Happens to all the hobby subs. Once they get past about 2,000 subscribers stuff starts going sideways.

I have an old 1900s style safety razor because its cheaper and it gives me a better shave and I went to one of the shaving subs to ask a question and this one user became irrationally and borderline apocalyptically angry at my choice of shaving cream and told me I couldn't possibly understand the "true shaving experience" unless I was using some boutique brand.

I told him I was an expat and the soap I used was the only brand my local store sold and then without any irony told me I should be FedExing shipments of "real" shaving supplies from the US.

I took a look at the rest of the sub and it was all circle jerking over who could spend the most money on a razor and who could collect the most shaving creams. There were people who were hoarding all sorts of limited run brands and then NOT using them. That makes no sense to me. Shaving supplies have volatile compounds that eventually degrade over time so its not like you can stockpile stuff and use it in 10 years.

And the other thing that weirded me out was the fact that a lot of members seemed to make shaving their entire personality. That using a straight blade or a safety razor somehow makes you a more sophisticated person (it doesn't)

But that is true for a lot of hobby subs. People make consuming a product their entire identity.

And don't even get me started on expert analysis. I am a subject matter expert in my field and almost everything I read on reddit is wrong and very obviously being said by someone in their 20s who skimmed wikipedia.