Funny observation about web forums such as B&B...

[krevo]

I've been a member of a number of forums dating back to 1997-98. One thing I've noticed recently is how incredibly linked together we all are, whether or not we know it. The one thing we have in common is, the fact that we seek out others like us who are interested in very specific "niche" hobbies.

As an example:

I'm a member of an EDC forum, flashlight forum, cigar forum, watch forum, knife forum, gun forums, alcohol spirits forum, bbq forum etc.

Now, if I were post in Speakeasy right now about cigars, I'd get a page of people who regularly smoke cigars. If I made a thread about knives, yet again, 20+ people who know what a Chris Reeves Sebenza is (most of which just got done responding to the cigar thread) If I posted a thread about the best caliber for a carry pistol, I'd probably have 18 people from the knife thread chime in with .45 acp. I've noticed this phenomenon on about 8 different forums I read. Don't even get me started on swiss timepieces.

Some of the other forums, I've run into threads full of guys talking about wet shaving. I'm finding it hard to really make my point, but I guess it's that once you join a forum for a niche product like wetshaving, is it only a matter of time before you drool over some swiss watches, $350 dollar pocket knives, all original Colt 1911 pistols, boxes of Cuban cigars, $230 dollar bottles of Pappy Van Winkles?

After reading the hobbies thread, it's almost like once you go to one forum, you'll eventually become interested in a number of different "niche" hobbies you have to hide from your wife and RL friends And they're always the same:

- Guns
- Whiskey
- Cigars
- Knives
- Motorcycles
- Bikes
- Watches
- Shaving
- EDC
- Pipes

Basically anything expensive and manly

 

[moonshine44]

Personally, I already had the guns and bikes thing going before I found the shaving forum...

 

[krevo]

Personally, I already had the guns and bikes thing going before I found the shaving forum...

And likewise, I'm sure a shaver will eventually find a Gun Forum on the internet after he reads a thread here about CCW. It's like there's an epidemic of expensive man toys going on across the internet.

 

[Leche]

I belong to two forums, this one and a work related one. My posting here blows that one away though as I have a touch over 150 posts in the 3 years that I have been there. The only other forum I view is SRP if I can't find an answer here.

 

[DGS]

I started with fountain pens and watches (collecting and forums), then photography (mostly mechanical rangefinder cameras). I found that there was a common link between all of these wonderful things: mechanical, beautiful yet utilitarian objects that were put together by hand, usually decades ago, and had stood the test of time. Not only had they stood the test of time, they had done so so well that they were still better at their job than almost anything being made today. I think wet shaving is exactly like that; a return to the basics that we find are more satisfying and better than any new-fangled product on the market. Same with simple pleasures like a great cigar, great music, and a great single malt.

 

[Kratos]

Guns are not toys, sir! Neither are knives. No matter what our wives and girlfriends say. We have a pretty good spread among our members here.

 

[arghblech]

Oddly enough, the biggest life-change I've had from this forum maybe discovering chinese teas. I'm not planning on going back to that new-fangled shaving stuff but if I had to pick the shaves or the tea I'd probably pick the tea.

Go figure.

 

[kongjie]

I'm a member of an EDC forum, flashlight forum, cigar forum, watch forum, knife forum, gun forums, alcohol spirits forum, bbq forum etc.

Not to hijack but what do you recommend for a bbq forum?

 

[_JP_]

Not to hijack but what do you recommend for a bbq forum?

The SMF (Smoking Meat Forum).

I have to say that my forum experiences go back before they even existed in their present form. I still make use of a thing called Usenet, and I used to hang out on BBS's* all the time.

My experiences with other hobbies has taught me something about how folks get interested in stuff. The one big way seems to be reading about it. I saw that happen ten years back when I was involved with a fly fishing shop. People who had never tried it before came in because they had been reading stories about fly fishing, or saw the movie A River Runs Through It.

*In this case, BBS stands for Bulletin Board Service.

 

[The Knize]

Heaven help me. I am surely doomed. I will never make time to do any actual work and feed my family (or more accurately these days, feed the voracious school administrations!).

I basically agree with your points. I was going to say that some of the categories are not universal. Guns do not have much of a draw to me, seem too loaded (so to speak!) with symbolism for many people for me to want to be too involved, and seem expensive and a lot of hassle. (Knives I fully understand!) I am getting a little long in the tooth for motorcycles and when I was not so old and fragile the fact that the only people I knew in my age group for a long time that had died had done so on bikes was enough to discourage me, although I am fully attuned to the fun factor of motorcycles of all kinds.

I was going to dismiss "bbq," too, but then you said "Smoking Meats," which seems to go beyond what I think of as bbq, and I am absolutely solidly there.

Never really got the pipe thing either and in the modern day pipes just seem like too much hassle and too stinky. What is the use of taking up something that I could only enjoy in very specific places and that I would be "Jonesing for" the rest of the time. Which is an darned hypocritic (sp?) thing for me to say, as I sure can understand and have had the interest in cigars.

Teas; coffee, coffee brewing, and coffee roasting; fountains pens and things like oblique pens and Spencerian penmanship (if you do not know, you heard it hear first); fly fishing (if one has any access at all to any decent place to do it); cooking in general; wines and wine storage! (but not winemaking) and home brewing (maybe especially home brewing) probably all belong on your lists of interests. Maybe woodworking, too, although I sure do not have the skills or patience. (Maybe model trains and astronomy, too, but I shudder at just how high the nerd factor could go if we started down that path! No cult-like games either.)

I remember when usenet groups and things like Compuserve interest groups used to be very good and a lot like this forum, before they turned into full-time ...... advertisement sites. Have they actually fixed that somehow?

