View Full Version : What Happened To AO?
The Action Figure
12-18-2007, 11:52 PM
I joined this forum several years ago, and took about a year off from Paintball. I remember when this forum used to have new posts on everything I could ever want to know. I tried PBN ofr awhile but it wasn't worth the 100 posts of BS and "buttsecks" to get to the 1 post of facts. New post happened every 10 seconds in the "old" AO and i would have to look to the second or third page to find the post i needed. Its seems now though with the popularity of mags declining, the popularity of AO is declining. It makes me sick to see the mag of the month at 2 pages instead of the 6 or 7 it was. Anyway it seems to me as if we need a mag revival so to speak, because without the mag where would paintball be anyway. Well thats the end of my rant, whether you agree or disagree you cant argue that AO is not the place it once was... Just my 2 cents.
garbageman705
12-19-2007, 12:52 AM
Without the mag we would all be shooting tippmanns! :shooting:
I think the problem with mags is the lack of new products. Jeez, I mean the last new mag products came out in 2004 or something like that. I want to see a mag revival, I am almost :cry: thinking about the steady decline that the automag has made. It makes me really sad to see the end of an era, what with Tom Kay gone and SP suing everyone. Somethings gotta give man. I mean, PB Nation has so many pop up ads and morons that it's not even worth going their unless you want to lower your IQ to that of a Neanderthal and babble nonsense about pwning someones mom or whatever.
I really appreciate AO and I want a new electro mag! I just don't want to pay 1000 dollars for it. how about a new electronic mag that runs on a 9 volt for under 600! Now were talking! :shooting:
ljpiller
12-19-2007, 01:16 AM
Jeez, I went on PBNation once, and after about 5 minutes I was shocked by the advice people were getting. There was just suck a lack of quality topics and posts there. Its was all stuff such as: "wut gun shud I get" ... "98 custom if you play woodsball get an ion if you play speedball" Not everything was like that, but there were enough topics were nobody stepped in to give some decent advice.
I only really started looking at the forums here once I got a used Classic A.I.R. Automag a few months ago. While I don't have a great history to compare AO with, it has been the most informed and mature message board I've seen about paintball. It has kind of fallen onto the customers to spread the word about automags and get things going again.
garbageman705
12-19-2007, 01:43 AM
Did you get a mag yet?
SCpoloRicker
12-19-2007, 01:49 AM
*placeholder*
nathanjones008
12-19-2007, 07:10 AM
I agree with garbage man. Without innovation there is DESOLATION!
I hope the company realizes that.
nathan
tech-chan
12-19-2007, 03:06 PM
How about a new take on the hyperframe? Make it in a s-shape, and run the battery in side the front of the rail. It would be different, but it would be new.
Chronobreak
12-19-2007, 04:27 PM
i think if these pneumags get out, are good, the word will spread and well get an influx of new members, like we did with the hair trigger.
that or something exciting from AGD
thats a big iff, assuming everything goes ok with the pneu triggers and something doesnt delay or halt production
Chaos_Theory!
12-19-2007, 04:39 PM
PBN > AO any and every day. As much crap as there is on PBN theres also tons of great info and stuff there as well (especially if you stay in the right areas). Just about the only good thing about AO is you can buy and sell mag stuff easier. AO has become the mini me of PBN. The moding here on AO has gotten just as bad as PBN as well. Pointless bans and then when there is stuff that needs to be taken care of it isnt. Theres never any good info here aside from archived threads that people use for info they need. I cant think of the last time i saw a news type thread that i hadnt seen on PBN a long time before it was here. Overall AO just isnt what it used to be on any level. I used to just stay on AO and not use PBN much at all but this site doesnt offer anything anymore beside a good place for B/S/T stuff (mag or otherwise). Bash me all you want, but AO wont ever be what it used to be and wont ever really compare to PBN.
It's inevitable with an aging platform. Exact same thing happened in the cocker community. Forums that were swarming with activity a few years ago are now relatively slow.
Thotograph
12-19-2007, 08:00 PM
I will say that I certainly missed out on the so called heyday of AO, so that would give me a different perspective on all of this, but...
For me its still the people who make the difference, that is on here anyways. PBN is all about one upping the guy before you, being agg (buttsecks?), indeed mom pwnage ranks high on most lists, and besides some of the marker specific sections... it just seems like a void of cliches being played out over and over again.
The bst section is something entirely onto itself... You have to strain your eyes to read through the icons and catchy agg tags on the thread titles. You can't trust anyone (when they say lnib that means maybe they took the time to sharpie out the scratches), and you don't see others looking out for one another the same as on here. Prices are just absurd for used equipment, when its used its not worth the same as new, but they don't realize this very often.
I'll admit some of the fun has left and gone elsewhere very recently, but I'll still keep coming around here only because of the comradery most of us share. A brotherhood of mag.
