How quickly we forget...

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Vana2

Vana2

Member
May 11, 2015
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Ontario, Canada
How quickly we forget that we were all once newbies.

Being retired and finally having time to pursue new things that I want to learn about puts me in the newbie camp regularly so I'm particularly aware of what it takes to broach a new interest.

For whatever reason we decide to get into something new, the first hurdle is to learn the lingo. As a college professor I provided a list of terms relevant to the next lesson as homework and had a "Blue Word" test before class to review them. "Blue Words" are those words that are required to be understood to be able to make sense of the content. In Wikipedia, the blue words are links to definitions and explanations, hence the term. 🙂

When someone wants an overview of airguns I recommend they search for " airguns wiki", spend some time reading and comeback with questions.

Maybe us experienced shooters should take a quick look at the wiki to see how much there is to learn just to start - lots of blue words eh? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun

By my definition, a newbie is someone who is overwhelmed with details and doesn't know what they don't know. They don't know what questions to ask and can't differentiate between fact and fiction.

Remember that many new airgunners don't have someone to mentor them, they are on their own with only YouTube for guidance. 😳

Newbies are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. The potential of making an expensive mistake is high so they turn to the Airgun Nation community of knowledgeable shooters for help.

So my take is that there's no stupid questions, when someone asks for help, I do my best to figure out what THEY need and make suggestions as to how they can get there.

Remember, as kids how we would slop paint on paper to make our masterpieces to be displayed on the refrigerator? Well, I'm getting into watercolor painting and am learning a whole new set of blue words, fun to be a newbie again!

Guess that my watercolor painting journey is the same as my airgun journey was, started out with BB-guns as a kid and am now into high end PCPs.

Please show patience with newbies, we were all there once.

Cheers!
 
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Vana2 said:
How quickly we forget that we were all once newbies.

Being retired and finally having time to pursue new things that I want to learn about puts me in the newbie camp regularly so I'm particularly aware of what it takes to broach a new interest.

For whatever reason we decide to get into something new, the first hurdle is to learn the lingo. As a college professor I provided a list of terms relevant to the next lesson as homework and had a "Blue Word" test before class to review them. "Blue Words" are those words that are required to be understood to be able to make sense of the content. In Wikipedia, the blue words are links to definitions and explanations, hence the term. 🙂

When someone wants an overview of airguns I recommend they search for " airguns wiki", spend some time reading and comeback with questions.

Maybe us experienced shooters should take a quick look at the wiki to see how much there is to learn just to start - lots of blue words eh? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_gun

By my definition, a newbie is someone who is overwhelmed with details and doesn't know what they don't know. They don't know what questions to ask and can't differentiate between fact and fiction.

Remember that many new airgunners don't have someone to mentor them, they are on their own with only YouTube for guidance. 😳

Newbies are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. The potential of making an expensive mistake is high so they turn to the Airgun Nation community of knowledgeable shooters for help.

So my take is that there's no stupid questions, when someone asks for help, I do my best to figure out what THEY need and make suggestions as to how they can get there.

Remember, as kids how we would slop paint on paper to make our masterpieces to be displayed on the refrigerator? Well, I'm getting into watercolor painting and am learning a whole new set of blue words, fun to be a newbie again!

Guess that my watercolor painting journey is the same as my airgun journey was, started out with BB-guns as a kid and am now into high end PCPs.

Please show patience with newbies, we were all there once.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Very well said , Thankyou
 
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I always considered "Newbs" as the "lifeblood" of this forum. As we treat them, so shall they treat others to come (hopefully). AGN & its generous, knowledgeable members has been invaluable to me in my almost decade long journey. I strive to pay that forward to others who might be puzzled or overwhelmed. It's an attitude I see reflected in MOST of the members here. That's why I stay & stay committed to help.

EDIT: I should add, I'm committed to help the ones who've made an HONEST EFFORT to fix or learn what they can FIRST yet are still stumped by one aspect or another. I'm not one to enable LAZINESS.
 
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While I mostly agree with the above....

As a fresh retiree (well before I got into air guns anyway), I decided to look into high powered air guns. I had no one to mentor me.
BUT...I know enough to do...MY OWN...homework. And NOT...pass the things that "I"...should be learning on my own, on to someone else. Then, after I become at least, somewhat accustomed to the air gun world, spend time looking at the various web sites available (thanks Google !), seeing what types, brands, models, calibers, etc., etc. Only then did I ask a few questions.

People NEED to stand up and learn on their own, before asking others to do THAT work for them.

Mike
 
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MikeVV said:
While I mostly agree with the above....

As a fresh retiree (well before I got into air guns anyway), I decided to look into high powered air guns. I had no one to mentor me.
BUT...I know enough to do...MY OWN...homework. And NOT...pass the things that "I"...should be learning on my own, on to someone else. Then, after I become at least, somewhat accustomed to the air gun world, spend time looking at the various web sites available (thanks Google !), seeing what types, brands, models, calibers, etc., etc. Only then did I ask a few questions.

People NEED to stand up and learn on their own, before asking others to do THAT work for them.

