Every hobby is going to have it’s hard core adherents who spend all their time obsessing over the little details of what they collect and/or engage in.
But, from my experience Civil War re-enactors, by and large, seem as a group to be especially serious about their hobby, obsessing over the details on their insignia, whether or not their camping conditions are true to what was experienced in the 1860s, using the right type of powder for their guns. Almost every re-enactor I’ve met is like this, to the point of being snooty toward any other re-enactors who don’t quite live up to their standards.
So what other hobbies tend to draw an especially dedicated bunch?
Audiophiles can be absolutely batshit insane about their sound equipment and often resist any blind testing regarding the things that they believe. There is a whole industry based on separating them from their cash because of this odd trait.
Railfans. End of discussion.
Golfers. As one CBS reporter noted yesterday, all golfers think everyone golf and would invite him for a round without thinking to ask if he played, which he doesn’t.
Like the $35,000 turntable that does not come with a tone arm, which can run another $15,000. $50,000 for a record player.
I love golf. I play every chance I get. I admit, I instictively think everyone should want to play golf, even though I know they don’t. I routinely invite folks, unsure of whether they actually play. I think maybe they don’t play because they’ve never been invited, here’ the chance. No clubs, no problem, got an extra set. It can be frustrating sometimes (a lot of times), but it can also be a lot of fun. I will admit that I do not like playing with ultra compettive golfers, especially gamblers. I don’t think they accurately reflect golf as a whole. I just think the game can attract some assholes.
Is that the one that levitates on magnets?
Here’s an interesting thread that covered a lot of this. LOTS of responses.
I found out that one of my friends was a serious Titanic buff once. I’m not sure if “Titanic” is a hobby but I think some of them have gotten down to the level of naming the individual rivets in the hull. The IMDb “goofs” section for the Cameron movie is like a dissertation in minutiae:
“First Officer Murdoch is shown lowering Collapsible C lifeboat (the one with Ismay in it). It was actually Chief Officer Wilde who lowered this boat.”
“The Palm Court’s size, color, and length are correct as is the kind of wicker furniture, but the color of the wicker was not the same as the first class reception room’s; it was white.”
“All of the double doors on D deck, the ones passengers pass through to the elevators and to the first class dining room, are incorrect. The real ones on the Titanic all had glass and the handles were further up in the middle attached to rectangle metal plates.”
Railfans can be intensely obsessive (perhaps most engineering-oriented hobbies are?). It’s conceivable that audiophiles could be described as “obsessive”. They’re certainly insane, but I’m not certain that “willing to spend lots of money” really equals obsessive. Cheap computer flight simulation accessories start at $100 and work up from there; people who go all the way into machining panel components and putting together a replica F-16 cockpit live at the intersection of expensive and obsessive.
I don’t pretend that I do not look at these people with envy, though…
From the Onion: “Walking Sports Database Scorns Walking Sci-Fi Database.”
Lots of hobbies have people who are very into it. I tend to think of these people as addicted just like an alcoholic without most of the problems you get from drinking.
Recently in some thread or another, a poster mentioned an obsessive model train enthusiast who he described as having roughly the social skills of a garbage can. Something about that post made me break into spontaneous fits of giggles for about three days.
Same one. Apparently eliminates machine noise.
Yeah, I had to look to make sure this wasn’t a zombie. My vote is the same as from the previous thread; ham radio operators.
i think any hobby that takes a large investment of brains, time or money can fit.
And I still maintain, genealogists. No other hobby, NO other, has people who are so obsessed AND who think YOU are interested in hearing them talk about it.
The operative words are “on average”. Every hobby will have it’s batshit insane contingent and plenty of resources to reinforce that here in the internet era. Most sports and gaming hobbies have a huge proportion of casual fans which lowers the average crazy obsessiveness of the group.
Linux zealots. Not everyone who uses Linux, of course, just the ones who won’t shut up about it.
I used to work with an engineer who got let go (not sure if he was actually fired, or just the first one to be laid off) at least partially because he refused to use Windows. He brought in his own desktop computer and would only use his company computer to get his mail, since you had to use Outlook for that. AFAIK, he wouldn’t even run Wine.
Imagine a gang of the most devious, obsessive compulsive, psychopaths ever to infest Earth’s surface—the type of ruffians who induce the blood of brave souls to chill fast; cause great predatory beasts to retreat in horror; make zombies seem like kindly heart-on-sleeve wearers by comparison. Imagine all that, multiplied by a factor of ten…only then can you begin to comprehend the alien life-forms known as collectors of thimbles. :eek:
Don’t forget a super premium power cord that preserves the voltage integrity of the electrical current (or something). Just disregard the 50 miles of plain cable the electricity passed through before it got to your house, it’s the last 24 inches that really matter.