Measures to have more mutual respect in the cubing community

[abunickabhi]

I have waited several years to express myself in this way. I wish to express the communication and mutual respect problems in today's worldwide cubing community.

I have seen cubing community since 2008. It was a paradise to socialize and learn new ideas in speedcubing. After 2017, I noticed some secrecy and cut throat nature and lesser will to communicate within the community. I dislike this change a lot. It is tough to adapt to this unhealthy reality. I hope more cubers can connect with this. The main aim is to share my experience without revealing any sensitive details, and make sure mental health of cubers who are growing or who have less time for cubing is taken care of. The last thing I want is a promising cuber quitting because of a harsh and rash comment from some "elite" toxic cuber. They may not intend to disrespect but due to their value system to only consider high IQ things worthy, they may unknowingly disrespect and affect the mental health of a growing cuber.

I personally hate trolls, disrespect, elitism, the superiority complex and the self-centric nature of today's active cubers. I wish the cubing community is more respectful. I am tired of trolls from people half my age and who have infinite superiority complex after just cubing for a few years and getting decent (according to their perspective) in an event. This is not the case entirely, I always choose to focus on the positive and I have wonderful lifelong cubing friends already. But I do not want to put a blind eye on the negativity and disrespect prevalent in the cubing community.

I miss the good old days. The cubers were more open and had fewer barrier to communications. Today there is less communication between regions at all levels, no respect unless you are sub-X in an event.

For example, if I get sub-2 minute in a WCA event (unnamed for anonymity), then I will be able to establish communication with a cuber (unnamed for anonymity), and still might not have respect. For example, they will question how I got so fast? Look for fakeness in the solve when there isn't etc.

India today has a good community with nice respect among cubers at all events. I am proud to be connected with a healthy Indian community that is also ready to reach out nearby countries. For help in delegating, knowledge transfer, healthy respectful communication. However, I do not feel connected to the world community at all. For example, I fear spending lot of money to attend Worlds 2025, only to realize condescending nature and ignorance from cubers from several countries, who have pre-built, untested and wrong image about cubing in my country. They might not even exchange a 'hi' judging me to be under practiced and not worthy from a distance.

Due to lack of initiative, lack of willpower, superiority complex (due to the good/bad country's kinch score), a proper respectful communication may not be established.

Today there is less or non-existent communication between regions at all levels, no respect unless you are sub-X in an event. This is trademark elitism and top cubers naturally tend to feel significant about themselves. This has increased as the cubing population has gotten younger and the immaturity has increased. I feel some measures should be pro-actively taken to increase healthy communication without feeling superior about our own cubing accomplishments.

There is a lot of areas the cubing community can improve in. I will do my part in respecting every cuber, spreading positively and maintain proper communication with mutual respect with all cubers (even the ones that troll, hate and block me for their own reasons).

Note of caution: I may not have conveyed my point well enough here. My English is not perfect and neither are my communication skills. Please bear the mistakes I made in this post.

 

[JDAW6]

I hate trolls, disrespect, elitism, the superiority complex and the self-centric nature of western cubers. I wish the cubing community was more respectful.

I agree people hate on asian cubers for No reason, they put in the same amount of effort (If not more) than western cubers and have broken records. however they are treated as they are undeserving of this records.

 

[Discomantis]

Today there is less or non-existent communication between regions at all levels, no respect unless you are sub-X in an event. This is trademark elitism and top cubers naturally tend to feel significant about themselves. This has increased as the cubing population has gotten younger and the immaturity has increased. I feel some measures should be pro-actively taken to increase healthy communication without feeling superior about our own cubing accomplishments.

I agree. I really dislike this too. I find that a lot of times people will only celebrate accomplishments if you are an "elite" cuber. The cubing community should not be based on your speed, but of a love for the hobby.

I also find that thought the cubing community, accomplishments of Asian cubers, especially young Asian cubers are not celebrated, simply because of stereotypes on the Asian community. I wish for that to change. I really dislike a lot of the videos on youtube talking about how another little kid is dominating an event. Youtubers such as STUcube have based a lot of their channel off of this, and I really dislike it.

People's accomplishments should be celebrated no matter the competitor's age or ethnic background, and I really wish this sentiment against the young Asian cubers would change. Just because the competitor is young doesn't make their accomplishments any less significant.

