Would you like speedcubing to become really popular?

[soccerking813]

here is where the football kids hangout with their cheerleader boyfriends

Idk, your school seems pretty wierd to me.

The "popular" people are the ones who dress and act like they do because they think it makes them looks cool, and they all hang out together, and all of the yearbook photos are of them.

 

[d4m4s74]

I'd say let's wait till sportstacking becomes really mainstream, see how much it get's ****ed up, and then decide if I want speedsolving to become popular

 

[Lord Voldemort]

I don't know if I'll change my mind completely, but these last few posts have indeed been helpful. I suppose it depends on what you define as speedcubing. I would be annoyed if people started cubing just to be popular. On the other hand, if speedcubing means that more people would be as in to cubing as we are, then I would say yes.

I think I would actually ok if I saw lots of people at school. However, I feel like I fit in right now amongst cubers, and if it became really popular, I'm not sure I would anymore. If we try to make it appealing to a more mainstream audience, I don't want people to try to make it seem different than it really is, but if it occurs naturally, then fine. I think that we would avoid the "oh, I'm better than you because I have/do this..." just naturally, but I'm not really sure.

 

[JTW2007]

Completely understand? I doubt it; you did not experience what it was like to be cubing in 2005.

Okay, I'll give you that.

People do not behave the way you think. What is your definition of popular?

I was using the word popular for lack of a better one (at least a better one that would present itself to me in any reasonable time frame). By "a popular pastime", I meant something that people do solely because they think it will gain them prestige, approval, and a position in the social hierarchy. This isn't to say that no one does these things because of genuine interest, but just to say that there is a general trend.

You have a very cynical and unrealistic view of society

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

(understandable due to your young age and possible bad experiences at school).

Stereotypical, but likely true.

Ron and many others try very hard to get more people into cubing, so don't try to counter their efforts.

I think that is very admirable, and I commend anyone who dedicates their time to doing so, but I think that it should be the people trying very hard to get into cubing, rather than Ron and others.

Get a few more friends and enjoy cubing.

Easy for you to say...

 

[Lord Voldemort]

"You have a very cynical and unrealistic view of society"

"(understandable due to your young age and possible bad experiences at school). "

@ fanwuq - How old are you?
I remember that you just took AP tests, meaning you're in high school.
Does that really qualify you to make the above statements?

I don't mean to sound rude, but it's not like you have decades of experience viewing society that we don't, perhaps a few years at most. Most of us are in high school.

 

[JTW2007]

@ fanwuq - How old are you?
I remember that you just took AP tests, meaning you're in high school.
Does that really qualify you to make the above statements?

I don't mean to sound rude, but it's not like you have decades of experience viewing society that we don't, perhaps a few years at most. Most of us are in high school.

It qualifies fanwuq to make the above statements about/to me. I'll be a freshman in high school next year.

 

[Dene]

...and are afraid to do something as simple as lube their cube if nobody's there to hold their hand through the process. I kind of miss the old days.

I wish I had Queen Shelley there to hold my hand through my cubing developments and milestones

 

[veazer]

First, the economics of it are that, as long as the supply and the demand increase at the same rate, the price will remain relatively constant, but the quality will begin to have a larger gap, eg. there will be unturnable 1$ cubes at wallmart, and type z cubes from cube4you which just own everything.
(I don't know much abouit economics, but eventually competition does drive quality and supply up, while keeping prices low)

And more importantly, speedstacking is much more commonly heard of, partly because it is taught at many schools... but even though it has a larger community, it is still not "popular" by any means. Cubing will never become truly mainstream or popular among the general public, but even if it becomes more popular, there will be a hardcore center of people who love cubing and there will be a lot of "I'm just here to impress people with the ability to do the thing" mentalities.

One final note: think of the number of (insert popular football team here) fans there are, and compare that to cubing.

And also, one does not need to be that smart to read a series of 6 repeated letters. Basic comprehension and the internet/a teacher is all someone needs.

EDIT: General public means take 1000 people at random and see how many of them can solve a cube... not many

 

[JTW2007]

Cubing will never become truly mainstream or popular among the general public, but even if it becomes more popular, there will be a hardcore center of people who love cubing

That's comforting.

 

[royzabeast]

here is where the football kids hangout with their cheerleader boyfriends

Idk, your school seems pretty wierd to me.

The "popular" people are the ones who dress and act like they do because they think it makes them looks cool, and they all hang out together, and all of the yearbook photos are of them.

Yeah, but you see, they're only cool because they are trying to be so cool with each other. It's like a paradox I think. They are all just trying to impress each other and become cool, but that is only because their own definition of cool.

Do you consider them cool? Does anyone else besides themselves consider them cool? Cause sometimes they are ****wads and some of them are pretty cool. I'm on offseason football, just trying to some fat into muscle, and I know this one guy that really annoys me. He is the stereotypical football ego, but without the girlfriend. Me and my friend always joke about him how he is probably just trying to hide the little girl that is inside of him, or maybe he is just gay. And that same friend that I joke around with wears American Eagle on a regular basis because he thinks it looks good on him. I think it's to makeup for coming from a not so rich family, but he still isn't trying to impress anybody, cause he hangs out with me, and I just usually wear basketball shorts/jeans and white shirt.

