How Representative is BCUK?

[shep]

I was just looking at the cider press thread and the computer-illiterate bloke who's obviously into traditional bushcraft. It isn't an obvious connection to be interested in internet forums and the outdoors/bushcraft and I'm sure there must be hundreds of people who are practicing these skills, but aren't on this site - or am I wrong?

Also JonR recently bemoaned the number of new crafts posts, but it takes a reasonable computer literacy to post pics on these forums and I expect a lot of bushcrafters just aren't interested in computers.

Who knows like-minded people with no computer skills? What proportion of UK bushcrafters (in its broadest sense) do you think are members of BCUK?

 

[Bhold]

I believe you are right, shep.
In courses I've been, those not on BCUK outnumbered those that know and/or use the forum. At least two to one.
I was a little surprised, but I guess it just makes sense. Many seen bushcraft on TV, or newspapers, for instance. Went straight to bookstores or courses. Not everybody uses the internet as the main source of information.
It is good that BCUK is not the only (although it is an important one) resource for bushcrafters or wannabe bushcrafters.

 

[jon r]

I supose you are right! Every time i upload a picture i resize it first using photoshop and then upload it to a server. Not everyone is going to know how to do that!

 

[Goose]

It is something I have thought about before, it is a bit contradictory really. But I think an upsurge in interest about outdoory and bushcrafty stuff comes from people being stuck in offices around computers. Perhaps shepherds and drystone wallers, for example, spend the whole time out in the fields daydreaming about getting online at weekend, and switching the kettle on at the wall rather than filling a kelly kettle with twigs!

I think that the biggest majority of bushcrafters do it as a hobby as and when they can, not everyone can get out as often as some so talking about is the next best thing, even online. But then again things can be taken too far as the someone posted a few months back about second life and virtual bushcrafting, that is just nuts to me!!

Anyway, I am logging off to go and talk around a real fire, and the maddest thing is at the last meet we spent ages talking about computers, forums, websites and programs!

 

[rik_uk3]

I supose you are right! Every time i upload a picture i resize it first using photoshop and then upload it to a server. Not everyone is going to know how to do that!

Download free
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
look for image resizer

install, then right click an image and you can pick a size. The programme leaves the original alone and creats a second image in the size you need.

 

[shep]

It is something I have thought about before, it is a bit contradictory really. But I think an upsurge in interest about outdoory and bushcrafty stuff comes from people being stuck in offices around computers.

I wonder if that's it. Although bushcraft is essentially as 'real' as it gets and fundamental to our history, I think it may really be a form of escapism for a lot people confined to a computer screen 9-5 (like me for the moment). Reading about it on-screen gives you some vicarious enjoyment and keeps you spurred on to get out properly at the next opportunity.

 

[Tiley]

I would agree with you there, Shep, but the forums on the site are also a very useful source of information and a useful way of exchanging points of view. Although the skills that we practise in bushcraft are old/traditional, a good number of us make us of twenty-first century technology to share our ideas and experience. For some, myself included, things like downloading pictures are beyond me - I'll leave that to my children. In the meantime, I'm off out to the woods for a brew and some bannock...

 

[Mikey P]

Actually, I disagree. The number of cries for help in uploading pictures is far less than the number of people who can - and do - upload pictures.

In fact, if you check some of the threads you'll see that a sizeable minority of the BCUK members are working in the IT industry!!!

The site attracts a real mix of people from a variety of backgrounds and that's it's strength, in my opinion. It's impossible to say how many bushcrafters use this site but I would find it hard to believe that many bushcrafters who use the internet are not at least aware of the site and forum.

 

[MikeS]

I agree that this is a tricky one, and I agree with all the points being made. I believe that part of the attraction of Bushcraft is that it helps you to escape from the pressure of modern living. (well it does for me) I think the strength of forums are that they allow people to ask advise and get opinions from people they have virtually (no joke intended) of every meeting.

The main problem I find with practicing Bushcraft and I suspect I am far from being alone is having the woods you are allowed for stay in and have a fire for the best tasting brew you can get.

Where do people find these woods ? or am I just bing a bit dense.

 

[Eric_Methven]

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country practising some form or other of bushcraft on a daily basis, many without even knowing the term.

I know a lot of off grid people who live in benders, cook on open fires or in the winter on a woodburner in their bender, who coppice their little bit of woodland and make products to sell at farmer's markets. They have deliberately shunned modern technology and have neither a flushing loo or electricity. Many have just a couple of solar panels, a battery and some low voltage lighting. They are doing bushcrafty stuff every day but to them it's not bushcraft, it's just living their chosen lifestyle.

Then there are shepherds, farmers, fishermen, poachers, countrymen, tramps and hawkers, who in the main won't, or don't have nor want internet access.

We on BCUK are a tiny minority in the world of real bushcraft. We may be high on the list for hobby bushcraft but on the whole we are an insignificant minority as practitioners of bushcraft in it's purest sense.

Eric