Hacker News Reader

Comment by gillesjacobs | Hacker News Reader

Common sense, really. I got angry with my beefcake friend when we were are at an anthropological history site in Japan and he decided spontaneously to lift the ancestral lifting stone.

Edit: I recall the name: Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato). There is a historic lifting stone on the side of a path, which you obviously are not allowed to pick up or would require permission. Exact location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/oxKc4M2djkk76s8y5

View on HN

Funnily enough, I went to Hida no Sato in May to visit the stones (the museum itself is great too)! They're going to be the subject of one of my future articles. The stones at Hida folk village are lighter than most, but the setting makes them wonderful. I got permission to lift of course. That's the key really - especially with Japanese stones when they're often in shrines.

You're really dedicated to the sport. They're not on your site yet, do you regularly add new ones or are monuments like these not in-scope?

Know any in the Benelux? The region seems pretty empty on the site, can't say there is a strong stone lifting or strongman culture here.

I do add some monuments. For Japanese stones, I'm a little more conservative about adding them, generally. I'll be adding the Hida no Sato stones to the map alongside the article though.

As for Benelux, I'm not aware of any historic stones. There is one person who set up a stonelifting challenge in Belgium. Feel free to email me (via the contact email on the site) and I can share more info if you want it.

How did you get permission? Do you speak Japanese?

I would have thought stone lifting etiquette would have prevented stones in shrines, and can see them being the biggest attacked by this hobby.

Yeah, I speak a little Japanese, so I was able to ask one of the people working at the museum.

It really depends on the shrine. Some explicitly allow lifting and some have stones that you're not allowed to touch. So it's best to ask in just about every case.

Could it be that your friend champions the inaugural campaign to liberate stones from their purgatory?

I wonder if the stone sensed his exuberant freedom and exclaimed, "Yes, this is the life!"

This entire thread/post just feels like an excuse for these people to keep lifting stones and it is no doubt going to lead to more idiots traveling and lifting stones. For some reason Japan is a hub for people being obnoxious.

I will attempt to sum up what’s actually bothering you here… This kind of behavior bothers me too. Censure-driven gatekeeper enforcement (prevalent in niche interest) of strict rules fosters an atmosphere of elitism and exclusion, where individuals are judged more on their ability to adhere to arbitrary criteria than on their genuine passion or potential contributions to it.

Communities that prioritize inclusivity and openness tend to be more dynamic and resilient. However, it is much easier to rally attention as a gatekeeper than an innovator.

Gatekeeping and promoting ideas like this on hacker news further expands the cult/clique and indoctrinates more patrons while expanding its leaders (or web masters) ring of influence.

Yes! That feels like what my silly bother is. But also it ends up pivoting where everyone is doing it, and the rules are now more cosmetic and hipster than they are really for everyones benefit.

Gatekeeping is a huge problem for communities that are always connected. See video game metas, reddit sub-reddits, etc. These places just feel stale after the first few innovators define the "best of all rules", where there are people who follow and very, very small amounts of people who experiment.

Precisely

Had my friend read the etiquette page, he probably wouldn't have lifted the stone without asking permission. So no, OP's website is beneficial wrt educating people to avoid the purported obnoxious behavior. Additionally the hobbyists that travel to lift stones probably already know not to lift monuments.

But I guess you mainly wanted to complain about obnoxious tourists in Japan, so fair enough. I highly doubt tourists in general are more disrespectful in Japan vs. elsewhere.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com