Nice to meet you, and an idea...

Hi,

My dive buddy and I were at Devil's ear on New Years Eve, and we were invited to sit around the fire with some of you. We had a great time, and ended up doing the galaxy dive with some of you. Russell was very kind and even gave me a couple of hotdogs to eat. Thanks very much for the hospitality.

I was looking around to find out what was open to dive this coming weekend and had an idea. First, I looked around at the state parks website. Then I looked to see if any dive reports were posted, etc.

What if there were a forum version of the board that's hanging up in Cave Country?

You could have a Forum labeled "Cave Conditions"

In that forum there could be ONE thread for each dive site and that one thread could be continually updated with conditions as we dive them.

Possibly make it so only administrators can make new threads in that forum, but anyone can post within the threads. That would eliminate duplicate threads for the same dive site.

The hierarchy could be something like:

Cave Conditions (forum)
Little River (thread)
Peacock 1 (thread)
Orange Grove Sink (thread)
Madison Blue (thread)
etc...


It could become "The" place to check conditions, rather than looking several different places all over the internet trying to find out what has good vis, what's closed, what's reversing, etc.

What do you think?

(I know I'm new here, and if suggesting a change is out of line, please feel free to delete this)

Again, thanks for the hospitality and it was nice to meet you guys.

Chad

good idea, but instead of posting as a normal thread it would be nice if there was basically a poll created and was able to be edited by people for when the conditions change just for a quick and easy visual. Realistically though all of the dive shops in the area are really good about keeping up conditions and they don't mind the phone call if you're planning on coming up. Combine that with the trip reports that usually report the flow and visibility, it might be something that's just too difficult to keep up with since the caves don't often change their status for months on end

hi Chad,
It's called Cave Atlas (www.caveatlas.com) :) ...

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Originally Posted by whodunit68

hi Chad,
It's called Cave Atlas (www.caveatlas.com) :) ...

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Beat me to it :-D

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Originally Posted by FW

Beat me to it :-D

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I'm jetlagged so stuck in front of the computer :) ....

I think I better add some current reports to Cave Atlas.

I look at caveatlas too, but its not updated regularly. For example, there are three posts in this forum about Madison, Cathedral, and Peacock being closed. Odds are that information is not on caveatlas.

I'm just thinking that this forum could provide one central location for all the updates so theres not a need to check two forums on here, caveatlas, the state parks website, the NFSA facebook, call the dive shops, and so on ...

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Originally Posted by cmint

I look at caveatlas too, but its not updated regularly. For example, there are three posts in this forum about Madison, Cathedral, and Peacock being closed. Odds are that information is not on caveatlas....

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It is now :-)

Cave Country Dive Shop used to post ?current? conditions on a ?white board? as one entered the shop's front door on the left side..

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Originally Posted by aa3jy

Cave Country Dive Shop used to post ?current? conditions on a ?white board? as one entered the shop's front door on the left side..

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That's still there and up-to-date.

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Originally Posted by aa3jy

Cave Country Dive Shop used to post ?current? conditions on a ?white board? as one entered the shop's front door on the left side..

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Hi Ladies and Gents, all our reports on our board are being up kept with no report older than 2 weeks. Once one hits that two week mark it's replaced by a (?) and I ask on our facebook or ask divers as they come in to the store for a fresh one. I'm very glad to hear that OP likes our condition board. I think it's a nice thing to be able to walk in the store and see what's worth diving.

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Originally Posted by cavewoman

Hi Ladies and Gents, all our reports on our board are being up kept with no report older than 2 weeks. Once one hits that two week mark it's replaced by a (?) and I ask on our facebook or ask divers as they come in to the store for a fresh one. I'm very glad to hear that OP likes our condition board. I think it's a nice thing to be able to walk in the store and see what's worth diving.

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It would be a nice gesture for your out-of-town customers if there was an online copy of your divesite conditions board.

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Originally Posted by FW

It would be a nice gesture for your out-of-town customers if there was an online copy of your divesite conditions board.

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I post these conditions to our facebook from time to time and often share condition reports there as well.

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Originally Posted by FW

It would be a nice gesture for your out-of-town customers if there was an online copy of your divesite conditions board.

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I would understand if this was too much trouble to maintain but would be very impressed if CCDV could accommodate, I'd bet others would be too. :-)

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Originally Posted by cavewoman

I post these conditions to our facebook from time to time and often share condition reports there as well.

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Some of us don't use FB, maybe you could link the FB feed to the website.

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Originally Posted by Michael F

I would understand if this was too much trouble to maintain but would be very impressed if CCDV could accommodate, I'd bet others would be too. :-)



Some of us don't use FB, maybe you could link the FB feed to the website.

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don't have to be a member to see it, the posts are public: https://www.facebook.com/CaveCountryDiveShop

I'll post a shot of the lastest conditions in a few.

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Originally Posted by cmint

I look at caveatlas too, but its not updated regularly. For example, there are three posts in this forum about Madison, Cathedral, and Peacock being closed. Odds are that information is not on caveatlas.

