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How about this?
You bought the most expensive gear for a hobby you don’t yet know much about? I’ve met many in this hobby, and have never met anyone this dedicated! Good on you, mate! Can you keep me posted on your progress? I’m genuinely interested! Let me know if you need any help or advice, as I’d be ecstatic to help!
I hate these ~/mike types of gatekeeping bullshitters. People in a hobby being excited about newcomers to the hobby, is the reason we still have hobbies.
In some cases a hobby becoming more “mainstream” can also find it being suddenly overwhelmed by those that make it less fun - or less affordable - for others. Sometimes more people can make it more affordable later on (mass production) but supply and demand is also a thing in the mid-term.
If a kinda niche hobby becomes more popular temporarily, there’s also the chance that waiting it out will score you some good barely-used gear for cheap as those that buy and try decide it’s not for them.
If a kinda niche hobby becomes more popular temporarily, there’s also the chance that waiting it out will score you some good barely-used gear for cheap as those that buy and try decide it’s not for them.
Thats exactly what’s happening in Germany with indoor weed growtents at the moment. We legalized homegrown weed in April, which caused a huge wave of people buying new equipment for double the regular price because of such high demand, and now suddenly people realize how much work it is and that small mistakes can easily ruin your harvest. So now the marked is slowly starting to be overflow with used equipment
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just had to bring up Linux, didn’t you?
Linux is what I thought of when I saw ~/mike. What else could that mean?
Oh, and I use Arch, BTW.
But if they get into it, it will make it less likely I’ll be able to buy their equipment from them later for cheap.
Also, the same type of people who go out and buy the most expensive crap in their new hobby are also usually the ones who talk like they know everything about the hobby and want to explain it to you.
It’s really common advice to not start with the cheapest gear. Yes a lot of us learned to play on dime store guitars but would have suffered less with a quality instrument. The same is true for just about everything.
gearsluts
beautiful, succinct.
immaculate thank you
What do you mean you didn’t buy a Canon 1 series? That point and shoot is a PoS you loser. 😝
I’ve heard “gear whore,” as well as harsher q-slur that makes it rhyme
Why do you think you’d need to not sensor yourself with whore, but can’t say queer?
On a side note, it rhymes, but it doesn’t really make as much sense as slut or whore.
I used one but not the other because my best interpretation of modern social sensibilities is that “whore” is not considered terribly offensive when it’s directed outside of its more literal sense, whereas “queer” is only acceptable in positive discussion of non-heteronormativity.
The second gear- usage just comes from a time (and communities behind the times) where the slur is used more broadly to mean “anybody I don’t like.”
“Gear queer”? Seems like a tongue twister. I thought “queer” was reclaimed or something like that, dunno if that’s the case.
I feel very personally called out by this as someone with ADHD lmao. Do not look in the closet of my craft/game room.
Eh, slutshaming, misogyny vibes
what about gear guzzler or something, i dunno i wish gear dragon or gear god didnt make the sound cool
also gear geek ig
Men are the biggest gear sluts so I’m fine with turning the misogyny around.
Thats uh, not how it works.
besides itd correlate more with wealth than gender
Depending on the hobby, this is some fucked up gatekeeping.
My first thought was riding a motorcycle as a hobby, and that is one activity that many people severely underestimate how much expensive gear you should be wearing for your safety before you even consider doing it.
Helmet, jeans, and a tank top. Psh, easy.
You forgot flip flops.
With the caveat that, if you can read my tank top, the bitch fell off.
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Motorcycle example: buying a brand new 1000cc before you even know if you want to ride
Buy hards?
This is what I see suggested every time this meme is reposted, so I guess that’s the right answer
I like this one, but I’ve heard the term whales for gaming communities. Hobby whale is probably my go-to
Whales is the industry term in gaming lol. I do like buyhard though.
Well that’s just perfect
Perfection
What about “Well researched hobbyist”
Sometimes the cheapest option is so much worse than just getting the right gear from the beginning.
Yeah the attitude of negativity against this is basically “you aren’t really into my hobby until you’ve spent twice as much money by starting with the crappy equipment and upgrading when you realize its crap”.
Or the beginner gear makes the hobby super tedious and difficult. Who knows if you would’ve liked it with proper tools instead of trying to make it work with a shitty, poorly working set up.
