You said it quite well Daddy-h2O. Kirwoodd, as you read those one-liners how do you make the determination as to who really was a friend of the deceased and who is just going through the motions? If you dive long enough and often enough, you make new friends. Some will be casual acquaintences while others may become your best friend for life. Even if it is little more than an introduction and a handshake, the common bonds you share tend to intensify the emotions. When we read that a diver has passed, we feel a loss for the community whether we had ever actually met that individual or not. We offer our condolences to those left behind out of compassion for the sport, in the hopes that when our time comes, others will be ther to help those we leave behind cope. I like the split threads as well, like used by TDS; the only problem there comes from all the quarterbacks who start flexing their extreme lack of knowledge as they speculate about what happened. Discussing the accident to prevent future accidents of a similar nature is great, but it only works when known facts are released by those who were on scene (which is typically limited to one or two individuals at most.)