Fanboy Definition: 1. A person who is completely loyal to a camera or camera brand regardless of whether said camera or camera company produces products that are overpriced, overrated or simply suck or not.
2. A pathetic insult often used by fanboys themselves to try and put down people who don’t like whatever it is they like.
Fanboys are everywhere. Those individuals who are quick to defend their chosen brand and just as quick to discount all other brands as being inferior devices made by peasants working for minimum wage in some factory in Southeast Asia.
I’ve come across a number of Fanboys in the last ten years. Most of them used Leicas but Canon and Nikon also have their share as does Sigma and all the other camera brands.. they really are everywhere. No matter which camera forum you visit there will be several Fanboys in residence willing to brand anyone who dares question or disparage their camera brand of choice as a troll. Some of the Fanboys even follow the poor individual who has dared to question some feature of the Fanboy’s brand/camera from one camera forum to another taking pot shots at them and alerting the locals along the way that a troll is in their midst and is not to be trusted.
What drives someone to adopt such a behavior pattern? Do they really have such a boring life that becoming a Fanboy provides status and gratification that cannot be achieved in any other manner? Are they so blind that they fail to see what they have become?
I say live and let live. If you have a problem or complaint with one of the cameras that I use, why should I care? Why would I rush to the defense of the camera if it did not perform in the way you expected it to perform? What vested interest do I have in the camera or the brand that makes me feel so insecure that I must defend it and attack you. Yes, you…. You stupid Troll! Sorry… I got carried away. See how easy it is?
I can remember an incident that occurred in one of the Leica forums in which one of The Uninformed made the mistake of asking why the Leica M8 did not have auto-focus. No less than three of the Leica Fanboys took this opportunity to label this poor individual a Troll. Turns out he was not a troll, just new to photography and could not understand how such an expensive camera did not offer auto-focus. He knew nothing about Leica and was just asking, what appeared to him, to be an honest and puzzling question.
I have to admit that I find the Fanboy threads to be highly amusing and even entertaining on occasion. I know it’s not politically correct to take pleasure in the stupidity of others but hey, I’m only human. Let’s face it.. we all enjoy watching a good fight every now and then… especially when we’re not involved but rather watching from the sidelines.
To be honest, Fanboys & Trolls are equally bad for camera forums.
Fanboys believe the gear is the second coming and has no faults. How could it? It is Divine! In addition, Fanboys are quick to brand the uninformed as troublemakers. One might ask a perfectly legitimate question and be branded a troublemaker.. which is just one step away from becoming a Troll. For instance I might make the observation that the brand new Zomflecker Camera does not handle noise well at ISO settings above 128,000 and a Zomflecker Fanboy would take this as a serious assault on his own personal camera and manhood. Withering defense to follow combined with dashes of name calling and the issuance of the Troll label.
The Real Trolls are there just to poke people (usually the Fanboys) with a stick and stir up as much mischeif as possible. They think it’s great fun and know just what things to say to push the buttons of those loyal to the brand in question. To them it’s all good sport and a jolly good time.
It doesn’t take a lot of brains to be a Troll. Come to think of it, it doesn’t take a lot of brains to be a Fanboy either.