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.
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?
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.
I have an idea, focus on what you like and don't leave any time to tear people down because it's just shitty and pointless and ruins hobbies for everyone.
Fuck off Mike. Let people enjoy themselves however they want.
We used to call them Ag-Nags (AGNG’s)… all gear, no game. It was a derogatory term, but it was more reserved for the type of person that would go buy the best gear and never invest the time to learn how to use it or why it had value other than the sticker price.
Go out and learn something new. Enjoy something new. If you have money to buy gear, that’s fine… but know that most people that pioneered whatever sport/hobby your delving into did a lot more with a lot less. Enjoy it for what it is and worry about the gear less… sometimes the squeeze makes the juice that much better.
Is this for like, someone who buys the biggest social media site for top dollar and then doesn't really know what to do with it ?
Although gatekeeping is a bad attitude, I think the worst part of beginning a hobby is not getting super expensive gear as a beginner, but getting the wrong super expensive gear as a beginner.
As a homebrewer, my super janky setup has barely evolved in the 8 years I've been in the hobby. It's a very hands-on process, hard to control for temps and most of my tools are either upcycled or built from hardware store materials, but I know exactly how it works and can let my imagination run wild when creating recipes. Plus, it's fun to spend an afternoon with friends drinking beer while actually brewing beer. I see a lot of people splurging for a Brewfather and losing interest pretty quickly because everything is automated, so your "hobby" is mainly waiting for a timer to beep, or people "investing" in kits and making barely-better-than-low-end commercial beer.
I'm not really into photography anymore but when I started out, I was shooting film because camera bodies were super cheap back then, people discarded them because they were only interested in the lenses. People were buying 800-1000€ m4/3 cameras in droves and put expensive vintage lenses on them to get that "instagram look", which is useless except for driving up the price of good lenses because the sensor is so small that most of the character of the lens is lost. With a bit of patience, you could snag a full-frame, used Sony a7 for less money and actually getting what you paid for in the lens.
"Yuppie" is already a word.
There's a trade-off, depending on the hobby, I guess. For some hobbies, very cheap gear won't even work properly. "Buy once, cry once," is something I hear often.
Victims. Of salespeople.
I love them because I can buy greatly discounted gear after they return it or consign it. And I never see them back where I go, they couldn't make it.
Most hobbies started using what was available. The activity arose from the impetus.
Mountain climbers used sneakers. Gary Fisher used dirtbike parts on his mountain bikes at first.
All the expensive cushions and benches in the world won't meditate for you. Likewise, worshipping a meditator won't help you.
At some point, you have to do it.
My buddies and I used to go paintballing in the woods near us. We'd throw on layers and grab our basic guns and go have fun. We invited this guy we knew from school, and dude went to the store and bought a paintball carbine, and a Gilly suit and just sat there picking everyone off. We didn't invite him a second time
Not me sitting here with hundreds of dollars in TTRPG manuals when my playgroup only meets once a week and we are in the middle of a pathfinder campaign.
I feel particularly called out because I spent all day today reading Mothership manuals and adventures and I have no idea when I'll get to play it.
In rock climbing we use “Gumby” no clue why.
EDIT: I’d like to clarify I agree about the gatekeeping this reinforces and this really doesn’t get used often, and if anything it sees more use among friends for silly reasons, like missing a Velcro on a shoe or something. Like I said I don’t know the origin because I don’t really engage with the “joke” that much.
Think it's the trap that if you continue with the hobby, all the starter gear is useless and all the money could have been spent on better equipment.
I paint miniatures. Not as often it as much as I would like to because of dividing my time between work, two year old and chores, but I have had the hobby for the last six years. I have yet to purchase an airbrush, and I can get a perfectly decent starter set for lets say 20 USD. But I can also get a better set with high end compressor, better paint gun.for 60 USD. I know that if I keep getting better at using the airbrush I will eventually get the high end stuff, why not "save" money and get it right away.
No we don't, we need less gatekeeping
I bought the Bambu P1S 3d printer. I've never 3d printed and knew very little except for the dozen or so YouTube videos recommending it and how to use it, learned about filaments and everything else I now know I learned on the way.
I could have gotten one of a dozen <$500 3D printers. But would that just leave me wanting in the future? Will I be stuck with a cheaper tool after learning and experiencing the ceiling of it?
I see this mentality working on people who aren't interested in a hobby enough to justify a large purchase, people just trying out and see if they're interested kinda thing. But what if the subpar gear turns the person off from their poor experience?
Rich poser back in my day
I've heard "wallet warrior" been thrown around in gaming communities for people who just pay for high end accounts without having any skill to back it up.
In the UK we say "All the gear and no idea"
"Golfers"
I hate the disparaging of gatekeeping as inherently bad. Mountain biking has seen an uptick of people riding electric fat bikes, essentially just dirt bikes. It's bad enough when beginners are using normal bikes to ride in wet muddy conditions on trails that can't handle it or skidding into corners, it does so much more damage when they're tearing up the trail with a heavy motorized bike with wide tires. More gatekeeping would keep the trails in better conditions.
I am so guilty of this!
Granted, if it is a new activity or hobby where rookies don't destroy gear, it makes sense to me. It lets me skip the constant upgrading as my skills increase.
I'll buy a zillion dollar airbrush and learn to use it, and feel incentivised to take care of it. I didn't do the same with my first Jeep when I got into offloading. My first one was a cheap junker that I could roll if I did a rookie move.
As for a slur for people like me....I dunno, whatever makes you feel superior I guess. If it is creative or funny enough, I'll happily adopt it and use it 👍
I usually just refer to them as having "more money than brains"....
