Radishfever wrote:Oscar,
Thanks for reply, have decided to stay away from that forum. From information I received today I will not be ever partaking.
Going to hang low and just make new posts. I don't think I will ever ask any more questions on this forum for some time. Got to see how I feel later.
Can you imagine what he would say about one of my $2,000 lenses. Would drive him nuts! I have a lens that costs as much as you Invertig. And he is worried about a $200 metal Fab Horse.
Just in case you read this, I kinda understand how you feel. Us hobbyists are almost like outsider's-looking-in in welding forums. 99% of the time, professional welders do things because they have to out of job necessity, so when they see hobbyists spending their own hard earned money on things they don't always need, it's sometimes very difficult for them to grasp the logic/reasoning behind it. I hardly ask questions myself, because I spend 99.5% of my time on welding forums reading, and perhaps 0.2-0.5% asking questions.
You will always get responses that have that same "tone", in the sense of
"why are you doing that if you don't need it?" kind of thing. The vast majority of the time it's all friendly, but it all comes from the missing information that is usually too detailed to post in the original query, so most new posts are necessarily shortened to avoid telling one's life-story in every single new post. I just try to shrug it off, explain a little bit, and move on. I can't and won't explain every single time how I came to be in the position that I am now, because there will always be someone new to the forum who won't know about it.
As for expensive hobbies, yes that one is one I deal with on a constant basis, for what ever reason. I don't know if people automatically think hobbyist = not too informed and relatively low-income, or whatever, but a lot of people in general, not just in the forums, can't easily relate to me. I'm relatively young (40), not married, no kids, make a good living, no health problems (other than sleep apnea), not too much debt, no gray hairs (◄ that's the best part, lol). I suppose it's a rare combination of traits that leaves people literally bewildered as to how I can own what I own that they can't justify. Some people can't see how it just boils down to everyone being different than themselves. Yes, I like to brag at times, but hey, I worked my way through college, and I work damn hard for my money, nothing gets handed to me. If I wanna spoil myself rotten, it's of no one's concern other than myself. The rest of the time it's just jealousy.
It reminds me of a George Carlin [sarcastic] punch-line. I can't remember the joke, but it went something like
"anybody that drives faster than you is a raging lunatic, and anybody that drive slower than you is a freaking moron, because you're the only person on the road that knows what he is doing".
If you read between the lines, I think his message was that, people can sometimes only see
their situation, and it is difficult for them to see others' situations that might be
drastically different from theirs. Or they do see that others' situation is different, but still can't grasp
why. There's just too much of a disparity in their opinions/views/beliefs/perogatives/etc that they will never "get it", and it happens to all of us in all aspects of life. Best you can do is to try and shrug it off, because you'll never get the "raging lunatic" to slow down his driving, and you'll never get the "freaking moron" to speed up to at least the speed limit. In their eyes, what they do is normal, for they see everyone else as either a "freaking moron" or a "raging lunatic", and round and round we go!
As for welding web, I like it there. I can take it if they can!
+1