I can offer the perspective of someone (relatively) young who joined in the last few years, if it helps. I also worked as a Community Manager as my full time job for a very, very big forum over 10 years ago and have some observations based on that.
Firstly, as people have mentioned, forums as a medium for discussion are not the cool thing anymore. TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube Shorts and other short form, instant gratification media are. Longer form conversations are dying and attention spans are reducing. People like visuals and things they can mindlessly watch without having to think too hard. The forum I worked on went from one of the biggest in the world with millions of daily users in 2005-2010, to now being shut down as of 2020. They moved to Reddit.
The next thing I am saying as my observation as someone relatively new here who joined in my early 30s, and I present it as helpful feedback and not to start an argument or debate on the points contained as I know these views are contentious.
When reading this next bit I urge you to think back to your 20s and 30s and the circumstances we found ourselves in with regards to work, financial resource and time available and try to empathise rather than criticise or go defensive. I also urge you to acknowledge the challenges a lot of young people face today with regards especially to financial stability and home ownership.
What got us in to bushcraft? I’d bet for a lot of people we loved seeing Ray or someone go out and light a fire with a flint and steel, make a camp in the woods, chop firewood with an axe and make frames and traps and things with his knife. That’s what is appealing to us when we’re young and being introduced to the subject. I’d wager 0.001% of people get into bushcraft because they are interested in the ecology of a piece of fallen wood on the floor. The reality is, the more detailed parts of bushcraft and understanding of nature comes later, as a long term result of our initial interest of just wanting to go and sit with a fire in the woods.
My observation and recent experience here is where this becomes problematic. I arrived all keen and interested, I was even looking specifically for a forum because I love this medium and detest social media. Here is a summary of my observations:
“I want to go out to my local woods to learn how to start a fire”
- No, you can’t do that as it’s illegal and you need permission and fires are bad anyway unless you do them a very specific way.
“I want to go out and set up a shelter and try to spend the night in the woods”
- No you can’t do that, it’s trespass and it’s against the forum rules to talk about it.
“I want to go and try to carve some wood in the local woods”
- No you can’t do that, because the wood is important to the insect ecosystem and you’re trespassing and it’s theft and criminal damage.
“OK but I am in my 20s or 30s so how can you feasibly expect me to enjoy bushcraft if I don’t go to the woods?”
- Well you should just buy your own woodland, even though you likely can’t even afford a house! Or ask permission (which will be refused) or wait until you’re in your 50s or 60s and you have saved enough money! None of the fun bushcraft until then I’m afraid, keen young person, you must simply use public footpaths and look at leaves without touching anything.
There are a lot of people here with a wealth of knowledge, and are very generous in sharing that. I also found the same at the BushMoot and everyone was lovely. However the Moot attitudes did seem somewhat different to those found on the forum - far more people willing to be reasonable and empathetic when it comes to how most people might be able to access woodland. I suppose that’s because it’s not against the rules to talk in more honest, realistic terms at the Moot. I do understand Tony’s dilemma there though, when it comes to having what is said here recorded for all to see.
Some of this may be down to the nature of written discussions from behind our keyboards, without hearing tone or seeing faces and body language.
Just an observation anyway, and as I said no offence intended to anyone and people here are generally nice people. Perhaps it’s just important to look at it from the context of people coming into this fresh, like we once all did.
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