second chance on this forum, I would have offered nothing but operational logistics and my own credentials...

[trouty]

No free sub for trouty downunder????

Make him walk the plank!!!!

Joking, Joking...he's got the balls (Cajones?) to make his business work - I like him and what he's offering. Sorta quirky article that draws peoples interests - I'll tuck it away and refer to it in posts in the future (with his link) on topics where it's inclusion might be relevant!

Cheers!