What has AO become

[DaveDog]

I've been around for a few years and only recently have I returned to paintball. I used to post mainly in the friendly corner and lurked the rest of the site. This place used to be busy as hell.

I look around nowadays and I'm sad to see few familiar faces and even fewer members than in the past. This place used to easily have over 100 members on at any time, even during the slow times.

I recall the AO days of years past where there would be over 100 show up. I recently read that Tunaball had only 60. Can't AO do better than that?

Who moderates this forum now? I never see PotatoBoy, Tunaman, Miscue or CPhil.

This place used to be the best forum around. It's very disapointing to see what it has become.

[Ruler_Mark]

Tuna is temp unavalible his computer took a poop.

Beemer and Army are what appear to be the 2 main mods.

[questionful]

I think it used to be more popular even a few months ago, but then I think something happened and some people left? Another forum or something? I don't know. But there are very few people on now. I'm glad it's not super-huge, then it just gets impersonal and spammy, and there are so many posts you know most people are just reading the first post and posting. Here, I like knowing that people generally read the whole thread, sometimes even know each other personally, and I just like it better here. But it could use more traffic.

[Ruler_Mark]

I think it used to be more popular even a few months ago, but then I think something happened and some people left? Another forum or something? I don't know. But there are very few people on now. I'm glad it's not super-huge, then it just gets impersonal and spammy, and there are so many posts you know most people are just reading the first post and posting. Here, I like knowing that people generally read the whole thread, sometimes even know each other personally, and I just like it better here. But it could use more traffic.

Personally I think its a combination of summer with people going on trips etc and the current state of the global economy many people cannot afford paintball anymore. Havent you seen an increase in guns for sale? especially high ticket ones for more than fair prices.

On a side note a site I run we have experienced a ~20% decline in traffic since feb, and a larger decrease in sales. Sales are subscription based, and the product's quality has steadly been rising.

[Whee McGee]

There's also that drama that happened a few months ago, which split the forums into 3. PBLegion and BigE online are the two other havens you're looking for if you want maggers.

[teufelhunden]

Is it that time of year again?

[Oregon_pb_]

Summer is usually more busy for folks. They may play pball more, but also camp, hike, float rivers, BBQ, swim, fish etc.


this place is still better than pbn, but if I have PBN or no forum i'd probably pick no forum.

[GoatBoy]

No, DaveDog is right. He joined the forum about the same time I did. Actually I was reading the forums for a while prior to joining to make my first post.

The place does seem to have dried up a bit. I know I myself got busy for a while, but I made my way back eventually. I was just watching the Tex-Ball DVD from 2004 and noticed that I don't see most of the people from the DVD in the forums anymore.

I personally miss the very detailed oriented posts by Jack & Coke.

I think there's kind of a perfect storm worth of contributing factors.

Economic factors aren't really helping much.

People will always come and go. Some players leave, and the ranks are refreshed by newer ones. But, some of the newer ones seem to be headed toward the scenario scene. AGD wanted to bank on the scenario scene, but they kinda pulled another one of their half-hearted efforts with the Tac One and the other guys ate their lunch. Those guys all like to play dress-up and rub their paintballs together, so off to other forums they go.

No more electros was obviously a bad thing for tournament ball.

From what I can tell, AGD never really seemed to care about the third category of players -- your good old fashioned recballers. (That would be me, by the way.) Hell, Tippmann does a better job with this crowd, and their entire product line is totally, absolutely inferior.

I've noticed that there has been some apparent fallout which seems to point toward pblegion. Don't tell me; I really don't think I want to even know what happened.

Excessive moderation can be a bad thing; even more so if it is uneven. I remember getting kicked from the IRC server for saying "Shatner" or "Dick Clark".




Now, truth be told, this isn't all downhill.

I think some of the "old guard" deserved to be cleared out. Whether someone cleared them out or they just atrophied on their own makes no difference to me. The current crowd, while smaller in number, seems pretty OK honestly.

I also think that a lot of the stigma attached with Automags is cleared up now. Ironically, it was not cleared up by AGD (although the ULE stuff helped quite a bit)... it was cleared up by the release of the spool guns, most notably the Shocker, which I swear half the time people mistake my Automag for. The rest of the paintball world finally caught up to the Automag, and now they can actually appreciate it.

[drg]

On a side note a site I run we have experienced a ~20% decline in traffic since feb, and a larger decrease in sales. Sales are subscription based, and the product's quality has steadly been rising.

[Ruler_Mark]

it isnt mmm.com its a completely unrelated site.

[sffudapparel]

I haven't been on this site long, nor do I know anyone personally on this website, yet I feel like this site has the most trustworthy people out there. i'd love to meet a bunch of you guys someday soon, it's tough to travel though with a truck and 4.+ gas prices.

As for the condition of the site, I reread all the articles in the historic post sections and it bums me out that I waited so long to get a mag/back into paintball. It was cool to see Tom interacting with his customers and giving away prizes and all the hype over new products and their prototypes being tried out and posted on here.

Yes, unfortunately we get some carry over from PBN who just wanna post their items in the FST section, but that's going to happen and it's funny watching they make a 20 line long section of rules because they don't know this is one of the best paintball websites and not one filled with so many shady people like PBN

Yup

[behemoth]

Did MarkM die?

[SCpoloRicker]

Is it that time of year again?

OH NOES AGD IS TEH DYIENG!!1

[devildog]

you think this site is dieing, you been on tribal owners lately? Or angel owners?

[ajnin]

Let us just hope and feel that its not dying, we are just refining our stock so to say.