I’ll start. I have recently gotten into 3D printing, and, while incredibly frustrating sometimes, there’s nothing more rewarding than getting a perfect print.
Lockpicking is nice. You won’t believe how many friends ask for help after they know your hobby. Most of the time it’s just “my keys are still inside, so it’s not locked”. It’s the easiest, but you don’t need to pick the lock to open those.
Not sure if it’s niche: Bouldering. It’s such a great sport and comes really natural to us, like running or swimming. It provides a full body workout without feeling like a workout. It makes you quite strong without feeling like repetitive or dull. The community is very nice and positive.
It’s pretty popular among my fellow students here, but I’d agree that it may be pretty niche overall.
I heard that you do races as well, although that was from my very unreliable friend, so it’s probably all just balderdash
Yeah that’s pretty much balderdash (like that word). Never did a bouldering race before or seen one, and I’ve been doing this sport since 7 years.
But there’s speed climbing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZ5RiaMFYI
Most climbers belittle it, but it’s really entertaining to watch.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=4RZ5RiaMFYI
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I want to start working out again without going to a Gym. There is a climbing Gym close to where I live and I need to check it out. How did you start do you recommend taking classes? Any gear I need to buy?
The main equipment you’ll need are shoes and a harness. But most gyms will let you rent those for you to try out the sport.
You don’t really need to take classes to start. The gym staff will tell you the initial info you need to go, then just get started by climbing some easy top rope routes or basic boulders to get a feel for it!
For bouldering all you need is a pair of shoes and a chalk-bucket! :) if there is an intro class, I would definitely recommend that, otherwise just bring some friends and have fun!
Role-playing games. It might hit close to mainstream now, after all those tv series and movies where they appear directly or indirectly, but as an actual hobby, it’s still niche thing.
I think they should be part of educational program, globally.
Like DnD? Or what role-playing games?
Tabletop role-playing games in general. D&D and Pathfinder are now the most widely recognized and played ones, but there’s whole library of choices. Thousands of games out there, catering to different needs, offering different experience, set in different worlds and offering different choices.
For example, there’s BLUE PLANET in production - a SF/cyberpunk/environmentalist game in production, taking place on a distant planet covered mostly by water. In terms of the setting, it’s antithesis to DUNE, or very old, but stil amazing DARKSUN but the undertones are similar - people fighting against greed that ruins their world.
Whatever idea you have, zombie apocalypse, kids saving the world, people investigating Lovecraftian horror, spaceships, weird west world, clash of fantasy kingdoms - there’s a game for that.
I second with Vampire: The Masquerade, The Dark Eye, Shadowrun and StarWars RPG in my family. Teach your kids to play and they will never have time or money to waste on drugs. ;)
A man after my own heart!
By the way, do you know “Star Wars: REUP” edition?
No, sorry. We are playing Age of Rebellion rules during the Old Republic, because the children wanted to be Jedi.
I like buying LEGO minifigures and then designing/building biomes for them to inhabit. I use BrickLink Studio to design the builds and then upload my parts list to BrickLink to get used bricks to build them. I also post them on Rebrickable for free, but I’ve fallen behind and need to post more on there.
Here are a few that I’ve built.
Hey that’s pretty sweet man. Has some diorama feel to it.
Calligraphy. The color of the inks are just mesmerizing. But my normal handwriting is really ugly…
I was never really into calligraphy that much but for some reason Arabic calligraphy just kinda hits different for me so I’ve been thinking of looking more into that as I learn the language
I do nearly all my clothes shopping at second hand stores. I love finding just the right items to make up great outfits to go out in. It can sometimes take months to piece together an outfit, though I do also mix and match things. It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes; I enjoy shopping around, I enjoy a bargain, and I enjoy the challenge and reward of making my own great outfits at a tiny cost.
I’ve never really enjoyed playing online games. (I don’t like being harassed by strangers. I have enough problems with my self-esteem, thank you.) But now I’ve gotten into several niche games I’d prefer to play with people and I have no skills or energy to make that happen. The most niche one is the Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. I love that game and I’d love to play with my friends, but my friends have very little trek fandom/rts enthusiast crossover.
Blacksmithing. Something so primal and simple about it. And you get to play with fire. But what I find most satisfying is the ability, once you have a few simple tools, to make any other tools you need. It’s like the og 3d printing.
I shop Goodwill like it’s a job.
DVDs are always welcome. We have like 900 discs right now. $1.50-$3 a piece over several years.
Then it’s all kitchen gadgets. All kinds of single purpose appliances for <$10. If they work out, keep them or upgrade them to a higher quality brand. If they don’t, donate them back.
It’s a lot of fun, and a real shopping experience that forces you to consider different options because if limitations where Amazon might funnel you into a single solution.
Is it only Goodwill specifically or any thrift store? Are Goodwills generally better than others?
Goodwills are general worse in my opinion.
They set up an auction site and now all the good stuff is up for auction instead of sitting on shelves
We only really shop Goodwill and are familiar with the layout and trends. It has gotten worse lately, but we did get a working, clean minifridge for $50 ($250 new), and we got our stand mixer from the auction site mentioned by someone else. $90 for the mixer and a ton of attachments. Just needed a $10 gear replaced.
The ability to identify practically any bird or reptile in North America. I get friends asking me what things are all the time… then trying to extend my knowledge to fungi and plants (which I’m getting better with, but not at the same level). It doesn’t feel too niche until I interact with my friends outside of biology.
Hi there! There are a bunch of active nature-centred communities on mander.xyz you might enjoy :)
I have an account for that instance too, hah. I might make that my main. Definitely my people!
One of us! One of us!
I’m a big fan of amateur radio, specifically portable operation, and Parks on the Air.
I’ll take my radio out to a remote location, throw an antenna up into some trees, and talk to people all over the US.
Currently I need mains power, but I’m looking to buy a battery soon, and I already have some solar panels gifted from a club member.
I live in Michigan, and last time I was out, my most distant contacts were in Dallas, Texas, around 1100 miles away, while I was sitting at a picnic table at my local state park campground.
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I play mandolin, which I think is niche? This summer I’ve been learning ableton live with the goal of combining edm influences and small, odd instruments.
I’m a fellow mandolin player! Couldn’t believe what I just read haha. There isn’t typically too many of us making ourselves known in places like this
Me three! I wish there was a mandolin community here
No kidding! Maybe I will look into starting one…
Please do!
Okay I did it! I honestly don’t know the right way to link to communities so I hope this works. Let’s get it going: !mandolin@lemmy.ca
@cottard@lemmy.world and @ritswd@lemmy.world you’re invited too!
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !mandolin@lemmy.ca
Awesome, thanks! Just joined.
Me too!
When my wife offered it to me for my birthday, I hadn’t seen a real one in my life. I already had been playing the guitar and the ukulele (on top of other non-string instruments) for a while, and I said: “I hope it’s not yet another tuning to learn chords from scratch on, a friend tried to teach me the cello’s tuning once and I found it so needlessly confusing”.
Oops… 😂
But it’s all good, I got over it. 🙂
I play the flute in the marching/concert band of my small town (we are all amateurs).
Mosaic crocheting. You can create blankets that basically look like quilts, or photographs (although I don’t like the look of the latter).
Home server take an old pc setup with a load of old harddrives noodle about with all the self hosting apps.
