There has been an increase in FB sales group fraud where scammers duplicate someone’s Facebook page using their pictures and copy their sales posts in an attempt to trick people into buying high-ticket items, taking their money and then not delivering the product.
As the creator of Anarchy Scuba Swap (which started all this “Anarchy” crap lol), my moderator team sees this frequently and do our best to remove these posts as they are identified/reported. Unfortunately these scam posts are posted simultaneously in many gear swap groups where they can claim multiple victims with a single post.
A friend of mine found a FB group called, “Exposing Scams and Fraud in Beekeeping” where people can report these profiles and posts. He suggested we collect and share the same data in the dive community.
Why not just report them to Facebook, you ask? You absolutely should. The problem the Bee Keeping groups identified was that the slime-balls committing these crimes would just make new accounts, often using the exact same names/posts and would end up back in some of the groups that don’t screen new members as well.
Anarchy Scuba Swap’s commitment to keeping you safe: We don’t allow suspicious account into the group, decreasing your chances of getting scammed. The group is not here for popularity. It’s here to provide a safe and unbiased place to purchase used dive gear from the community. Every member is screened and misconduct is taken seriously. Read/listen to “Let’s Talk About ASS” for the story about how the group (and pretty much everything else) started.
If you have a suggestion for how we can make this process better or if there are additional data points we should be collecting, please let me know.
In the upcoming months I am going to begin reviewing some dive gear, dive shops and dive locations. You all know honesty is my thing, so I’m going to make this statement:
Anything I promote in my blog is done so because I have personally used/experienced it, and I’ve concluded it’s of the highest possible quality available on the market at the time.
I am not an instructor nor a dealer nor a dive professional. My opinion does not, and will not alter with every other month like lots of social media dive “experts”. That’s because no one is PAYING me for my opinion. I’m not trying to make money off of you. I have a real job and diving is my hobby, not my profession. Every dive I do is by choice, and for fun; not out of obligation. My word is all I have, and I want that to mean something… unlike so many others out there.
I’m not a slave to the dive industry… I’m a dive industry anarchist. 😁
While I do have relationships with manufacturers of dive gear, and there may be times when I partner with a brand to promote a particular piece of gear, I will NOT sell out and promote a subpar product. You will only find honest reviews and promotions for high quality gear. You may see ads on my page. I may eventually sell ad space to someone or I may run Google ads that read your mind and display advertisements based on what it thinks you want. But my actual blogs will remain my opinion.
That being said. If anyone would like me to post an HONEST review of your scuba related product/business/service, feel free to reach out. If I like your product, I’ll write about it. If I don’t think you’ll like what I have to say, I’ll do us both a favor and refrain. In most cases, at least. 😉
And as always…. If you need gear advice, or you’re looking for a specific dealer for a product, contact me. Chances are my wide network of dive gear dealers will help you out.
I also can’t guarantee you’ll have the same experience that I had with a product/shop/charter/whatever. Don’t use gear you’re not trained to use, do not dive past your training limits. Don’t be an idiot. Yadda yadda yadda…
So let the anarchy begin…. where should we start……
Want to listen instead of read? (Or both….) Use the audio file above to hear the current “blogcast”.
This post is dedicated to all the obnoxious dipshits, past and future, who try to claim that they should be able to say or do or post whatever the hell they want in our Facebook group because it has the word “anarchy” in it. I’m not sure how you’ve survived this long, but your mom and I are proud of you.
-me
According to “the Goog”, anarchy has two definitions:
Don’t worry – this post isn’t going to be political.
The most annoying thing that happens in the Anarchy Scuba Facebook groups (in my opinion, at least) is when someone posts something inappropriate and/or totally off-topic that doesn’t appeal to 99% of the group. THEN this moron get angry when they are *asked* (not told) to take their post down. The response, more often than not, is, “oh, I thought this was an anarchy group,” or “this isn’t REAL anarchy!”
You’re right, douche-canoe. Spoiler alert. There’s no such thing as “anarchy” on Facebook. Facebook is “governed” by some pretty strict Community Standards. I’m not going to list them all here, feel free to look into them if you care about that sort of thing, but they are pretty basic. Don’t be racist/hateful towards a specific gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Don’t post overly offensive content/nudity. Don’t threaten to harm people or animals. You know. Stuff that decent human beings know they shouldn’t do.
Is that a violation of your country’s rights? Doesn’t matter. I’m in the US (for example) and have “freedom of speech”, but freedom of speech does not mean there are not consequences to what I say. When you join Facebook, you sign away your ability to say or do whatever you want, and agree to adhere to Facebook Community Standards. When those standards are violated, Facebook bans or removes individuals and sometimes entire groups. I’m not risking that shit over your need to express yourself in the lamest way possible.
So here’s the deal. “Anarchy Scuba” is not true anarchy. This isn’t the black web. Its a brand, not a political stance. We do have some rules. These rules are also basic. Don’t violate the aforementioned Facebook Community Standards. Keep posts scuba/ocean related. Don’t post vulgar content, even if it doesn’t violate community standards because I personally don’t want to read that shit and that’s the only real personal ask that I have on the page. Turns out, lots of other people feel that way, too. We aren’t against advertising as long as it doesn’t get to be spammy- we actually encourage advertising if a person/business has a unique opportunity or good deal that benefits the group.
Anarchy Scuba Spot is pretty much group-moderated. In the majority of the occurrences where someone posts something that shouldn’t be posted, a member speaks up in the comments and the original poster usually removes it. When they don’t, the rest of the group tends to show up like ants to a picnic and chime in. The need for this is actually really low and we have a pretty good vibe going.
