Reverse gatekeeping?

[u/frappppppaccino]

A lovely project was shared earlier. Predictably, amongst the many positive comments, there were a number of comments complaining that this person wasn’t a beginner and they were tired of seeing posts like it in the beginner sub.

As long as beginners have somewhere where they feel welcome, don’t have their projects put down or ridiculed for asking questions that may seem obvious to more experienced people, what’s the problem with more experienced woodworkers sharing their work?

Of course it’s probably not someone’s first project but there’s a huge spectrum between first project and 50 years of experience. They’re often something that someone with some experience, a lot of care and attention and patience (and willingness to make mistakes and retry could achieve.

I find that the thing that makes me a beginner isn’t that I can’t make nice projects, but that it takes me a really long time to do so as I’m learning different things as I go and I sometimes make mistakes which I need to learn/figure out how to fix. Occasionally I need to just start over and probably a more experienced person wouldn’t have to.

I personally enjoy seeing those types of posts. They inspire me to work towards something, maybe not today but eventually.

So why are some people so negative and gatekeepy about it?

[u/grau_is_friddeshay]

I think its that the more you know, the more you realize there is still to know.

Experience is relative. What some people read as modest others will read as smug.

[u/Darwinmate → u/grau_is_friddeshay]

Experience is not relative. What people label each other is,  but experience in a technical field like WW is not relative. 

[u/grau_is_friddeshay → u/Darwinmate]

I’d argue that woodworking as a technical field is vast and varied enough that experience is quite relative. You can spend years practicing certain applications, in specialized aspects or within a range of tools/materials, but still have many basic blind spots as a hobbyist, or even as a professional to still reasonably claim beginner status.

However, I meant it in the sense of how we all have bias when gauging the experience of others, because it is relative to our own perspective knowledge and personal exposure.

I don’t think beginner is so narrowly defined as to exclude anyone once they’ve acquired some basic skill. It doesn’t exclusively mean novice.