Snobbery?

I have not founds it nearly as bad on Caudata.org, but over on Facebook I am finding there is a certain amount of snobbery among some keepers.

Today a newcomer posted an axolotl question in a general salamander and newt group, and someone posted a rather nasty reply. I have also seen people commenting what appears to be condescending remarks about axolotl keepers, using words such as 'amateurs' in a derogatory way, saying only kids keep axies.

Has anyone else come across this before? Is it common for newt, salamander and frog enthusiasts to look down on axie keepers? Is this only a problem on Facebook because of the nature of Facebook itself?

TBH all the amphibian people I have met face to face have been lovely - really friendly and eager to share their experiences and wisdom. Maybe it's true that the anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in people...

Yes, only 16 year old girls that wear Hello Kitty clothes have axolotls. I think they also dress them up and put scuba barbie in the tank to play with them.......LMAO. Right or wrong, I think that is how the Axolotl part of the hobby is looked at many times.

I know plenty of experienced amphibian keepers who love keeping axolotls but your right there can be a certain "snobbery" about axolotls being for noobs lol

Axolotls are the most widespread and numerous caudate in captivity and they are easily available. This means they reach a huge number of people of all conditions. While keeping other newts and salamanders is often perceived as nerdy and kind of a fringe and unusual part of the hobby, not so much about owning pets, but rather about observing their natural history, but axolotl keepers are more mainstream and perhaps perceived as any other pet owning demographic. You don't see many 15 year olds posting pictures of how cute their Hynobius are, but you do get plenty of that with axolotls, as you naturally would with other "pets". The heavy emphasis on selective breeding, the various mutations and also, and very significantly, the way they are often advertised contribute to make the axolotl keeping scene more in line with other traditional pet owning. This is readily observable in these forums. The axolotl section has a much higher content of threads that are more about the pet and social aspects.
They are also often seen as novelty, almost designer pets, rather than "wild creatures" in a tank.
There are plenty of dedicated axolotl keepers, people who are knowledgeable about the "species" and who are very responsible keepers, but there are also a lot of new keepers, and they are by definition -no bad connotation implied- amateurs. There are amateurs and newbies in all areas, but they are more numerous among axolotl keepers simply because of how large their numbers are. Also, getting into newts and rarer species of salamander is not necessarily easy and it may take a prospective newbie more time and exposure to the hobby to get started, whereas it is very easy to go to a pet-store and get an axolotl. You see a similar trend with other caudate species that are readily available, like H.orientalis. That too is a species that is often seen as "vulgar" and people who keep them as amateurs.
So it is true that sometimes axolotl keeping as a whole is seen as amateurish, for the reasons above, but what matters at an individual level depends on how serious and how dedicated that person is. There is nothing intrinsic to keeping axolotls, or firebellies, that means you can't be a responsible, knowledgeable, dedicated keeper. I think it would be a very good thing, though, if there was more of an emphasis on that in the axolotl keeping community.