Also, I hesitate to ask, but just cannot help myself, what pray-tell is a "flashlight forum"?

 

[Cmaster03]

I know what a flashlight forum is, but that's one I draw the line on. I've used them and really like tactical lights, but haven't joined any flashlight forums yet.

Of course, I didn't think I would join a shaving forum, either.

Like the original poster said, I wouldn't be surprised that a large number of the guys here are into traditionally "guy" things like fine whiskies, guns, cigars, watches, bikes, etc.

I'm guilty as well, heck I even collect and write with old fountain pens.

Just a new guy here, but I can relate. I appreciate well made things of quality, and if they're old and have stood the test of time it's even better in my book.

Clyde

 

[ClubmanRob]

- Guns
- Whiskey
- Cigars
- Knives
- Motorcycles
- Bikes
- Watches
- Shaving
- EDC
- Pipes

Basically anything expensive and manly

I love all of those things (except bikes and pipes). I don't post or frequent any forums related to those subjects, though (except for other shaving/fragrance related forums). Despite my post count here, I'm not much of a forum-y kind of guy. What drew me here to B&B was the community, and even then I waited and lurked for at least a year or so before I ever started posting. The only other forums I frequent are classic gaming sites.

What's funny, is that someone asked me the other night why I didn't post at certain forums, and I really didn't have an answer. Then it hit me tonight as I was looking over a couple of cigar and snus tobacco forums, and I was amazed at the childish behavior and absolute vulgarity that permeated the forums I read. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but most of all the threads I read involved men that had to have been in their late forties and early fifties carrying on like third graders and hurling four letter insults at each other. THAT's the type of forum behavior that I'm accustomed to, and that's why I'm pretty picky at where I post.

Anyway, I guess my point is that while birds of a feather flock together, some are pretty picky about where they make their nests.

 

[FLTiger]

Anyway, I guess my point is that while birds of a feather flock together, some are pretty picky about where they make their nests.

Well said, sir!

 

[arghblech]

No cult-like games either.

As a kid who played the hell out of D&D who has become an adult, we shunned folks who couldn't draw the "reality line" even in middle school. There isn't anything wrong with game but you'll find plenty of people everywhere that can't tell the difference between the real world and imagination land *cough* *dan brown fanatics* *cough* *conspiracy theorists* *folks who trick out cheap japanese cars* *cough*

 

[thirdeye]

Yep, thanks to you fellas I've been hooked into Cigars and watches.....

And I thought I was spending to much money on wetshaving...

 

[The Knize]

Well said, sir!

Yeah, ditto, +1, word up, etc. I do not know how the folks that run this forum managed to do it or whether the stars just luckily aligned or whatever as to those that have signed to and participate (I would not have thought that shaving would have been the important element that would draw reasonable people in, but there are a lot of things I wouldn't have thought!), but it sure is an amazingly pleasant and reasonable place to hang out.

On some levels, call me naive or some kind of romantic or something, what I am more surprised about is how unpleasant most other foras seem to become after a short while. Are there just more silly-acting, over-heated folks out there than I notice in my day to day life anywhere, or is there something about an on-line forum that brings out the worst in folks that would be rationale and personable otherwise?

I do not know that I am the nicest, most leveled headed guy off-line, but I sure cannot remember every having a huge desire to go ballistic on an on-line forum about anything, much less a desire I would be unable to supress.

 

[Kratos]

On some levels, call me naive or some kind of romantic or something, what I am more surprised about is how unpleasant most other foras seem to become after a short while. Are there just more silly-acting, over-heated folks out there than I notice in my day to day life anywhere, or is there something about an on-line forum that brings out the worst in folks that would be rationale and personable otherwise?

I do not know that I am the nicest, most leveled headed guy off-line, but I sure cannot remember every having a huge desire to go ballistic on an on-line forum about anything, much less a desire I would be unable to supress.

I believe the anonymity of the web and not being in the other person's presence allows all the cussing and trash-talk. Most of the things these people say to wach other they wouldn't dream of saying to someone in real life. Just like how a lot of sissy punks have balls of steel when behind the wheel of a car.

There is a marked absence of that here, and any other forum I spend time on. I deal with enough of that in real life. I don't want to read a bunch of schoolgirl name-calling and meaningless threats on-line. This is a rare place on the internet. The mods here do a good job of keeping things in order, and we don't hesitate to police our own a lot of the time.

 

[jazzman]

I believe the anonymity of the web and not being in the other person's presence allows all the cussing and trash-talk. Most of the things these people say to wach other they wouldn't dream of saying to someone in real life. Just like how a lot of sissy punks have balls of steel when behind the wheel of a car.

There is a marked absence of that here, and any other forum I spend time on. I deal with enough of that in real life. I don't want to read a bunch of schoolgirl name-calling and meaningless threats on-line. This is a rare place on the internet. The mods here do a good job of keeping things in order, and we don't hesitate to police our own a lot of the time.

It has been scientifically proven that 99.9% of everything that has ever been posted on the internet is wrong, offensive, or a waste of time. (If you don't believe me, just look it up on Google.) The rest is here at B&B.

 

[krevo]

The SMF (Smoking Meat Forum).

I have to say that my forum experiences go back before they even existed in their present form. I still make use of a thing called Usenet, and I used to hang out on BBS's* all the time.

My experiences with other hobbies has taught me something about how folks get interested in stuff. The one big way seems to be reading about it. I saw that happen ten years back when I was involved with a fly fishing shop. People who had never tried it before came in because they had been reading stories about fly fishing, or saw the movie A River Runs Through It.

*In this case, BBS stands for Bulletin Board Service.

Same here! BBS' on a 2400 baud modem

 

[Confilo]

You forgot the ladies