ORIGINAL: jester_s1

I'm not so pessimistic about the hobby as some in this thread are, nor am I as quick to dismiss the youngsters as the future of the hobby. I'm 36, so I suppose I am in the middle between the crotchety old timers and the annoying 20 year olds. As I see it, the hobby has declined sharply with the recession because it wasn't healthy to begin with. People who had done it for a few years were still doing it, but it had never really scratched the itch they had had. I don't mean the committed 20 year veteran here, but rather the guys who had maybe been involved for 3-4 years. When money got tight, they let go of a hobby that wasn't what they had hoped it would be in the first place.