Funny stuff.
I'm actually kind of surprised there aren't forums out there for hammers or hand tools. There are forums out there for fountain pens, flashlights, bikes and all kinds of ****. While the analogy used to lambast photo forums is carpenters or painters, maybe a better analogy is music recording, since it is heavily technology based. Jesus, you should check out some of those forums. One of the biggest even acknowledges the gear fetish: gearslutz.com.