I actually have wanted to kind of copy Dan Brown and just wear blank colored shirts like he does, basically just variate between my normal white t-shirts.

 

[fanwuq]

"You have a very cynical and unrealistic view of society"

"(understandable due to your young age and possible bad experiences at school). "

@ fanwuq - How old are you?
I remember that you just took AP tests, meaning you're in high school.
Does that really qualify you to make the above statements?

I don't mean to sound rude, but it's not like you have decades of experience viewing society that we don't, perhaps a few years at most. Most of us are in high school.

My thoughts were pretty similar to his when I was in elementary/middle school. I was pretty cynical because I had bad relationships with so called "popular people." I'm not quite sure what happened when I started high school, but I didn't care so much for popularity and everything got better. I don't need decades of experiences; I just need the right experience that is similar enough to his situation. My experiences and perceptions of many subjects are still changing everyday.


Basically, don't try to be a rebel just to go against everyone else. If you are right, you are right; if you are wrong you are wrong; it is independent of the opinion of others.

Now, about the economics question. It is not the main issue; no matter which way it goes, unless something extreme happens, the prices will not change that much. The reasoning that higher demand translates to lower prices is wrong, but that is not the only factor. Supply curve could also shift, depending on the expectations of the supplier and the input costs. If the suppliers expect a huge increase in the popularity of cubing because of a major event like the world championships, they might produce more and prices would be lowered. There are so many factors and overall, price is not so important.

 

[Deleted member 2864]

uhh, I don't think making speedcubing popular would be awesome. It wouldn't be recognized as a talent, but as a sport that everybody plays, like football (american and international versions).

 

[fanwuq]

uhh, I don't think making speedcubing popular would be awesome. It wouldn't be recognized as a talent, but as a sport that everybody plays, like football (american and international versions).

What's wrong with that? (Don't be so elitist. )
Plus, I really doubt it would ever become even 1% as popular.
1. People don't have the patience.
2. People don't have the interest.

I think as long as people are aware of cubing, it is good. Face it, not everyone is going to get addicted. Generating interesting is much harder than taking "stupid" questions from the occasional noob.
For every person saying, "wats the bestest cuba?", you have over 100 people saying, "This $hit is too tough for me. It's boring."

 

[Deleted member 2864]

uhh, I don't think making speedcubing popular would be awesome. It wouldn't be recognized as a talent, but as a sport that everybody plays, like football (american and international versions).

What's wrong with that? (Don't be so elitist. )
Plus, I really doubt it would ever become even 1% as popular.
1. People don't have the patience.
2. People don't have the interest.

I think as long as people are aware of cubing, it is good. Face it, not everyone is going to get addicted. Generating interesting is much harder than taking "stupid" questions from the occasional noob.
For every person saying, "wats the bestest cuba?", you have over 100 people saying, "This $hit is too tough for me. It's boring."

That it true. I highly doubt it will ever become a grand sport played on ESPN, but in the case it did, it would be pretty darn hard to gain more people that are willing to spend a couple hours learning.

 

[endless_akatsuki]

Come on, guys!
Of course I want cubing to be popular, because then everybody will know when I get a world record.

No, but really, I think it would be really cool to actually have at least a couple people in my school or something that are into cubing, since that would really be fun.

Who cares about those "popular" people? Just pwn them. Anyway, they probably don't even have the patience to actually learn to solve the cube anyway.

 

[royzabeast]

uhh, I don't think making speedcubing popular would be awesome. It wouldn't be recognized as a talent, but as a sport that everybody plays, like football (american and international versions).

Well, see anybody can go outside, and shoot a basketball and sometimes make it. You can go to the park and pick up anybdoy for a random game of 5 on 5, and you'll have bad players and good players.

But cubing isn't going to be a sport you can gradually get better at. Usually I'll record my average for a few days, and they look the same, but then the next few days ill drop three seconds. No inbetween. And basically you either know how to do or not how to do it. Like I read one time in the thread "100 things you've heard while cubing", where somebody heard someone say "oh I can only solve 1/2/5 sides". Usually its six times by the end of the day that you started learning.

 

[Spyyder]

I'm going to say no. With large groups comes an even greater amount of immaturity.

I witnessed yoyoing become more and more popular over the past few years even though you could still say its small and underground. When i first started yoyoing back in '04 the community was really small, and it was the friendliest group of ppl on the internet, and the forums were amazing since nearly every post was constructive. As more ppl started coming into the sport everything started to get worse, spam, flames, etc. I got sick of it and now I hardly ever communicate with the yoyoing community. =\

I dont think that this sport becoming really popular would be good for community.

 

[mazei]

I think immature people would end up stopping anyway. I mean they are immature so how would they even give the commitment to practice? There will be immature questions popping up from time to time but tell me, in which activity do you do don't immature questions pop up?

 

[SparkZer00]

uhh, I don't think making speedcubing popular would be awesome. It wouldn't be recognized as a talent, but as a sport that everybody plays, like football (american and international versions).

Aren't the best and most elite football players, international and american versions, referred to as being "talented"?

 

[Feanaro]

I think that the community should grow a little, but not to where it has its own timeslot on ESPN. More people means more variety and ideas. It could do a lot for speedcubing in general to have more people to come up with new things.