Hacker News Reader

Comment by readingnews | Hacker News Reader

I think OP failed to realize there are 0011 kinds of people in the world.

  0001) your average joe. He just wants a stamp.

  0010) You. You want some stamps, but you are not "into it".

  0011) Those guys at the store. 0001 and 0010 are rubbish and   should not be speaking to them, for they are elite stamp collectors, just like everyone else should be.

It is getting harder to just find people "into it". I am a hi-fi enthusiast. I also have advanced degrees in EE and Physics, but I try to not let that get in the way. Talking to people on hi-fi forums seems MUCH harder than say, 10 years ago (and I never left the forum). Now I am one of the silent lurkers.

My point is not to go "forums now suck", but I think that "real collectors" are too extreme now... hrm, perhaps just like everything else? Polarized?

View on HN

A friend recently pointed out that fandoms are like a fractal, and as you zoom in it becomes increasingly hardcore and dedicated.

The next layer on your list is probably the stamp collector that only loves a certain kind of stamp with some obscure feature and will talk your ear off about it. Probably something like how only the stamps made in a specific year by one company are any good because they use a highly specialized glue which really makes it the pinnacle of stamp technology. A real "they just don't make em like they used to".

People become obsessed with things to such an extreme degree that they end up drowning out anyone without an equivalent level of dedication. It becomes a problem when people chose to play status games instead of just enjoying their hobby.

> A friend recently pointed out that fandoms are like a fractal, and as you zoom in it becomes increasingly hardcore and dedicated.

Almost everything is like that. Turtles...

I noticed this with history. You can go from general history to people who can tell you where a WW2 jeep engine was built based on its serial number.

I also found that unlike with most hobbies, I find history talk much more civilised all around. People are eager to share, and generally willing to accept well-sourced disagreement.

>People become obsessed with things to such an extreme degree that they end up drowning out anyone without an equivalent level of dedication. It becomes a problem when people chose to play status games instead of just enjoying their hobby.

It's true in academia and in technical fields as well. As you become an expert, details most people skip over become very important parts of your day.

The real difference is between people who disdain you for not knowing as much as they do about some issue, those who enthusiastically try to educate you, and those who recognize not everyone cares about it as much as they do and tries to speak to whatever level you are at (or slightly above it if you've expressed a desire to go deeper.)

https://xkcd.com/1095/

"Human subcultures are nested fractally. There's no bottom."

Some forums exemplify the long tail of hobby fanaticism. What used to be a couple people in the back of the convention that were hardcore is now a large group of those disparate people in a forum.

Sometimes you have to find a different forum. That's also why you'll see multiple subreddits for the same thing. They embody different aspects of the topic and draw people that associate with that aspect. Sometimes some of the same people in both, but the purport themselves differently depending on where they are.

> Now I am one of the silent lurkers.

So that's where you guys went.

I remember how forums used to always have a few extremely knowledgeable individuals that would post and give insights but for the most part would be pretty nice and humble. Sometimes they even worked in the industy. And a lot of times they wouldn't even comment until another user called them out.

Then the psuedo experts started showing up. They either overestimate their experience or just spent some time on wikipedia and think that they're an expert, and they make a point to pick apart every post they can. And even less knowledgeable posters will back the pseudo expert because they are relentless and are able to sound smart.

It is the same thing in synth and guitar circles. Maybe now we have just discussed all of these things as nauseum for so long the only way to move the discussion forward is this extremeness.

I just found this out the hard way. After playing acoustic for ~15 years, I decided my birthday this year was the time to join the world of electric guitars. I joined several guitar related FB groups, expecting them to be as civil as the tabletop gaming groups I belong to (my other hobby). I quickly found out how wrong I was, it seemed there was no topic too mundane to turn into a mud slinging gate keeper competition. Not sure what it is about musical instruments that makes it that way.

I own an electric cello that I occasionally play and used to take lessons with. Back when I was looking for a teacher, I had a hard time finding anyone who'd let me use it during lessons. Most of them wanted me to rent a wooden cello.

I get that there are a lot of bad electric cellos out there, and there are some good electrics that are bad for beginners. But, mine is a Yamaha SVC-100 [0]. It's a professional-worthy instrument, even if most professionals don't use it. It has all the correct touch points as a regular cello, and it responds like a normal cello, so, as far as learning goes, it's just fine.

With cello people, I think it's a sense of conservatism or something. I didn't really want to rent an instrument, so, I kept looking until I found someone who would just let me play my own. The guy I found was amazing, and owned his own electric. He also played cello in a rock band. I'm sure all those other cello teachers were fine, but I had a blast with this guy, and I'm glad I found him.

[0]: https://www.yamaha.com/en/about/innovation/collection/detail...

Which strap lock sounds best? I hear schallers don't resonate well.

there are people who are super into things and will discuss fine grades of distinctions and super snobby sounding criteria with fellow enthusiasts, but will also appreciate and encourage someone who just wants to dabble.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com