The number of responses this post addition had, in tags/additions etc and also messages, that all said the same thing, highlighted something I wanted to talk about.
Many, many people read this post addition and wanted to correct it with: "well actually, it's actually much easier to resculpt a horsie than to make one from scratch. And also, Breyers have an active community, and it's nice to be in a fandom."
Many of these corrections were well-intentioned, aimed at general readers, not aimed at me personally, and were intended to share knowledge. I am not singling anyone out and it's great to see how many people have passion for a hobby.
When people kindly messaged me to explain, in detail, the artistic intentions of the model horse customisation community, I said merely, "Thank you for your kindness in telling me."
However, to me, this is a really educational example of a post and how we can use the information in posts.
There is no information about what is going on in the original video or post.
To the post, I added the following information:
identified the brand of model horse as "Breyer," from less than 2 seconds of video showing the original horse.
identified the hobby being shown as "Breyer customisation."
identified the material used to construct Breyer horses as "resin."
noted that the general public may well ask why people do this hobby, instead of sculpting their own horse.
said that "sculpting their own horse" is not the point for people who do this hobby.
added jokingly that "bothering" the original horse is a source of satisfaction for people who do this hobby.
noted that custom breyer competitions exist, indicating, at this point, not only knowledge of a niche hobby, but knowledge of its community, and FURTHER, what its elite practitioners within the community do at the pinnacle of taking it seriously.
used a strikethrough for this text, indicating a certain sheepishness about knowing this at all.
Now, let's look at the information imparted in the seven sentences in my original post addition, and what they mean. We can see how each of the seven sentences contains information, and point 8 of the meanings has meta-information (here, a possible interpretation is that the person is embarrassed, or joking about being embarrassed, at publicly admitting the depth of their knowledge). When we think about what these sentences MEAN, it looks like the person writing them has some information about this hobby.
Now we can reflect on a few questions.
From the post, do you think that Elodieunderglass has ever heard of model horse customisation?
From the post, what level of knowledge do you assume Elodie might have about it?
Do you think that "why not just sculpt a horsie" is Elodie's question? Do you think that they are genuinely framing this as a request for information?
Based on the post, do you think that Elodie provides an answer to the question in the next few sentences? Do you think that Elodie needs an answer?
What level and depth of information do you think Elodie needs to receive in order to truly understand the hobby of model horse customisation? Beginner/intermediate/advanced?
What tone indicators can you see in the post? Do you think it is serious and literal, or joking and playful? What text is present? What is the subtext?
If, reading through, you start feel hot and defensive and say, "Well, I'm sorry, but just excited to share about my hobby," here is another way to frame that.
This person has indicated that they probably share your hobby. It's entirely possible that you could start from a different point, and end up with an entire friend who shares your hobby, instead of mildly irritating a peer.
Instead of using your knowledge to hit someone with a sledgehammer of a lecture, you could use your knowledge to reach out your hand to ask.
"I don't always read tone well, but I feel like you have some knowledge about Breyer customs! Do you do them? How serious are you about it? Would you like to see any of mine?"
I am extremely sympathetic to the excitement and possessiveness of a special interest or hobby. Here are three further pieces of advice.
Having a special interest or passionately held hobby does not mean that you hold more knowledge than others. And that's fine - the people with equal knowledge are your community.
People may occasionally use a joking tone about their own interests and hobbies. People may also be frequently sarcastic or critical of their own hobbies - often because people who hold a lot of knowledge about something are the most aware of the problems/criticisms of the Thing. Other times, affectionate joking is a way to express affection for the Thing.
If you are normally "bad at reading tone indicators," that's fine! However, because other people frequently use tone to communicate, being "bad at tone indicators" should be a mental save point - a clue to read especially thoroughly for tone before reacting. Skimming and reacting based on what you THINK the tone was, or what you THINK the text said (based on the tone you interpreted), is a recipe for really irritating people.
Okay, not to worry, back to everyone's regularly scheduled horfposting. Just.... yeah.
seven short sentences conveying a tremendous amount of information about "poster's level of knowledge" should NOT have sparked the reaction it did.
