+1 to Rachael, Ben, and Bob (and anyone else I missed)
You can only ask questions about things that you know are dangerous. I'd rather have someone give me advice about something unsolicited and risk offense than die because I didn't phrase my questions right or forgot to ask the right question.
Now with that being said there's a big difference between offering advice and being "pompous and rude". It's easy to miscommunicate on the internet, and people tend to forget that.
Instead of, "wow, and AL80? Are you sure about that you idiot???
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"
Maybe we can work on.... "Hi, new person, I'm not exactly sure what your experience is, but have you seen -this thread-? If so, then disregard, and have an awesome dive!"
Sorry Tangfish, but I have to agree with Bob here that this rule is very overly broad. I'm imagining that this rule is in place because of the extreme sensitivity people have about... yeah I'm gonna say it... DIR. Whether for or against it's always a touchy subject. But to be honest, since I've joined this board I've never seen anying DIR saying YOU MUST DIVE THIS WAY OR DIE, more often I see non-DIR people saying YOU MUST DIVE THIS WAY OR SOMEONE DIR WILL SAY YOU WILL DIE... and no one ever says it. There are more non-DIR people bringing up the DIR conflict than the other way around, and honestly I think it would be great if everyone could just get over it (from both sides) and stop
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the crap out of every post that has a potential conflict.
There are a ton of people on this board with a lot of knowledge and experience that I would hate to see posting less or leaving the board because they feel like they're not allowed to speak, but at the same time can't say nothing with a clear conscious.