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Originally Posted by d-cee /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I think it's more a distribution of the age bracket of people likely to discuss their hobby on the internet. Other forums would probably have similar figures unless it's a forum dedicated to I don't know... nursing homes?
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Im 45 and hang out at 6 forums:
Head-Fi (mostly) where I'm clearly much older than the average member which I would guess at 25.
AVS Forum where I suspect the overall average age is about 30 but the average age of active posters is more like 35.
Atom Club where I suspect the average age is about 35.
Audiogon and Steve Hoffman Forum, where I suspect the average age is about 40.
RV.net where the average age is about 50 but the dominant group of active posters are in their 60s (and many in their 70s). There are a lot of younger members, but they use it more as a resource. The RV.net "community" has clearly been built by the older, more experienced, full-time RV'ers who have the time and inclination to patiently answer all of the newbie question. Very generous people.
So just looking at the forums that I frequent, the average age varies quite a bit and it's all a function of the size of the toys. At Head-Fi, younger people tend to be more active whereas a slightly older crowd hangs out at the AVS Forum, and slightly older again at Audiogon. This is a natural transition from headphones and portable audio (at Head-Fi) to home theater based systems (of every variety at AVS) to dedicated 2 channel high end audio systems (at Audiogon).
The Steve Hoffman forums draw all sorts of folks but the general crowd there are more likely to be music nuts (as opposed to audiophiles or "gear nuts" although there is obviously overlap) and the bulk of them are into classic rock from the 60's and 70s primarily. So this means that the typical active member there will be mid 30's through mid 50s, give or take.
Even the RV crowd is changing! It used to be that 90% of all RVs sold were to people above the age of 50. I'm told that today, that number has dropped down to about 60%.
In any case, it's really hard to generalize but pretty much anyone can find groups of people with similar interests and experiences on the internet!
