Every once and a while some older post will suddenly get a lot of clicks for no apparent reason. Once and I while I can trace this to search terms or referrers, which I find interesting just for the sake of learning how and/or why people walk through the door around here. Today I noticed that the top viewed post for the last 7 days is this one, talking about obsessive-compulsive fan collecting from last spring. I checked out the referrers list and found out that someone on a fan-collecting forum had linked to the post and brought a lot of their friends through the door. To that I say:
Welcome, esteemed connoisseurs of fine blades and stylized means of airflow generation!
I am down with the fan collectors.
What’s definitely making me laugh though, is the fact that the guy who posted the link is mocking me, saying essentially that I’m an idiot for thinking that plastic fans are cool, and that metal fans are where it’s at. Oh the embarrassment! I had no idea that real fan collectors have to make the jump up to metal! This whole time I’ve been nothing but a poser! Gasp!! I guess you ain’t hardcore unless you rock the METAL.
\nn/ \nn/ WEEEEWWWW!!!!! (that’s me doing air guitar)
Okay, any of you metal fan fiends, I wanna see some example pictures in the comments, because I’m just not convinced that it’s all about the metal. What if you dig like 60’s or 70’s design, are there sweet metal fans like that? You come to my website for ‘ignorance at its finest’ and the cup overfloweth.
Actually, I think it’s pretty awesome that someone is getting bent out of shape over what I thought looked cool. I mean, that’s part of the nature of design–what looks hip to one person will inevitably seem passé to another. I’m imagning this guy in his secret lair of glimmering display cases filled with ALL METAL fans, at the moment that his google searching brought him to my blog and erupting in a righteous fury of indignance “Oh my god dude, oh my god. You totally have no clue what you’re talking about here, oh my god. Good fans are METAL fans?! Hello? Everyone knows that, I mean, oh my god, everyone knows that!! Duh duh duh duh duhduhhh! Oh my god, clear my afternoon I need to rant about this right. now.”
Oh my god.
I guess this solidifies my cred as a wannabe, armchair fan collector, never to join the ranks of the hip’n’with-it Collectors with a capital C. I think I can live with that. Speaking of air guitar, I recently watched a very over-the-top documentary about the World Air Guitar Championships (yes, this is really a thing) which sort of reinforced the idea that with esoteric, niche hobbies there’s a fine line between kickass and laughably ridiculous. I’m content to sit on the sidelines and watch other people walk that tightrope.
I’m also content to continue basking in my ignorance (okay that deserves it’s own tag on the blog from now on) when it comes to plastic versus metal. There was a salient comment on the original post when it comes to ‘hoarders with more money than brains’ in the hobby of fan collecting… oh man that comment applies SO DAMN HARD when it comes to model trains as well. Probably applies to telescopes and amateur astronomy too. Sweaty-keyboard-elitists aside (every hobby’s got em!) the model railroaders I have met, and the amateur astronomers I have met, have been by and large a swell group of people whom I greatly enjoyed chatting with. I’m sure fan collectors are swell people too.
Do they have like meet ups for this kind of thing? Or conventions? Is this the first step on my way to an eventual 12-step recovery program for metal fan addiction? Tune in next time to find out! This is JB on the fans tag, signing out for now.
Tags: amusement, basking in my ignorance, fans, musings, niche hobbies, what?
an immature blogger giving too much attention for people doing nothing bad which is collecting fans, grow up
Relevant! :
I believe my exact words were “I am down with the fan collectors”
i still got all my fans,perrey z lost the battle again against me!
I say again… ““OOHHHH damn niggaahh you got the 1977 Ultra Rare Prototype GE 13″ fan!” “Hell yeah bitches I esniped the fuck outta dat and then I modded it with the blades from the euro-only 1984 model to give it 12% more CFM, and added the silent basket from the 64 model to reduce the noise bro!” “SHIIIIITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
These dudes are real.
Dude, they’re not only real, they’re on my website now.
Oh man, this is great. vintageceilingfans.com. With forums, even! Who knew something like that existed?
I am always marveling at how the internet has made it 1000000% easier for people with super nichey niche interests to find and communicate with each other. Before the net, you’d have to what, learn about some newsletter via word of mouth?
I wonder if there were haters and flaming in the newsletter era of hobby/collecting communities, only in super snail mail slow motion? Or is instantaneous, unmediated communication a necessity for the emergence of those kind of behaviors?
Jah, you can say this again. It is pretty incredible the communities that come out of the woodwork for every imaginable little obscurity thanks to the web. I feel fortunate to be alive during a time when geography no longer separates like minds.
Also, I’m really digging your vision of flame wars via newsletter. :D I wonder if anyone ever angrily licked the back of an envelope to mail off rants about metal fan superiority over plastic…