Youth and the hobby

[rob D2]

38 minutes ago, Lantavian said:

 

https://qz.com/983016/the-data-are-in-young-people-are-definitely-less-racist-than-old-people/

I could pick holes in that all day , but their stunning English is the first red flag. I guess you believe anything that you see on the internet ?

 

I’ve just done a survey of 4 people in my house and we found ( 100%) that people who criticise racism but think ageism is ok are bona fide hypocrits.

[DK123GWR]

 

22 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

I’m not too sure. I don’t think the school curriculum is particularly relevant - railway modelling is a hobby, and personally I didn’t do any qualifications in DT, although the small amount I did early on probably helped with my model railway skills. I find it difficult to believe that people without much experience being unable to repair an RTR loco is a specifically recent issue, but I was probably getting reasonably close when I mentioned model shops in my first post. Imagine somebody going out to buy a train set. They probably buy it from a large, general toy retailer rather than a specific model railway shop (or increasingly online) so if it goes wrong they won’t get anything from there except a complete replacement. When model railways were more popular (‘model railways’ in the sense of people owning and playing with a Hornby etc. train set which I think has become less popular, not necessarily building a complicated, fully scenic layout) then the number of people known to any potential newcomer to model railways who could help them out would have been greater than it is now. Club membership probably isn’t hugely relevant because I’m thinking about those who casually buy or are given a model railway set and could be encouraged to go further into model railways, so at this point they aren’t yet in the hobby. Although another point that this suggests is that starter locos need to be robust and fairly smooth running rather than hugely detailed.

I think this is a good point. Although I haven't personally seen a model shop close locally, I know that they have in many areas. We can't really help the changing nature of retail (it would take a wholesale cultural shift). Perhaps including a link to RMweb with all instruction booklets (cheaper than providing decent instruction booklets) would help. Hornby could of course provide clear directions to their own forum, but they need to make it a little more user-friendly first (I don't struggle but many others seem to, and of course all photos must be moderated before they can be displayed) or that will also put people off.

 

As for the racism/sexism/ageism debate, maybe we could either drop it or find a more appropriate venue before it gets even more toxic than it already is. 

Edited May 31, 2020 by DK123GWR