I don’t think people will judge you for not getting the worst stuff. As a cyclist I’m judging the person who hasn’t ridden in a decade and decides to buy a carbon fiber bike with all the coolest custom stuff, not the person who buys a steel or aluminum bike from a well respected shop. The Walmart bikes are better than walking but there’s a big jump there and it’s in reliability. The top of the line carbon fiber frame is less reliable, but it weighs less and as such high level riders and racers will see benefits there. A newb should buy a steel frame of an appropriate size from someone who can help make sure it’s the right bike for them. That’s the well researched hobbyist.
Yeah but the TOP end MOST expensive gear is far different from the “right gear”.
How about “people supporting my hobby”? People buying better gear (be it climbing gear, better bikes, airbrush kits for models, or whatever) show manufacturers that people want improved gear which ultimately raises the baseline quality of gear in general.
Real life isn’t a video game where we each have to progress up a skill tree to “earn” better gear.
Maybe try engaging with the newbie with the fancy gadgets and making a friend who shares your hobby?
But how am I supposed to feel better about myself when I see someone who can spend more money on my hobby than me?
You can be the guy who shows him how to actually use that fancy equipment he spent so much money on.
People buying stuff also makes for a healthy secondary market. 90% of my brewing gear is 2nd hand.
A lot of my camera gear is second hand too. It’s a great way to save some serious $$. As an added bonus, some of my “used” gear was very lightly used by their previous owner.
There was definitely a dude into photography in my old neighborhood. The pawn shop was absolutely filled with incredibly cheap lenses with clearly very little use.
Thank you for this comment. I’ve seen nothing but negativity on Lemmy all day
Yeah, it’s feeling a bit like Reddit lately.
I interpret it differently. I have seen plenty of people putting up huge barriers of entry for themselfes before trying out a new hobby. They like the idea of a new hobby and try to hold themselves hostage with a huge investment, or in sad cases overspend because they go in badly informed. “Once I have spend so much money it’s impossible I won’t be able to motivate myself to keep going” oh no, it required more effort than buying stuff, I gave it away… I think persistance is indeed more important than the best gear. Get going and borrow/second hand what you need until you know you have the routine to make better equipment worthwhile. Get to know fellows who can help you make informed decisions after a few sessions. The climbing shoes in your basement don’t help climbing halls to stay open. The table saw you never use doesn’t help wood demand and availability in your area.
You certainly aren’t wrong. Persistence is almost always more important than “the right gear”, but we shouldn’t hold it against people just joining our hobbies who buy nice gear and try to be their friends (unless they’re assholes about having the best stuff ofc). If they do end up getting into it fantastic! You have a new friend who likes the same hobby. If they don’t, maybe they’ll give you some of their better gear because you were cool and tried to help them get into the hobby.
My main point is to just be welcoming to newbies of all stripes. We were all in their shoes at one point so we know it can suck when someone is being elitist and unhelpful. Be the guy who helps out the new guy because you were the new guy.
I have seen plenty of people putting up huge barriers of entry for themselfes before trying out a new hobby
Oh yeah my mom is just like that. She wants to try out stuff, but doesn’t because getting into any hobby is “expensive” and she won’t put the cost upfront before knowing if she’ll like it or not. And she ends up doing nothing. She’s retired and does absolutely nothing. It’s heartbreaking. And I can’t event convince her that if she wants to try out something, she could either ask for stuff on christmas/birthdays or go for a cheap, janky setup first and upgrade later.
OK but that is not what threads like this are about, that’s just post hoc justification for emotional responses
There’s also the flip side of this - clueless beginners buying needlessly expensive things (not to them because they’re beginners but in general), in turn telling manufacturers that there’s a market for needlessly expensive things. But hopefully the people with more sense outweigh them so that the market regulates itself.
Better question… how do we find our own self-esteem without denigrating others for making choices that are absolutely none of our concern?
I vote cowpattycrusaders
Eh, a little gatekeeping is good. Especially when it prevents people with more dollars than sense from overrunning the culture of an enthusiast group.
That justification is pathetically weak.
Elaborate. Is your position that it is never appropriate to control access to something? That microcultures aren’t worth preserving? That people with money deserve to do anything they want without judgment? Or do you just think I’m being disingenuous and used a commonly unpopular group to defend my position?
