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<blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 4294064" data-attributes="member: 2525">I don't think it's a fad.&nbsp; It's not new in the sense that it's been around a concept for at least my entire lifetime (though it might be new to this field).&nbsp; The books I read on the topic all started in the 1970s and earlier.Elitism for things like hobbies serve to bind a community tighter, which is a good thing, but to exclude newcomers from entering that community, which is a bad thing.&nbsp; For this particular hobby, I think our community is bound plenty tight without the need to resort to elitism to make it even tighter.&nbsp; However, the hobby does need (in my opinion) new blood, and elitism discourages that.&nbsp; Can you tell me why using, for example, complex acronyms that are difficult to find definitions for is something that is a positive for this community?&nbsp; Or using words that you know are a great source of confusion and strife and usually result in the posting of further definitions, is something useful for this community? To put it a different way (to borrow a phrase from a popular movie), can you think of any good reason to use the phrase &quot;'I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request&quot; instead of just saying &quot;no&quot;, unless your intent is to communicate a sense of privilege (elitism)?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mistwell, post: 4294064, member: 2525"] I don't think it's a fad. It's not new in the sense that it's been around a concept for at least my entire lifetime (though it might be new to this field). The books I read on the topic all started in the 1970s and earlier. Elitism for things like hobbies serve to bind a community tighter, which is a good thing, but to exclude newcomers from entering that community, which is a bad thing. For this particular hobby, I think our community is bound plenty tight without the need to resort to elitism to make it even tighter. However, the hobby does need (in my opinion) new blood, and elitism discourages that. Can you tell me why using, for example, complex acronyms that are difficult to find definitions for is something that is a positive for this community? Or using words that you know are a great source of confusion and strife and usually result in the posting of further definitions, is something useful for this community? To put it a different way (to borrow a phrase from a popular movie), can you think of any good reason to use the phrase "'I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request" instead of just saying "no", unless your intent is to communicate a sense of privilege (elitism)? [/QUOTE]

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