Thu Jan 12, 2023 5:37 pm
VDH has been a great resource to the vintage diving community, and Bryan's contributions to Doublehose and vintage diving are unquestionably profound. It would be a great shame for the forum and archive contents to be lost or unavailable for viewing. I have depended on the various threads and reference materials for information unavailable elsewhere. Hopefully, VDH will find a home somewhere.
I'm a bit surprised that no one has mentioned the Proboards forum, unless the mention of "the other forum" meant Proboards and not ScubaBoard (which I took it to mean). Proboards could not absorb VDH, but it is an alternative place to go for your vintage fix.
I know that there are a some members here who look down on the Proboards site and, for reasons of their own, would not participate. If you are one of them, you won't have much interest in what I have to say.
However, even though it experiences its own ups and downs, Proboards is a functioning forum that is available to anyone who wants to join. There are a number of VIP VDH members who have been active on PB for some time, and anyone else interested in bringing their own discussions, news, projects, and perspectives on vintage diving is welcome and encouraged to do so.
I understand that Proboards lacks some of the features of VDH. We don't host photos or reference materials on the site, but that isn't necessary. There are many free hosting and storage sites. It would be nice to have them in house, but we don't. We don't claim to be VDH or offer an identical experience. But it is a site dedicated to vintage diving, equipment, technique, etc., and is a place for those who retain an interest in communicating with other vintage divers. Anyone who feels that content on PB isn't up to snuff and needs to be improved or expanded, come show us what you've got. (Respectfully, please!)
Although they have their limitations, I think forums are a better experience than social sites like Facebook. Pros and cons have already been discussed in this thread, so I won't. PB has an interesting bunch of members, young, middle aged, and older, who are up to some interesting stuff. If you haven't already, check it out!
www. vintagescuba.proboards.com