In cabinetmaking my teachers used to say "doctors and lawyers" and it stuck to my life outside cabinetmaking. In music there's so many people who can hardly play or only play in their basements who have gear my gigging punk ass would never even think of owning. I went to a pedal Expo recently and I had no idea what half the stuff was and I play in a couple of pretty successful bands.
Whales. Although whales applies to people who just spend a ton of money regardless of experience.
I had a coworker who was a sneaker head (traded in limited edition shoes). They called people who bought bad deals or was generally inexpirenced "Timmys" because the persons orders looked like a kid with their parents credit card.
In the cycling community, we call them “dentists”.
Isn't that just a noob?
This word already exist.
richginners, P2W hobbyists, hof-rince's.
Mike sounds like a douche to be honest. Fuck Mike.
Where I'm from, it's called a showbag because it looks expensive but there's nothing inside. All the gear; no talent.
When I skated we called them posers.
Warhammerers?
The initial buy-in, especially at a Games Workshop/ Warhammer store is astronomical.
You'll need paintbrushes to start - here, try these, the most expensive paintbrushes you'll ever buy. And paints too, how about our mindboggling range of expensive paints?
When I took up mini painting again as an adult, with dirt-cheap acrylic paints and brushes, and achieved far better results than I ever did as a kid with the "proper" stuff, it was a real eye-opener.
Invited a new guy to MTG Commander night. Showed up with a deck full of expensive cardboard because a deck he found online had all of them. Cool dude and still plays with us with more reasonably priced cardboard now.
Tourists.
Payforwinners.
But yes, if it doesn't specifically hurt the community, then prob don't gatekeep.
fast pass tourists
IDK. When I pick up a new hobby I try and go mid tier. I'm not going to buy the 1000 dollar gear but also not the 50 dollar gear.
Though I did go and buy a way too expensive camera a few years ago. But it was more a return to a hobby than a new one. Don't regret the purchase, don't plan on upgrading any time soon.
You call them people with ADHD :p
I'm kind of surprised nobody has suggested "tryhard".
Mr. Big shoes
Gear dads. At least in the music gear world
Very surprising to see so many peole lashing out at "gatekeeping". Frugality is a very important thing (something something global warming?), a beginner can not get any meaning out of the very best gear, diminishing returns are a thing.
Wasting resources because you are unable to resist the temptation of marketing is dumb, selfish and harmful.
No, of course I'm not talking about safety gear. No, I'm not advocating for buying the cheapest stuff.
All the gear, no idea
Dilettante
The opulent newb.
There is a term borrowed from the finance world that may or may not apply
"Whale"
Pay to fail
Not exactly, but strong overlap between this and "gear heads." They obsess over the tech, specs, and ofc gear. Ask them about anything subtler than that and it's clear they don't actually care about the activity in itself - just getting swept up in hype cycles and flexing on other gear heads.
Can also mean people that are really into cars or motorcycles, but I don't think it's as pejorative in that case?
Not to bash on newbies, but it's definitely a thing. It's really only sad if it causes them to waste their money on something that ultimately isn't for them. If they're actually enjoying themselves then that's cool.
Anyway I love gatekeeping on this kind of shit because I have a privation fetish, so grain of salt on my opinion.
Gotta love that undertone of jealousy:D
Personally, I live by ‘buy the gear that lets you grow in your new hobby’. You don’t usually need to buy the most expensive item, but you certainly should not buy the cheap shit either.
Take photography for example. You don’t need a $5000 pro camera to get started, but at leat something better than a simple point and shoot would be preferable to start. Like a decent prosumer DSLR. That way you can learn manual photography, how to edit raw, you can experiment with lenses, etc.
I’ve never once regretted buying better gear than I needed. I’m still thanking past me for investing a bit more in things that are still useful to me today.
Anxiety?
Pay Pig? Whale?
For guitarists definitely 'wooden heads' cus different woods are their outlet.
Barney or kook—- surf term for newbs who ruin a surfing experience; feel superior, vastly overestimate their abilities or lack their of.
For climbing, those are called "punters"
i poser? e
In table-tennis / pingpong,
Equipment Junkies.
It is both an insult as well as an addiction/habit.
Amateur and Pro TT players usually have trained from childhood as early as 3 years old tend to have an almost god-like superior ability to learn and relearn in the sport at any age.
But most folks get into TT at an older age around their late-20s.
TT reflexes cannot be gained at the later stages of life. Almost a miracle for an older player to "git gud".
Hence, you will find the older players have the income to buy equipment used by the Top-10 players in the world. Hence "Equipment Junkie".
The number of permutations and combinations in TT equipment is crazy for such a "simple" looking sport.
Real problem is when you buy all this expensive stuff and your game gets WORSE not better. You "lend" your equipment to other players and all of them seem to play better than you with your own equipment.
So you spent a lot of money, and don't want to let anyone touch your equipment ( because it would be embarrassing for them to become "better" players using your stuff while you wallow in misery of not benefitting from your own purchases ).
So EJs tend to have a extremely absurd amount of equipment that they have spent exorbitant prices purchasing and do not want to sell it to others ( again for fear their purchase is fuelling other peoples abilities at their own expense ) but they keep buying the next "Top-10" world TT players latest equipment without even understanding the sport.
It is an endless cycle which continues as more new blood is added to the mix and more EJs end caught up in the craze.
It’s ‘bourgeoisie’
Early adopter.
Early, because in terms of skills way too early big investments in a hobby that is likely to be abandoned quickly.
[Edit]: Maybe poser is better.Self-indulgent weiners
A tourist. I don't agree with the sentiment, but it is another I have heard
kali linux
Most hobbies in my experience they would be called <hobby name> bunnies. Not so much in tech, but why not.
Yuppies
Someone sounds like a jealous little bitch.
Fred and Barney
No idea.
You can appropriate "Boots" maybe?
Noobs? This is different from newbs.