:cheers:
dixieoutfitter94
12-19-2007, 09:41 PM
I like comeing on here and having to make a thread in order to get a simple question answered. Plus, if I want an electronic marker, I will look on hte nation, I dont want all the people from the nation to come over here and pollute the marker forum with "sick nasty butt secks custom anno'ed dm8", I dont know how AO was a long time ago since im an AO noob but I like it how it is.
PBN > AO
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
http://misers.org/pictures/SomethingAwful/20050920-lol/lolcano.gif
Chaos_Theory!
12-19-2007, 10:26 PM
Hey look, an AO fanboy. :rolleyes:
DvS21
12-19-2007, 10:57 PM
specialopspaintball.com has good forums, very active, a little too 'woodsy' but not as dumb as PBN.
phantomhitman
12-20-2007, 04:34 PM
specialopspaintball.com has good forums, very active, a little too 'woodsy' but not as dumb as PBN.
ao fails because I left
Mongoose
12-20-2007, 05:02 PM
I have tried pbn and a few others, but they are not the same..however i do like PBLegion
Just feels like home! "where is the 2 cent smily" :ninja:
Don't lose sight of the fact that AO remains the premiere site for Automag information, discussion and commerce. Thanks to the comprehensive archive, public, always-open search feature(!!) and active userbase (yes it's still huge), most questions about mags can be answered very quickly.
There is a tendency with all communities to lament the leaving of respected or longtime members but it's the job of those that remain to carry on.
NewbieMagMan10988
12-20-2007, 06:29 PM
Allthough AO has been my favorite forum for a long long time, PBN does have it's strong points. AO's B/S/T section will never have the MASSIVE amounts of stuff. I look at this as a blessing and a curse, but if you're willing to do a little hunting you can find some sweet deals on PBN. I use PBN mostly for two reasons,
B/S/T
The good FAQ's and equpment guides (good for dissasebmly, trubleshooting, ect)
Other than that I feel like AO and MCB are overall better forums. The lack of "agg" kiddies helps alot. AO and MCB have allways been somewhere where I could get good informatoin of the obscure things I love about paintball (Desert Ducks, other old/rare things). The sites' own search feature helps with this (lets face it, the google PBN search is not so great). While PBN could have givien me answers, it would only have been after five or six pages of "D00d, WTF is a dEsssot dUck?!?!?!!one!1111"
I'm not one to tell people what to do, so go where ever you like. Ultimatly that's what it's all about.
Motorhead
12-20-2007, 06:56 PM
It is NOT just AO that has lost membership !!
I am an Administrator of a Hobby R.C. Race Boating web site that just 2 years ago was having 1000% more activity than it does now. Are these ex members out of the sport ? ... Actually no, most are quite active doing it, only LESS active talking and tired of reading redundant information.
The World Wide Web in regards to specific subject message boards & chat forums is recent years have become a waste land of repeat questions, Few doing searches and worse yet little too NO past info there to find !!
Damn near every site I personally frequent threw the years has suffered some sort of HACK attack that either has disabled the site permanently, or caused a GREAT loss of archived information.
Don't know about you folks left here from days of old, but in subjects where I am confident enough to post accurate information, only do so maybe one or twice then move on.
Something like a teacher with that years class only, say it once or twice then teaching moves on.
When new blood comes and go's so frequently asking the same old stuff over and over the boards fall silent. Most are trolling for free info and willing to give nothing back :mad:
JMHO.
Scott
Beemer
12-21-2007, 01:07 AM
I am an Administrator of a Hobby R.C. Race Boating web site
Which one.
wolf13
12-21-2007, 01:09 AM
speaking of old info disappearing, I have noticed an increasing number of abandoned urls that have been squated on are using the robots text to disable archiving. Cockers got hit even worse though, the largest sites are gone now, and with em the archived info. when we started up customcockers.com just over a year ago, we weren't sure what was going to happen, and while its exceeded our expectations in some ways, I've noticed as well we have a hard time keeping people. even people that are dedicated cocker people and frequent posters on other forums, just haven't stuck around. Its getting better as the user base grows and the background builds up, but its still there. What I think has happened is a lot of people anymore just want to use the net and forums to socialize, rather then exchange info. what forums on many sites are most popular? the off topic forums of course. people over the years really have formed communities, and moving away from those communities is hard. A lot of boards have a pretty large demographic it seems of people no longer involved in that hobby, but still are frequent posters simply because of the community.
LudavicoSoldier
12-21-2007, 11:18 PM
Where is Creative Mayhem at a time like this? I miss the AO meets... No better excuse to drive 10 hours to Canadia! Or Pittsburgh. Granted, I missed out of Shatnerball and the bigger meets, but the ones I did go to were a blast. Legends of AFTICA indeed.
druid
12-22-2007, 11:57 AM
ao fails because I left
No, that's wrong...
AO phails because everyone's afraid to post...before someone slings the banhammer for seriously DUMB stuff...
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