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damion75

Dropzone Reviews

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DZ reviews are a funny thing - there have been a few discussions about them recently. Admittedly they are completely subjective, one man's meat IS another man's poison. But I do have a few concerns about the way some reviews are being written at the moment:

Reviews are being written by people who don't even have the courtesy to fill in any of their profile... if you want to put your opinion forward then have the guts to stand behind it! Unless it is one person writing several reviews as part of a hate campaign?!

Negative reviews without any facts in them. The 'its crap because it is' approach is not informative - it just comes across as a smear campaign.

Deleting and re-entering negative reviews to ensure that they are always the first ones that people see - stop it, its childish and pretty irritating.

I'm going to stop there or this could get long. All I am asking is that if you have something to say, then say it and stand behind it, surely you people have the guts?:S[:/]
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I would also add staff members of a dz posting reviews of their dz. That makes it more of an advertisement rather than a review. :S



Sure, but define 'staff members'? People who get paid to be there, fair enough. People who help out but get paid nothing? I reckon they can give their opinion.
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I would also add staff members of a dz posting reviews of their dz. That makes it more of an advertisement rather than a review. :S



Sure, but define 'staff members'? People who get paid to be there, fair enough. People who help out but get paid nothing? I reckon they can give their opinion.



I would say paid staff members
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I would also add staff members of a dz posting reviews of their dz. That makes it more of an advertisement rather than a review. :S



Sure, but define 'staff members'? People who get paid to be there, fair enough. People who help out but get paid nothing? I reckon they can give their opinion.



There is a big difference between someone who is paid and someone who helps out.

I have a problem with STAFF members writing reviews/advertisments in the dz review section.

j
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

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I would also add staff members of a dz posting reviews of their dz. That makes it more of an advertisement rather than a review. :S



Sure, but define 'staff members'? People who get paid to be there, fair enough. People who help out but get paid nothing? I reckon they can give their opinion.



I would say paid staff members



Why is that? I'm a regularly paid staff member at a couple dropzones, and I worked for money at a few different boogies last year as well. Here's the thing though. When I write a dropzone review, I'm writing it for up-jumpers, i.e. people I don't make a dime off of. My money comes from students, and I don't generally advise them about one dropzone being better or worse than another. I could see your point if I wrote things like "Best tandem instructors in the area! Come here to make your first jump!", but that's not what I do.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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what about military staff at a military DZ who technically dont get paid by the DZ but do by the army

to be honest most/all of the positive reviews on the DZ i think your talking about are all done by the staff there-no doubt at someones prompting



Not to difficult to see which DZ I'm talking about since I have filled in my profile... the point being that if I say something, I am prepared to stand behind that opinion. Sorry, and you are who exactly?! :S:o

As for your comment above, I wrote a positive review and I am not staff there. I also know most of the others who wrote positive reviews and most of them are not staff there either... the question is, do you know these people? Have half of the negative reviewers even been to that DZ? [:/]
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lets check out the ones that put good reviews

amanda higgins- she works there
steve burry-yes
caroline hughes- yes
fast fall rigging-yup and they have a comercial interest in nethers doing well
kyle thomas- has been paid by the DZ from time to time when he has done camps there
kath salsbury-yes
dale-occasionally
mike lewis-yes


but hey- i guess im completely wrong
sorry i forgot to fill in my profile, only had 10 space minutes that day, some of us work for a living- i guess that invalidates everything i say, i heard what happened to that canadian fellow when he put his name to a review(very mature responce from the dz)

i dont know what to say about the negative reviews and the likelyhood of them never jumped there apart from, not very
this isnt a dark conspiracy of people who have never jumped at the DZ and want it ruined because they dont like the name of the DZ
they probably write bad reviews of the DZ 'cause they havent been well treated and served in the past---odd isnt it?

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lets check out the ones that put good reviews

amanda higgins- she works there
steve burry-yes
caroline hughes- yes
fast fall rigging-yup and they have a comercial interest in nethers doing well
kyle thomas- has been paid by the DZ from time to time when he has done camps there
kath salsbury-yes
dale-occasionally
mike lewis-yes



I'm sure Mike, Caroline and the rest can answer for themselves if they want to, but I most certainly wasn't aware Kyle Thomas was doing camps at Netheravon! :S He's currently a university student with a few hundred jumps who jumps there at weekends! :S:S:S

For what it's worth, I also put a positive review up about Netheravon. I have no financial interest whatsoever in doing so, I was simply telling it like it is. I see that many others have done the same.

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sorry i forgot to fill in my profile, only had 10 space minutes that day,



For someone with only 10 spare minutes in a day, you seem to be able to spend a lot of time posting to this thread... but you STILL can't seem to find a minute to fill in your profile and tell us who you are! Or did you forget again?! :S:S:S

Nethers is a great DZ, sorry you don't see it that way!

Vicki

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also the reviews written by students with 3 jumps that haven't jumped anywhere else. :S



what, we can't have an opinion on this kind of thing? ... so, If you go to a restraunt, you can't write a review about the atmosphere of the restraunt unless you have been there and other restraunts like it hundreds of times in the past? that makes no sense to me.