The issue that I had with one of the large Facebook gear swap groups (you can read about it here) that led to me creating Anarchy Scuba Swap and eventually Anarchy Scuba Spot, was there were too many rules. Many of those rules are driven by financial opportunities/obligations for the groups’ admins and moderators and they’re not equally enforced across the board. All too often on Facebook, rules are used as a crutch to remove content that may not benefit the admin or moderator.
Well. That’s not me. I’m not a “dive pro”. I don’t work for a shop. Nobody owns me. I’m just a diver. But more about me later.
The point I want to drive home here is that Anarchy Scuba not a free-for-all. Contrary to what some believe, its not an uncensored group and it’s not just about talking smack, judging divers, or knocking gear or agency preferences. Anarchy Scuba is all about diving. Dive more. Dive safe. Dive well. Dive whatever gear you want. Dive local. Dive travel. Just dive. And as long as you don’t hurt yourself, your buddy, the environment, and DEFINITELY don’t hurt any of the sea life, everything is good. Go have fun.
My next “blogcast” is going to be a little bit about me – why I’m doing this, what my plans are with the blog… and then after that we are going to start “diving in” to….. well…. diving. Lol.
Driving? Illiterate? Too tired to read? I did it for you! Click the link to the audio clip above to listen to this article.
Hello ASSes! Current ASSes… Future ASSes…. Anti-ASSes…
Welcome to the wonderful world of Anarchy Scuba. This site has been a long time coming and I’m excited to finally have some time to get it off the ground. I’m going to start off by sharing the origin of Anarchy Scuba and the Anarchy Scuba Spot Facebook group. I should probably put some sort of disclaimer for the site in here about language and mild adult content, but if you got past the title of this blog, you likely get the gist…. or you’re just dense and I’ll probably read about your disapproval in the comments section. I look forward to hearing from the Karens and Cheryls of the interwebs.
Alright. So Anarchy Scuba origin. Story time.
Once upon a time, back in the year 2019 (January 2019 to be exact) I was on the phone with my dear friend Marbry. (That’s right, Mar, you’re basically getting blamed for sparking this internet dumpster fire.) I mentioned to him that in the better-part-of-the-decade that I had been scuba diving, I had yet to sell a single piece of gear that I was no longer using. This accumulated to a small mountain of unused kit consisting of multiple canister lights, dive computers, regulators, etc. – all things I had replaced with new and shiny gear. Marbry convinced me that I should post all of the crap I had laying around on Facebook gear swap groups to make room and funds for even more stuff that I don’t need 🙂
I poured a glass of bourbon and began my sentimental journey down memory lane and started snapping photos of gear from dives past. As I sat down and began writing my sale descriptions, I made the conscious decision to add a little bit of personality into them. As we all know, gear swap groups are exceedingly rigid and boring. I listed some regulators, wings, pockets and one iconic set of fins. These fins were purchased at the beginning of my tech diving adventure – a pair of Hollis F-1 “Bat fins”. They were sleek and black and I was sure I was going to love them. I thought it would be funny to paint “KIC” & “KME” on either fin in large white letters, and they were forever more referred to as my “kick me fins”. Unfortunately the love affair didn’t last long as these fins proved to be heavy and the foot pockets pinched.
I thought it would be appropriate and safe to post my honest opinion of the fins, as they are widely liked and accepted by many divers. They may not have fit my personal preference, but I knew other people liked them and I wanted to make sure whoever bought them was already familiar with the fin as not to cause any further disappointment for someone else.
Within the first 30 minutes of posting, the listings (approximately 5) had reached close to 100 reactions and just as many comments/purchase inquiries, which was the intended outcome. Within an hour, commenting had been turned off on all of my posts and the fins post was removed entirely by one of the group moderators. I sent a message to one of the admins, confused as to why my post was removed and she responded back to me a few hours later. She told me the group was not intended to be a “discussion group”, and that my posts had elicited such. She said the fin post had been removed because I was “brand bashing”. I challenged her on that, as I didn’t mention anything negative about Hollis, only this particular product. There is not a single dive manufacture that hung the moon for me, and I’m allowed to have and voice my opinion. I was promptly removed from the group due to my questioning her. I found this censorship to quite annoying, especially since it was over relevant content.
Driving home from my dive later that day, I called my friend Vanwah and verbally took my frustration out on him. I told him I was going to” just start my own swap group”. I wasn’t heavily into public Facebooking at the time and kept mostly to myself because #theinternetisforever, so I doubt he even took me seriously. I declared I would name it “Anarchists’ Scuba Swap”, “just to be an ass”. The group was started with the objective of “less rules”… Humor, discussion, transparency and gear swapping were all allowed, accepted and encouraged.
I “appointed” (many of them against their will) seven fair and just individuals across a wide range of diving abilities, industry presence and personal backgrounds as moderators for the group.
The group grew fairly quickly in the next few months and we changed the name to the current Anarchy Scuba Swap. There were quite a few suggestions and requests for an additional group focusing purely on discussion, but I wasn’t willing to spend any more of my life watching over a hobby internet forum. However as time passed and close friendships formed with people I would have never otherwise met, I eventually gave in and started the Anarchy Scuba Facebook page which was used to form the group Anarchy Scuba Spot. (Riveting, I know.)
And here we are today. At current writing, the group has surpassed five thousand members and continues to grow daily. We have members from 99 countries and see over 25,000 posts,comments and reactions (combined) a month. The group requires little maintenance on my part, as the members mostly are able to moderate themselves accordingly to avoid any Facebook Community Standards violations and are generally open and respectful of each other.
I will talk more about the underlying purpose and culture of the group in further posts. Stay tuned for more 🙂
