Website-Related Idea for Tom (Please read)

[Wes Janson]

While I'd be tempted to say that this has already been done before (and perhaps it has), apparantly www.paintballdictionary.com has not been registered yet. So, what I'd like to throw out to AGD, is the idea of registering a hosting a relatively small site, for newbies and veterans alike. Take the basic concept of Wikipedia.org: a user-submitted online dictionary. Now apply it to paintball in general. For new players looking to learn about the sport, they can look up terms and history on the website. For the person who has a rare "six-pack" they picked up at a yardsale and can't identify, ten seconds of searching will bring up an entry giving a brief description of the item, who made it, relevent details, and possibly a link to a site with more info. You could put up a section talking about myths in paintball, to educate the newbs and prevent their heads from filling up with advertising bull. From a community perspective, it would be a very valuable resource. From a business perspective, it would gain AGD a large amount of traffic, raise the public awareness in new players of mags in general, and help combat images previously or currently associated with the name in general. It's a win/win situation. And there's no patent* on it yet ;)

*DISCLAIMER: By making this post, Wes Janson gives full permission to Air Gun Designs to utilize the idea(s) detailed above in any manner that fits them, for as long as they wish.

[AGD]

That sounds like a good project for AO not AGD.

AGD

[Fixion]

Not a bad idea. I can help webstuff if needed.

[Wes Janson]

That sounds like a good project for AO not AGD.
How would you define the difference between the two sites's operators as being? (aren't they both run by the same AGD employees?)

And thanks for responding so fast :)

[Wrathchild]

AO = Loyal Fanbase. AGD = AGD

[Wes Janson]

But both are hosted by the same company (presumably), and both are run by the same people (presumably). A dictionary site would have to be hosted by the same company and, quite likely need to be produced/run by paid professionals. Or maybe not. For it to become a major resource for players, it would likely need serious support.

[MantisMag]

i think he means some of the members on AO should do it. i could be wrong but it's a thought. we have quite a few IT professionals on the board. if it really did become a big resource adspace and perhaps donations could provide funding for the site. as for manpower, you'd have to figure that out. the mods here are volunteers but i think without the community you'd be hard pressed to find someone willing to donate that amount of time in the long term.

[jayloo]

I made www.jayloo.com - Paintball Photo Gallery. After I clean up the few bugs that r left I could do this project.

Any objections?

BTW, that name www.paintballdictionary.com is no longer available.

[FreakBaller12]

www.thepaintballdictionary.com

we need web space. This will need a group effort from all of us. A few peopel to look at the entries so there are no doubles or wrong entries. Some people have to look over it before they add.

[WARPED1]

It's called WARPIG.:D :p

[Wes Janson]

Jayloo seems to have registered www.paintballdictionary.com, so we've got the URL. The next step is for someone to create the HTML for the website, both the main pages, and the database-related elements. I know nothing about anything, so I'm afraid I'm useless here. Personally I think this is something AGD should own themselves, as a community resource. Perhaps as a segment of AO itself.

It's called WARPIG
WARPIG has alot of things on it, but it's organization is lacking to some degree, and in this particular case there's nothing like it on there. I like WARPIG, but it isn't this. If a newbie is reading online, and hears someone talking about "sweetspotting", or "PPS" then this would be where they would immediately turn to for an explanation.

[jayloo]

It is a good idea and an active AOer should do it since AGD passed it up. Yes, I got the name and I also have the space and programming ability. We can make this an AO project for those interested.

We can start by posting a list of what the site should have.

[datapimp69]

well this is going to be interesting.

since i have an order comformation that i bought paintballdictionary.com

we will let internic figure out who has it :)

not trying to sound like an *** i just saw this and went and bought it.

i have the server too and all the bandwidth i need.

[jayloo]

LOL, I guess great minds think alike. No matter what, it is a good idea and deserves to happen regardless.

I am a resource either way.

[datapimp69]

i think you will get it since i did reg it till around 11pm last night.

i just cant wait to see them fight it out over who gets it.

if we wanted to have fun, and maybe some money we could both fight it and make them pay

[FreakBaller12]

we need titles and sub titles obviosuly and a search button

mags then a topic as parts of mags and stuff
the speedball lingo
general lingo. Stuff like that.

I'd be glad to help out. let us all know.

[nippinout]

paintballtech (paintballtech.org)

It's a wiki site for paintball tech stuff.

I still prefer Have Blue's Ratsnest though.

