Alright, here goes! This one’s been a long time coming.
The short of it: Full concession on my part, and an apology to boot.
The Long of It:
Over the the two years, I have frequently been part of a debate with many members on this forum, regarding what I have referred to as “the collector identity”, whether it even exists or not, how it involves organic yoyos, age range, materialism over skill, etc., etc. I consistently spoke out against this identity, specifically to the exclusion of progress in yoyoing skill. I’m here to rectify that.
A little background: I devote my life to mastery of different pursuits. (Please read my long response on this thread if you have time: How do you get better - #4 by nightshadow ). I feel very deeply that this is one of the most important things in life, and that it is an absolute gift that we as humans have the ability to go so far towards mastery in so many disciplines, and then to use this mastery to create real beauty. This is how I was raised, and lived. It is very important to me.
This is also why I came to the YoYoExpert forums when I was young. To discuss various aspects of mastry in yoyo with people who felt similarly to me about it. However, I have noticed that the people that care much about mastery at all have largely migrated to Instagram, a platform with little in the way of discussion. And in their place, many more collecting inclined users have come. And I struggled with this. I didn’t understand this new demographic, and I knew I certainly didn’t agree with a lot of them. I wondered where I could go to talk about that raw drive and passion that I felt for yoyoing. Not the drive to win contests and get high scores. But just to see myself get better. It seemed like all I saw was threads about slimline organics and jokes about wifes getting angry about too many yoyos in the mail. Nothing about being unable to sleep at night because of the dreams of mastery inside your head, and the profound emotion that comes with self improvement.
So, I started, and participated in, a lot of debates regarding this topic. Annoyance combined with me being far less careful than I should have been about making my responses not sound derisive lead to some long threads, and a lot of heat being taken on my part. And to be fair, I definitely had all of it coming. I want to make it clear that I did not wish anyone ill, but too many snakry comments in text form rapidly start to be rather obnoxious. I concede that, and apologize for it.
But, I did end up having many interesting conversations. I ended up feeling close to many of the members I clashed most frequently with, and they often brought up points that changed my mind. I almost never felt upset with any users personally, no matter how many times we disagreed on the points themselves.
But, I have been rapidly realizing that this is not true for some other people, regarding how they feel about me. Because of this, I fully concede that I debated this topic too much, pushed it too far, and was in the wrong.
Here are the three realizations I have come to, regarding my debating this topic, and how it effects my image in the community:
1.) Selfishly, I should stop because I do not want to be a disliked figure. I do not want to be remembered as that guy who wouldnt shut up about collectors being bad. I want to be remembered as someone who helped the community grow, encouraged the love of yoyoing, and was a positive presence.
2.) I should stop debating this subject because annoyance at me could rub off on people I associate with. Which is highly unfair to them. I had someone express lack of interest in buying my signature yoyo, the culmination of my entire yoyoing career, because of my posts on this topic. That was an arrow through the heart, not just because that project is my baby, but because I knew they were not being unreasonable, and that I messed up. I am not making this thread to increase sales (I get exactly $0 from any yoyos sold), but I hope to not have projects I work on be clouded by annoyance from my harping on the above mentioned topic.
3.) If so many people are annoyed at me personally, I messed something up. So, uh, yeah. My bad.
So with all this in mind, I am pleased to announce my permanent retirement from this reign of debate on this topic. I’ve said my piece.
Way too much of it, in fact. In a much too snarky manner. For that, I apologize. Sincerely.
I would like to offer the olive branch of some free string to anyone I have clashed with on this topic. You guys are great people, and I feel bad for coming across as someone who is derisive of what you enjoy doing. Organic, vintage, slimline, whatever, your throws will need some fun string on them. Hit me up. Seriously.
To those (few) of you who agree with me on this topic, do what you will, but I’m no longer weighing in on discussions regarding it.
With all that said,
Peace out. Catch you on the BST, especially if you have any undercuts.