As for staff writing reviews, why not? did they not choose that dz for a reason? I would think that they are staffed there, because they enjoyed the dz in the first place. I could be wrong though, maybe they just go where the money is. and if that be the case, thats sad.
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lets check out the ones that put good reviews

amanda higgins- she works there
steve burry-yes
caroline hughes- yes
fast fall rigging-yup and they have a comercial interest in nethers doing well
kyle thomas- has been paid by the DZ from time to time when he has done camps there
kath salsbury-yes
dale-occasionally
mike lewis-yes



Hmmm. Amanda Higgins? Doesn't she jump at Langar?
Fastfall rigging? Sorry guys, I have never heard of you.
Kyle Thomas? As VT1977 says, he has about 300 jumps and no ratings! Coaching/camps there? Purlease....
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sorry i forgot to fill in my profile, only had 10 space minutes that day,



For someone with only 10 spare minutes in a day, you seem to be able to spend a lot of time posting to this thread... but you STILL can't seem to find a minute to fill in your profile and tell us who you are! Or did you forget again?! :S:S:S



Damn... she beat me to it! So you seem to have some more time on your hands now, tell us about yourself? or perhaps you are a troll?! :)
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Not one shred of evidence supports the theory that life is serious - look at the platypus.

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also the reviews written by students with 3 jumps that haven't jumped anywhere else. :S



What an absolutely ludicrous statement. We are talking about dropzone reviews here, not dropzone comparisons.

The whole purpose of having reviews is to let someone who has not been to the dropzone get a feel for how others experienced it. This clearly includes potential students. Who better to give them an honest opinion about how new students can expect to be treated, how they experienced the training, the facilities, the vibe etc?



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sorry i forgot to fill in my profile, only had 10 space minutes that day, some of us work for a living- i guess that invalidates everything i say



So which is it? You only have 10 space minutes (are they different from Earth minutes) or you are afraid of persecution?

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i heard what happened to that canadian fellow when he put his name to a review



Maybe we should get this out into the open. Everyone keeps seeming to dance around this. I believe there is enough info in the Council Minutes that we may as well speak plainly. I think that is the problem. With your anonymity and flavour of review, everyone is assuming you are Piers anyway (which after his actions could arguably invalidate yours (his) opinions). The grammar, lack of punctuation/capitalisation and spelling mistakes, I must say I'm inclined to agree, unless you prove otherwise.

For the record, I think Netheravon is a great dropzone and I enjoy myself everytime I go there. Yes, it's not perfect, no dropzone is, but they are trying to improve. However I don't feel I go there often enough to validate a proper review.
Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

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Just replying to the original post here.

I have only posted one review of a DZ. I would never review my home DZ and I would be hesitant to review any DZ in my own country as there would always be an implicit comparison with my home DZ.
HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

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I think it's perfectly ok to write a review of your own DZ if you're a fun jumper, or if you're a student, or if you've never jumped anywhere else. If you're a student, and/or if you've never jumped anywhere else, you should mention that just as a matter of honest disclosure. Students & potential students want to know what other students think about a DZ they've jumped at. And I agree that not all reviews need to be comparative ones.

I am uncomfortable with staff members writing reviews of the DZ they work at; I think, on balance, it's a conflict of interest. I hate reading those "certain" DZ reviews that are so obviously self-serving "commercials". At the very least, if you're writing a "review" of a DZ at which you're staff (even part-time staff), you should disclose that fact clearly in your review.

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also the reviews written by students with 3 jumps that haven't jumped anywhere else. :S



what, we can't have an opinion on this kind of thing? ... so, If you go to a restraunt, you can't write a review



A better analogy might be with a review of restaurant food if you were starving and had never had anything to eat. Of course the DZ will be nice to you as a student; look at how much money you are bringing to the DZ. Also, as a student, you have no basis of comparison to say if a training program/ student gear is safe or good.

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>what, we can't have an opinion on this kind of thing? ...

Of course! And your opinion is valid.

>so, If you go to a restraunt, you can't write a review about the
> atmosphere of the restraunt unless you have been there and other
> restraunts like it hundreds of times in the past?

Again, you can still review it. It's just that if you have never, ever been to a restaraunt before, people may not take your reviews as seriously as someone who _has_ eaten out before. But that doesn't mean that your opinion is invalid.

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im afraid this one isnt me, and i dont appreciate the suggestion that i would post under another name

ive openly stated and stood by my views and will continue to do so
it would have been alot easier to post under another name from the begining, and i decided not to for a number of reasons

p

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WHO ARE YOU???!!!

Amanda Higgins - came to Nethers for the first time last year during one of the PD coaching weekends, loved the place so wrote a nice review. Lives up north so hasn't been back, certainly doesn't work here!

Steve Burry - who?

Caroline Hughes - load organises for slots, has chosen Nethers as somewhere she enjoys doing this.

Fastfallrigging - Phill Elston - regular face around the DZ, not employed by Nethers though, yes he makes his living as a rigger, so...?!

Kyle Thomas - comes and fun jumps with the uni crowd, as Frank says, you've got the wrong Thomas!

Kath Salisbury - has been jumping at Nethers since the 80s, gets paid when she teaches a static line course but that's it.

Dale - never worked here

Mike Lewis - runs some good stuff (FS and canopy coaching) but does it as an experienced jumper with an interest in helping others progress, he's not "staff"

Me - I've avoided putting a review on here because I really do work there, but I do it because I love it. 2005 was the best year I've seen for Nethers and 2006 is looking even better already, got world class coaches coming back again, new wingsuit school starting up in 4 weeks and counting, renovations over Xmas including really good heating and a touch-screen signing in board. Plus all the usual parties, night jumps, coaching, load organising, teams, brilliant facilities, wealth of experience, tons of kit, 2 turbine aircraft plus a piston Islander for the tandems, and lots of friendly faces who all get understandably protective about the occasional coward slagging the place off on the internet.

As for Piers, well you can't expect to be a British Army Officer and get away with biting the hand that feeds you. He may have slagged the place off but he still kept coming back for the cheap military-rate jumps, until this was considered to be cheeky beyond belief by the people at the top.

Liz Ashley
www.wingin-it.co.uk
Wingin' It wingsuit school

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