Videos like these should stop:

They are unnecessary, and downplay on cuber's accomplishments. World records aren't everything, and just because there is a little kid who is better than you doesn't mean cubing is "dead."

Profiting off of stuff like this is cruel, and we as a community need to put a stance on videos like this.

A sport that used to be based on beating your own times, has now been based on getting records. The thing that at one point kept the cubing community close is slipping away.

Thank you for making this post, as I feel like this is an important topic that needs to be discussed in our community, as it is changing the nature of the hobby for the worse.

 

[qwr]

The truth is people are jealous of child prodigies, like when a 6 year old has been alive and physically capable of understanding a cube shorter than the time span most people have spent cubing. The chess world has this too but at a much higher level of competition - if you don't show early promise like winning junior championships and becoming grandmaster before 20, there's statistically no chance of ever becoming a top 100 player. But the chess world is used to such child prodigies because they're actually quite common. In math too, there are child prodigies but the math academic world is much less of a competition than a collaborative environment. I go to a chess club with some little kids and they will be immature and that's natural for kids of their age.

 

[cuberswoop]

I've noticed the hockey community is kind of the same way around the ages of 10-16. There's a lot of entitlement and elitism and the superiority complex you mentioned.

I don't know what it is but it's killing the cubing community from the inside out, and that's part of the reason I quit youtubeing about cubing. I think that as the cubing average age gets younger the more toxic and less respectful it will be.

I hate all the chess comparisons but I get it I guess. I just think that cubing is different and we should find a way to make our own culture and not compare it to chess culture.

 

[gsingh]

The truth is people are jealous of child prodigies, like when a 6 year old has been alive and physically capable of understanding a cube shorter than the time span most people have spent cubing.

Insert harshapaladugu.jpg

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

I don’t mean to sound ignorant, but what are the “measures”?

 

[abunickabhi]

I don’t mean to sound ignorant, but what are the “measures”?

Measures are to be discussed in this thread.

To give a broad line perspective, it can be counselling cubers and doing more outreach so that cubing cultures from two countries understand each other well.

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

Measures are to be discussed in this thread.

To give a broad line perspective, it can be counselling cubers and doing more outreach so that cubing cultures from two countries understand each other well.

Oh thx for the clarification.
I don’t know if this is the place to say it, but I want to let you know that I really admire how your posts are all about making the wca or just the community a better place. Your a role model bro, keep it up!

if I were to make a comment to further this discussion, it would be that it is extremely difficult to regulate what I see as pride and attitude, but something that I do think would help to cope with the situation is that the non-toxic cubers not be reactive. Every time we rant about how bad something is that someone in the community did, they win. We proved that they affected us. If we just ignore them and not give them an audience or a target, then they will be the only ones talking and will eventually clam it. As far as things like unsportsmanship, the community is quite young ie its members are largely youth. Adults just have to be there (like coaches in youth leagues) to manage the interactions.

 

[Arcanist]

I think this is an important topic and something we should bring awareness to. While I myself am not super good at cubing, I will sometimes subconsciously judge someone for their times on an event like 3x3. I sometimes catch myself wondering why they can't practice a bit more and get faster. This line of thinking is both arrogant and ignorant. I do not know who they are, their conditions, and challenges they have faced. I think we should try and be more open-minded and not look down upon someone (whether very intentionally or more subconsciously) solely due to their times.

 

[Tabe]

I miss the good old days. Cubers were more intelligent and had less or no ego. Today there is less communication between regions at all levels, no respect unless you are sub-X in an event.

Seems odd to make a post seeking to improve the community by........ insultingly stereotyping today's entire cubing community as less intelligent and falsely claiming prior cubers had less or no ego.

Be the change you seek.

 

[abunickabhi]

Seems odd to make a post seeking to improve the community by........ insultingly stereotyping today's entire cubing community as less intelligent and falsely claiming prior cubers had less or no ego.

Be the change you seek.

Thanks for pointing it out and Sorry about my wrong wording.
I have edited the post.

 

[Clock_Enthusiast]

I completely agree. I’ve been judged by people who just make fun of how I messed up during a solve, didn’t know a certain algorithm, etc. We definitely need to focus on maintaining a positive environment that makes our shared interest fun. Pointing out how you’re better than someone else makes them feel defeated—it’s a hobby and an escape that people should enjoy, not beat themselves up over.