[Dryden]

According to a whois search for paintballdictionary.com, Jayloo has it.

I would certainly be willing to help with the site as well. I've got ample experience with Unix, Linux, MySQL, and PHP, and the OC-12 fiber connection at work doesn't hurt either! ;)

[ClassicMagger]

Hey:

If you guys need any help with definitions and terms of ANY older paintball guns and items. Then I can definately help you out there. I am completely lost with computer stuff. But if terms and definitions are needed let me know. I would be more than happy to help.

ClassicMagger

[TheDoveDecends]

Id be happy to help out... im expierenced in hosting and such. Have owned many websites.. so id be glad to help out with whatever is needed!

[Major Jam]

http://www.airgun.com/Game/index.shtml

[jayloo]

Post more requirements and ideas for the content of this dictioary.

[Dryden]

Originally posted by jayloo
Post more requirements and ideas for the content of this dictioary. My first thought is that there should be dedicated server space with Apache, PHP, MySQL under either a flavor of Linux or BSD Unix. Set up a general purpose forum, similar to this one, running phpBB2 to get started on the brainstorming. From there, people can volunteer or be nominated for technical, critical, writing, and artistic responsibilities.

My concern with a paintball dictionary/wiki, in the sense of a true wiki-wiki, is that there are just simply going to be too many PBN'ers and pbreview'ers editing good posts with "don't buy it, it sucks" critiques and inline images from ebaumsworld.

A wiki type package, with an authorized change/commit/review process would probably be best.

Most importantly, I think it is prudent, and in the spirit of AO, not to limit ideas solely to the realms of AGD products. It should be much more ambitious, with histories available for any marker, or any vendor, from all eras back to the early 80s.

I'm thinking of a hierarchal database, similar to Wikipedia or Yahoo!, with a general purpose dictionary section (explain industry terms, pb'er slang, etc.), a product glossary (illustrated history back to the original Crosman oil based markers), company histories/personalities (from the people that invented the sport to those that brought it out of the woods), yada yada yada.

While this sounds very ambitious to those who aren't familiar with a wiki-wiki, they grow very fast. Thousands of people can write content voluntarily and simultaneously as a community. The real headache is finding several dozen copy editors to make it all legible.

Visit en.wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org) for an example of the scale I'm thinking of.

[Wes Janson]

I'm thinking of a hierarchal database, similar to Wikipedia or Yahoo!, with a general purpose dictionary section (explain industry terms, pb'er slang, etc.), a product glossary (illustrated history back to the original Crosman oil based markers), company histories/personalities (from the people that invented the sport to those that brought it out of the woods), yada yada yada.

I think you've summed up more or less exactly what it needs. Obviously, we want a main search on the front page that accesses all entries in all categories for easy searching. Beyond that, I can see sub-sections for slang, people, markers, companies, paint, gear, and probably other things I've forgotten. A visual diagram of all markers made, organized by year in a descending or horizontal order, would be very, very nice (and relatively simple). Beyond the dictionary, I could see there being a section of tips. Think of the moderation system used at www.bash.org : everyone has one vote, up or down. In that manner, you could collect the most pertinent and useful tips all in one spot, in a constantly growing database.
Forums need not be elaborate or numerous, just two or three for basic purposes. A links page is necessary, perhaps multiple pages: one for companies, one for teams, one for players/misc.
Personally, I see no need to try to steal traffic from www.pbreview.com . There should be no need for reviews, no need for ratings. Simple definitions. Information would be submitted either by a small group of trusted and knowledgeable AOers, or else open to all visitors, but unposted until moderated by one the same said group. There are two ends to fear: having too little information because the submitters are too few, and having too much garbage thrown into the system by malicious or ignorant posters.

[Grasshopper]

Great idea! Whatever happens with it, make sure it's simple and nice lookin'.

[Fixion]

Well, whois (or better-whois) will tell us who actualy bought the name. Anyways, I can help with the serverside stuff (eg. apache/php/mysql/linux), programing, and html. I'm also pretty good at that Photoshop thingy and that Imageready thingy.

Edit: should have read ALL the previous posts :p.

Edit 2: I may be able to provide a server and possibly a fat pipe.

[yeahthatsme]

i'd be willing to help with posting/moderating or something, watching for double posts and what-not...or any other help thats needed...

[Wes Janson]

Me has PS/Illustrator skills/programs, and I'm willing to be a moderator.