Mike
Click to expand...
I totally get your point, but...why do all that, leaving yourself open to self-confirming a misinterpretation, when there's an entire forum's worth of potential experts to ask questions of? Are these forums NOT a source for information?
I'm absolutely new to this...so new, I may have been burned buying my first airgun, LoL. But I'm an "old timer," & an "expert" on other forums on topics I am EXCEPTIONALLY versed in, so I get the frustration of seeing the same simple questions asked ad nauseum. I just try to look at these places more as a library than a potluck, LoL.
 
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MikeVV said:
While I mostly agree with the above....

As a fresh retiree (well before I got into air guns anyway), I decided to look into high powered air guns. I had no one to mentor me.
BUT...I know enough to do...MY OWN...homework. And NOT...pass the things that "I"...should be learning on my own, on to someone else. Then, after I become at least, somewhat accustomed to the air gun world, spend time looking at the various web sites available (thanks Google !), seeing what types, brands, models, calibers, etc., etc. Only then did I ask a few questions.

People NEED to stand up and learn on their own, before asking others to do THAT work for them.

Mike
Click to expand...
I agree with this approach completely. And there is a reason for it. You can jump on a forum right out the gate with your hand out. But most of the replies will be punching above your pay grade. If you do a bunch of research and learning first, then you will have a better grasp of what people are telling you when you ask a question. It goes back to what @Vana2 said in his opening statement. Research teaches you the lingo you need to communicate. And not waste peoples time with having to go back and break down their answers.
 
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MikeVV said:
While I mostly agree with the above....

As a fresh retiree (well before I got into air guns anyway), I decided to look into high powered air guns. I had no one to mentor me.
BUT...I know enough to do...MY OWN...homework. And NOT...pass the things that "I"...should be learning on my own, on to someone else. Then, after I become at least, somewhat accustomed to the air gun world, spend time looking at the various web sites available (thanks Google !), seeing what types, brands, models, calibers, etc., etc. Only then did I ask a few questions.

People NEED to stand up and learn on their own, before asking others to do THAT work for them.

Mike
Click to expand...
I hear you Mike, been there, done that, got the T-shirt 😁

I was taught to observe and analyze at an early age. There was a well equipped workshop (lathe, mill, etc) in the basement and I often had to make things that I couldn't afford. As a pre-teen, I needed to tap (thread) a part and asked my father for instructions. He gave me a can of oil, piece of steel, two taps and a handful of drill bits, his instructions were that when he came back from having a coffee that he wanted to see a tapped hole and a broken tap. I drilled a series of holes, and taped threads starting with the largest hole working down until to tap was over stressed and broke. That was a typical lesson for me. I learned a lot and rarely break a tap - you can feel the flex hit the maximum ...once you have experienced it.

As far as newbie questions go, I don't assume that everyone has the required analytical skills or that they haven't done the research. They may just be trying to get a hint as to which direction to research into.

I enjoy helping and teaching. Answering newbie questions forces me to rethink the things that I've been doing out of habit (rote?) for years. Sometimes I discover a better way in the process.

As a professor, I knew if the student didn't understand it was likely that I wasn't explaining it well enough. Some people just need a bit more help.

Cheers!
 
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I would like to note that not all “newbies” are looking to make airgunning their end-all, be-all hobby, so reading and dissecting pages and pages worth of information is not germane to their intended use.

The other consideration is the that a portion of the information “out there” falls into the categories of fundamentally bad, or obsolete. Today’s whiz-bang compressor, scope, pellet, and rifle choice will be different now than two years ago or two years from today. The same question will have a different answer over time.

I can see some questions coming across as being lazy, but learning enough to distinguish between good and bad information is no small undertaking. If members sign up to ask questions because AGN has established itself as a reliable source for quality answers, isn’t that a good thing?
 
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Let's all share where we can on the coming crazy prices. I bought a chronograph off Temu a couple weeks ago for 32 bucks. Great little unit that I will take some pics and do a review on.
This one item delivers an excellent perspective on what is coming, perhaps a little different perspective?
I bought the 32 dollar unit to replace or supplement my old original shooting Chrony. Some of the gray generation here likely still have one. It still works when the lighting is just right. I paid right at one hundred dollars for that Chrony over thirty years ago.
I just looked up the Chronograph again, it's now 78.00 bucks.
Thus the different perspective. It is still almost 25% cheaper than what I paid over thirty years ago. Not only cheaper, it's better. Instead of skyscreens it has IR LED light strips over the gates, and can be switched between meters and feet per second.
A different perspective.
 
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I personally do not mind informing new people of good products, what to expect, and what to stay away from. This is especially for the ones with no experience or personal references, if I can save someone the heartache of having to “figure it out” for themselves I am all about it.

I can think of a couple major purchases I made that would not have happened if I hadn’t had to “figure it out”. This is a hobby that can get very expensive very quickly, and not everyone has thousands of dollars to blow on bogus equipment.

A pinch of patience spreads like wildfire
 
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It REALLY depends on the product. My gig prior to retirement was selling new technology 3d radiography equipment to dentists and dentists are very busy people. Dental implants are very mainstream, they need my X-ray machine technology to absolutely assure accurate implant placement. If anyone drills holes in my skull, they had best be in exactly the right location. :eek: The biggest issue I had? Finding good sales reps. In retirement I'm using up my flyer miles because I sold those machines all over the USA. Damn few guys would do their homework. Lots of guys WANT to sell the product, few if any will build their knowledge base to the point that they CAN sell the product. A steep learning curve.
 
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