This has been on my mind for most of the night. I think I even went to sleep with it in my head, and it turned into a dream. It’s not something that just came to me, but it’s made itself more apparent as time has gone by. I’m beginning to understand that gatekeeping certain aspects of the hobby might actually be beneficial if it means keeping it alive as long as possible.
There are a number of things I’ve kept to myself in this hobby, and continue to. Sometimes it’s because someone trusted me with information, other times it’s because I know saying something out loud could hurt the hobby. Some of this is public knowledge, some of it isn’t. And while the information that is public knowledge should be fair game to share, for some reason it doesn’t always feel that way. It feels like if I said something about certain providers, it could bring the entire hobby crashing down. I know I’m exaggerating, but through a certain pair of goggles, it can feel that way.
I’ve never been a fan of gatekeeping. What we do here is meant to work around that so newcomers and veterans alike don’t get left in the dark. It keeps us from asking the same questions over and over, and above all, it removes the doubt that the provider you’re seeing might be a scammer coming for your wallet. Still, I’ve had people come to me and share info about a provider they’ve seen, or plan to see, and ask me to keep it between us. Not because they were boasting, but because they either wanted to keep seeing her, or they didn’t want her mentioned publicly in case she became unavailable.
Case in point: I’ve had multiple guys reach out to me about
Christie Derek. She’s a UTR provider on AIA. It’s not exactly hard to figure out who she is, but I chose not to blast her entire identity to the world because technically, it isn’t public knowledge. And besides, she doesn’t want to be tied to the stigma of providing—that’s her prerogative. If I’d put her whole identity out there, she probably would’ve seen it, and those guys who wanted to see her would’ve lost their chance because of something I did.
There’s a gray area here, and I’m trying not to cross it. But at the same time, the line feels blurrier and blurrier to me, to the point where I might cross it without even realizing. My intentions would always be good trying to help the next guy but it would still weigh on me.
So I’m looking for some clarity. A full-on debate, if you’d like. If you want to talk shit, go ahead. I’m just trying to make heads or tails of this. Regardless of the outcome, I’m not going to stop being me, but I feel like clarity needs to be put on the table. I might be looking for someone to say that I'm wrong; if I'm bein honest. It would just have to be a case behind it.
