We're getting into things I agree with here :lol:
Error said:
This is just a personal gripe, and Im not picking out anyone for it, but it bugs the hell out of me when enthuiasts wear shirts of rides. It really makes us stick out and makes it look luke "oh, we know we're better than you, just look what we rode!"
Granted, in some cases its more acceptable, like running out of clothes or needing a quick change. I know Im guilty of this, too.
I agree, kind of. It's something I want to get on a high horse about, but I just don't care enough :lol:
It's like when you go to a gig and everyone is wearing the tee-shirt of the band you're going to see. We
know you like the band, you just paid a fortune to come here and see them. It's not like it's a great conversation starter "hey, I see you like these guys too? Wow, it's a small world isn't it?" It's an attitude that comes from the goons that used to bother me at uni who believed personality came from wearing a tee-shirt or having a pin-badge. No, personality is that ability to create a conversation and interact with it, not just by putting "I like this cool thing" on your clothing.
So for park gear, it really depends. If you've travelled a lot and park gear makes up a greater part of your clothing (like band tees do my clothing) then there's nothing really wrong with it. Though I'd be mildly saddened to see somebody wearing a tee from the park they're in at that time - but if they have personality, who cares?
nadroJ said:
Holier-than-thou enthusiasts for instance: "You LIKE Hydra? What in the hell are you smoking, that ride is TERRIBLE'"
"Yes, but, I enjoyed i-"
"AWFUL THE WORST THING EVER. YOU'RE SO STUPID FOR LIKING IT. NOBODY WILL AGREE WITH YOU!"
Lol, like, I don't care? And I enjoyed the stand-up Togo at KD and I don't care who knows it!
There's a fine line between being heavily opinionated and completely disregarding another's opinion. I hope I walk it just well enough :lol: I think it's fine as long as:
a) You have a very clear and understandable reason for your opinion.
b) You can accept that somebody else may not feel the same as you (which you get if you get a) right ).
c) It's done in humour to deliberately wind people up :angel:
nadroJ said:
I hate the enthusiast attitude that the GP are stupid assholes who don't know anything, and the attitude than parks should treat enthusiasts like they're the Pope or something? Nah, face it, we're just geeks who congregate in large numbers ;] What's worse is when you get chatting to some GP at a park (especially when we're in a large group) and they'll say something like....I dunno, they've been on Bizarro at SFNE, which is the tallest in the world! Like, yeah, it's horrifically wrong but I tend to just let people get on with it. I don't see the point of being like no that's wrong, so and so is the biggest and I've been on it and blah blah. They were just trying to have harmless conversation and it turns it into this like....weird elitist issue now. Nah.
Absolutely. We ARE the GP, just slightly better educated in terms of rides/parks (and even then, probably not a lot more). We're going back to that whole personality and being able to hold a conversation thing though again.
nadroJ said:
When enthusiasts big up a ride to the point that it becomes ludicrous, only leading to obvious disappointment.
Worse than that are people who can't ride a ride blank without letting opinions blur their judgement - they're the worst
Martyn B said:
And that brings me onto no.2: Fanboys. Its as if this is like football, but where fans of certain parks have to automatically HATE the closest big park to their beloved heavenly place. Its so, so childish.
We're all enthusiasts for a reason, so why hate a park, and its coasters, just because its not your local/fav park?
It's a very human thing unfortunately. I'm not entirely sure how to put this, I do it better in real life :lol:
A lot of people over the years have 'left' CF, citing bullies, obnoxious people, etc, etc, etc. Yet when you look, it tends to be people who are massive fans of a very specific and limited number of parks. The issue (I believe) is simple that as CF expanded and became less local and more global, and opinionated (okay, see Jordan's post :lol: ) people found more and more faults with the "local faves". It's only natural that as you expand your horizons, you reorder things to fit your new world view. However, it's all down to personality. Some people want to be constantly expanding, people like me who have a very limited attention span and demand new entertainment all the time. We're bad fanboys because we just want the fun and don't care how it reaches us.
Others love to go right into the minutiae of things and to really immerse themselves completely and to love every tiny detail and every wisp of knowledge or fun that can be extracted from one thing. When you get that into something, although you can see faults, it's completely over-ridden by your joy for the thing.
You see it in sport, gaming consoles, countries, religion, etc, etc. There's not really anything wrong with this attitude and you end up with real experts who are very knowledgeable and helpful about what they are fans of. The problem comes when there's not enough give and you end up with people with a wider view being flippant and those with the narrower view a little sensitive because people just don't know as much as they do and don't understand. It's very much an "I care", "well I don't" head butting.
