About ScubaFreebies
About the reviews
What sites do we review?
ScubaFreebies reviews free-to-consumer websites marketed specifically to SCUBA divers. This includes online dive log sites, blogging sites, dive buddy sites, forums, jobs boards, dive site directories and so on.
Why do we do it?
To publicise the great sites you may not have heard of, help the not-so-great get better, and mourn those that had great ideas but are not fully active anymore.
Why do we do it? (2)
Because we are SCUBA divers and geeks. You wouldn't think about getting in the water without checking your O-rings, neck seal and computer battery, but do you know how to do the same basic checks on the internet? OK its not the same life and death kind of issue, but a little caution might save you from losing all your dive log data, dive photos or from years of spam.
Just like any piece of dive equipment, websites need proper design and testing before release and even the simplest need regular maintenance by someone who knows what they are doing. We can highlight for you those that keep top quality content and functionality uppermost.
What do we consider and why?
What can the website do for you as a diver? Can you store divelogs, find new buddies, or check out new diving destinations? We compare the main functional groups side by side.
How easy is it to use? We are great fans of simplicity. Its no good having gazzillion different functions on your dive computer if you can't figure out how to change to Nitrox 32 when you need to. Its just like that on the internet - loads of fancy features on a website but no use if you can't figure how they work.
Does it travel? As divers we often face another problem as well - we want to access our favourite websites when we are on holiday in a diving paradise that has only 10-year-old computers and flaky dial up access. A great website will work just as well on holiday as it does from home.
Is your personal data secure?. On many websites you only need a username and email address to set up an account but quite often you share more personal information about yourself that you want to control access to. You may also store things you have copyright to - dive data, photos, stories etc. It's good to know that you can back up your stuff, or delete it and your account when you want to.
Do you know what you are agreeing to? All websites cost money to set up and run so your free account is being paid for by someone. That might be readers clicks on third party advertising or the onward sales of your click history. The terms and conditions and privacy policy of a website tell you who the website owner is, what they have agreed to do for you and what you are obliged to do in exchange. If you cannot find them you can only fall back on the law to protect you and hope they are based in a country with helpful laws!
Is it a quality service? Top notch websites provide a great range of functions, look nice and are easy to use. They make it easy if you want to ask for help and make sure your information is safe and secure.
ScubaFreebies aims to give you the information you need to make an informed decision about whether a website is right for you.
Our rating system
We introduced a rating system in May 2008 so you can spot the great quality web sites at a glance. The rating goes from 0 to 5, with 5 being tops. The scores are based on four things; SCUBA specific functionality, quality of content, ease of use and security of your personal data.
| 5 | Specifically designed for SCUBA divers, high quality content and easy to use interface. Personal data is secure (where relevant). |
|---|---|
| 4 | Designed or customised for SCUBA divers, good content and mostly easy to use interface. |
| 3 | Partially customised for SCUBA divers, satisfactory content and / or patchy interface. Satisfactory attention to personal data security (where relevant). |
| 2 | Not customised for SCUBA divers, patchy content and / or poor interface with bugs. Casual or no attention to personal data security (where relevant). |
| 1 | Buggy with low quality content. |
| 0 | Completely broken web site or security breach with personal data. |
Ratings will be rolled out for older reviews over time. Please note the difference between "no rating" and "0 rating".
Participate
Right of Reply
Every website featured on ScubaFreebies was put together by an individual or a business to be useful for scuba divers. The person who runs that business or the person who runs the site has free Right of Reply to the website review on ScubaFreebies, and gets equal prominence on the page next to the review.
Of course we can only offer this to the person who really runs the site so we have to verify any request.
Our preferred method is to send a verification code to an email address that appears on the reviewed website. Only the website owner will have access to this mailbox so we know only they can use the code.
Now not every website has a contact email address. Some website owners are nervous that publishing an email address will result in lots of spam and they offer a contact form instead. This might seem an ideal solution but has downsides. When you type a message then it is not stored in your email client. So if a couple of days later they have not responded and you want to chase them up, you have no record of what you said and when. If you had sent an email and it bounced you would know about it, but if their contact form is broken and they never get the message you will never know.
The no-email-on-the-website method needs proof of ownership by putting up a secretly named file onto the reviewed website. We supply a secretly named file that the owners upload to their site and we then go back and check. Only the owner can upload files to the site so we know we are safe to send them the verification code.
All of this takes time so we charge a small admin fee for this method. Of course a website owner can at any time add a contact email address to their website and let us know from that email address. We will update our records and send them the verification code as per our preferred method for no charge.
Your feedback
There is a comment form at the bottom of every ScubaFreebies review and we welcome your feedback!
If you have used the website being reviewed then tell us about your experience. Add your username to the feedback form and we will link to your homepage or profile page on the site. Other divers will be able to see how useful you have found the site.
If you have never used the website then go see for yourself and come back and tell us what you think. If the site is great then you can tell more people about it. If it is not so great then your feedback can help the owners make it better.
You do not need to enter your name or username when you are making a comment, you can remain completely anonymous if you like. We don't ask for an email address so you can be sure we will never spam you and any connections you make with other sites are entirely up to you. We might get spammed to hell with this approach, but we think that most people will be honest and good natured even if they disagree with a review or our opinion.
Request a review
If you have found a SCUBA diving website that deserves a ScubaFreebies review, please email the link to reviews@scubafreebies.com.
Contribute
Join the editorial team
Fancy giving it a go? We can't promise your name in lights, but we can say you will have a fun time. If you are an online diver
, tech savvy and interested in safe surfing then drop us a line at editors@scubafreebies.com and we will take it from there.
Make a donation
ScubaFreebies is a free of charge website that makes a few pennies from third party advertising. The site is hosted for free on Eaudomainia's company server, and the software was written and tested on company time. However each review takes a long time to put together. We don't want to make a profit out of this site, but if you like what you see, think it is useful and want to see it continue then please send us a few dollars in thanks.
Payment by PayPal using your Paypal account or your credit or debit card.
Contact ScubaFreebies
ScubaFreebies is a service provided by Eaudomainia Ltd registered in England and Wales, company number 6045706. You may contact the editors by email or by post c/o the company address.
| Contact the editors | editors@scubafreebies.com |
|---|---|
| Request a review | reviews@scubafreebies.com |
| Request a Right of Reply | ror@scubafreebies.com |
| Call us | +44 (0) 161 408 4183 |
| Send us a letter |
ScubaFreebies c/o Eaudomainia Ltd 30 Tapton Mount Close Sheffield S10 5DJ United Kingdom |