I'm just thinking that this forum could provide one central location for all the updates so theres not a need to check two forums on here, caveatlas, the state parks website, the NFSA facebook, call the dive shops, and so on ...

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I like your idea best.

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Originally Posted by cavewoman

don't have to be a member to see it, the posts are public: https://www.facebook.com/CaveCountryDiveShop

I'll post a shot of the lastest conditions in a few.

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Thanks Kristi

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Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

I like your idea best.

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Yes, but someone would have to remember to keep it up to date. Dive Shops have more motivation to do that.

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Originally Posted by Michael F

Thanks Kristi

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No problem at all. :)

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Originally Posted by FW

Yes, but someone would have to remember to keep it up to date. Dive Shops have more motivation to do that.

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Not trying to push an idea but at would be an "all hands" effort and we have been doing that for years. We all have been posting about conditions either when something closes, opens or within dive reports but never in a central location. There is nothing wrong with Dive Shops assisting with the updates.

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Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

Not trying to push an idea but at would be an "all hands" effort and we have been doing that for years. We all have been posting about conditions either when something closes, opens or within dive reports but never in a central location. There is nothing wrong with Dive Shops assisting with the updates.

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The thing is, cave divers are given a central location-- Walter's site. I have a feeling CCDS isn't going to want to update the site so that it can be checked from Amigos or EE with information their employees worked to gather, and the opposite applies as well. As it stands now, you have a reason to go to the shop.

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Originally Posted by jj1987

The thing is, cave divers are given a central location-- Walter's site. I have a feeling CCDS isn't going to want to update the site so that it can be checked from Amigos or EE with information their employees worked to gather, and the opposite applies as well. As it stands now, you have a reason to go to the shop.

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I'm actually a little offended by this because I really think this information belongs to everyone. The information comes from customers, instructors and our staff personally (myself included...that Indian report was my first dive there ever). I have no issues with any of the other shops having access to this info at all. I wish people would stop trying to create issues where there aren't any. If the general cave diving public would like, I will post a photo of our board every two weeks, if the other shops want to share it, or if you guys want it on the board that is cool by me.

-Kristi

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Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

Not trying to push an idea but at would be an "all hands" effort and we have been doing that for years. We all have been posting about conditions either when something closes, opens or within dive reports but never in a central location. There is nothing wrong with Dive Shops assisting with the updates.

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Our "team" could keep Cave Atlas up to date, but they don't.

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Originally Posted by cavewoman

I wish people would stop trying to create issues where there aren't any.

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Agreed. While it may have been an issue in the past, Most shops around here nowadays are very supporting of one another. Kristi & Jon regularly refer customers to other shops if its more convenient for the customer, and vice versa. It seems these businesses aren't really about competing with one another, but more about just being friendly and supporting of the community as a whole.

I made the link to Cave Atlas a bit more obvious. I think that might help 6.388% . I hate seeing wasted effort posting the same information in multiple locations, hence our support of Walter's Cave Atlas site. I'm guilty of not always updating cave sites there, so I'll try to do better.

Sunday, since I'm off, and bored in NFL, I'll go take topside pictures of some of the popular caves on the Suwannee from the river. . . . and post conditions.

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Originally Posted by tj

I made the link to Cave Atlas a bit more obvious. I think that might help 6.388% . I hate seeing wasted effort posting the same information in multiple locations

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Won't waste any of my efforts at all, and if it will help more than 6.3888% than I'll go ahead and post an image of our board about every two weeks. It only takes a few seconds to do and if it will help the community at large I'm happy to do it. I was once a vacation diver myself and relied upon older reports on Cave Atlas (which I think is a fine site btw...nothing negative here) to decide where to go and what to dive. Hope the efforts help at least a few divers out there. If people are interested the photos will be available on our shops facebook as posted above. Feel free to share or copy and paste them wherever you like from there.

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Originally Posted by FW

Our "team" could keep Cave Atlas up to date, but they don't.

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Exactly! If something is not working then we need to try something else. I feel that there are more members here that would provide updates than on any other forum or Facebook. Cave Atlas is great and I go there often but as we have just seen with three systems it is not up to date. Madison has been blown since 12-02-2014 and Cave Atlas is just updated. I do not disagree with any of the ideas given but I see a better way to achieve what we all want.

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Originally Posted by TONY CHANEY

Exactly! If something is not working then we need to try something else. I feel that there are more members here that would provide updates than on any other forum or Facebook. Cave Atlas is great and I go there often but as we have just seen with three systems it is not up to date. Madison has been blown since 12-02-2014 and Cave Atlas is just updated. I do not disagree with any of the ideas given but I see a better way to achieve what we all want.

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Some people on here don't facebook.......some people on facebook no longer visit here. If you want to improve the conditions reports, just copy/paste whatever you see onto cave atlas. I would bet that if 3-5 people started cross posting, you'd see a rise in how frequently cave atlas is used-- simply because people would get back in the habit of using it. I think cave atlas is also extremely useful because you can look at past reports of when sites blew, then compare that to historical weather/river gauges.

That is a big "if" right James? So far it is not working.