If it’s a dangerous hobby then this becomes a safety concern.
But the most expensive gear isn’t necessarily more dangerous than the entry level gear, and in some cases, may even be safer.
Right, but the issue is that if they don’t know what they are doing then the gear is irrelevant. I’ll give an example. If I’m skiing and I see someone hiking up to the off-piste bowl run in brand new topline gear, and they are visibly struggling to do the hike, I can ssume they are inexperienced and might really hurt themselves or crash into someone else.
FPV drones and the surge in popularity of BnF quads. You used to have to at least know how to solder it all together.
Oh god. You can buy one on Temu for $10. I’m guessing they overheat and explode.
The ones I’m thinking of are carbon fiber bodied, weigh about 600-800g, and easily hit 100mph/160kph. Usually we recommend newbies fly a few dozen hours in a simulator first but seeing people post pics with cuts from propellers going up their arm was a semi regular occurrence on the subreddit.
I’m in. How do I get started? Please and thank you 😁
I saw this posted elsewhere and the best one I saw was “Buyhard”
Well there it is.
Paying for expensive gear at the beginning may not be a bad idea, given the possibility: should you quit the hobby and try to sell your stuff, no one is going to buy your knockoff cheap equipment, while more quality stuff holds its value
If you can afford it, absolutely.
There’s also an argument to be made for good equipment making a hobby more accessible. Musical instruments especially. It’s almost always much harder to make a cheap musical instrument sound nice than it is a good one. From clarinets to guitars to synths. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the people who quit an instrument do so because they’re trying to learn on a $100 Walmart special, something that ironically would only sound good in the hands of a professional who wouldn’t touch it in the first place.
I once bought some cheap harmonicas and after about. 10 minutes was like “yeah, these are total crap and won’t be any fun.” So I gave them away for free to someone who knew exactly what they were and bought a real one.
You will also often have a better and more enjoyable experience with quality gear. Don’t start playing the guitar on a 120€ Squier if you can afford even a 300€ Harley Benton.
True, but in my experience Squier guitars (expecially the Affinity series) still hold their price better in the secondary market than Harley Benton’s.
Which is sad because I had a great experience with HB, but hey I guess having Fender’s endorsment on the headstock adds some valueThe Fender look is also so popular that it’s likely what people picture when they go look for a guitar. That may help with resale as they recognize it from musicians and want the same
Oh that’s that new “x”?! Tell me about it?!
Be excited people are joining your hobbies. Without people hobbies die.
In cycling we call them dentists.
But if someone is trying out one of my hobbies idgaf what gear they can afford. We all start somewhere.
Yeah I’ll admit i definitely think more highly of someone using a clearly modified bike as a newb, but it’s partly because I’m into the bicycle repair and recycling scene
We have one in Finnish “välineurheilija”. “Väline” is “sports equipment” and “urheilija” is athlete, so it’s literally just “equipmentathlete” and used derogatorily towarsd people who — instead of actually practicing — just show up in very expensive gear.
Has “couch expert”/“couch warrior” vibe.
Correct
If it was only easier to pronounce…
Wah-leh-neh (silent h’s and the first a is like in can and ant)
Oor-hey-leh-yuh
Okey that might not have helped at all, tbh.
Those people create the second hand market. Celebrate them.
I Scuba dive. Whenever I need a piece of gear, I buy used. Many times I have bought brand new gear for less than half retail. I like these people.
Yes and no. Coin collecting went through the roof during the pandemic. The result is that we’re now paying 2-3x the amount for the same coins as before covid. I welcome anyone to the hobby but I’ve had to cut back severely due to this.
I wouldn’t call collecting “buying gear”, what is and what isn’t gear depends on the hobby of course, but I don’t think coins can be gear
Maybe gatekeeping is a poor method to encourage beginners in your hobby? Perhaps it might be better to encourage them simply to avoid the worst quality cheapos. It’s nearly always better to learn on equipment that isn’t garbage. It cuts down on waste, and at least you can sell it if the hobby doesn’t work out.
And at least you won’t waste more money on having to upgrade later when you’re deemed ready. I’d rather learn on equipment I’m going to use for years than on something shit and have to upgrade shortly after.
