Non-constructive criticism
The Internet seems to give people a unique opportunity to have a reputation for expertise without having to demonstrate it. They aren't rigging in front of people, aren't rigging in clubs, in fact they seem to not do a lot where people can see what they actually are or are not able to do at all. It's not about people doing their bondage in private. It's only something I really notice with a certain kind of internet expert.
The kind I'm thinking of are the ones that seek to gain status by critiquing other peoples work.
I've seen criticism of Akechi Denki, Nureki Chimuo, Osada Steve, Arisue Go... well the list goes on.
These criticisms, uttered with great authority and certainty really grind on me for several reasons. Not least of which is that they are done with no regard for the context in which or the time when the work was done, with no regard for the development, innovation and creation involved or of the age of the bondage in question.
It's possible to look at pictures from the past and to say, this is wrong, that is wrong, this should have been done. However the bondage of 30 or 40 years ago was a product of that time and the development and knowledge of that time. To sit now and to look at it with perfect hindsight but without historical context and pick apart 'selected examples' isn't a fair way to view them. The fact is that a great deal can and should be learned from the work of the past.
For someone to try to make their reputation at the expense of those that have made genuine contributions to the advancement, knowledge and progress of rope bondage is not only likewise incomprehensible but also repulsive to me.
In the end the thing that most strikes me is that people wish to build what they are pleased to call their reputation at the expense of those that have made great contributions rather than by making a contribution themselves.