is AO becoming like the nation?

[Automagsam]

I have to agree with that, no matter what paintball forum i've gone to i've always come back to this forum, and there have been many times where i just come back from not posting for a few months and start posting, and it's usually on this forum (this is one such occasion).

And for the record, it's not the first forum, i signed up to the nation, but quickly stopped posting there at all often, and when i did post there it was in the custom or AGD forums for the most part. Granted this forum isn't the same as it was in it's heyday, and it's not the same as when i first joined, but saying that it's even remotely like pbnation is false.

EDIT: At the bottom of the page you can make the forum show more threads from further back.

No, my only complaint would be that there have been childish arguments and mod/user wars on here ala pbn style, however they got resolved fast, and I hope that has ceased to happen from now on. I have always found this site to be like a giant family, where as pbn is more like a giant group of teens with no talent wanting to compensate for their lack of a gf and lack of knowledge about the sport, as all you hear is them bragging about their gun or bashing other guns and companies. Over here it seems more knowledge based, which goes to show their is an ounce of intelligence still in the paintball community.

[snoopay700]

No, my only complaint would be that there have been childish arguments and mod/user wars on here ala pbn style, however they got resolved fast, and I hope that has ceased to happen from now on. I have always found this site to be like a giant family, where as pbn is more like a giant group of teens with no talent wanting to compensate for their lack of a gf and lack of knowledge about the sport, as all you hear is them bragging about their gun or bashing other guns and companies. Over here it seems more knowledge based, which goes to show their is an ounce of intelligence still in the paintball community.

Eh, like was said earlier in the thread that is true to some parts of PBN, but it can be a good source of information, and that's actually where i have heard about the newer stuff coming out and usually a while before i see it here or elsewhere, and when i've been wondering how a marker works i can usually find information on there (usually an animation or just enough information for me to work it out). PBN has it's uses, it's just there are bad parts of it too. But it's mainly that it has the same feeling that most huge places have that i probably stopped posting there that often, AO is a lot smaller and just easier to actually talk to people and get to know the regulars, where as PBN has way more regulars and also people just tend to stop going there as often, like the AGD forum on there was still pretty active when i joined four or five years back, but now it's pretty dead.

Ah, i'm rambling again, sorry about that.

[Thordic]

Whoa, another "Is AO getting suckier?" thread. I think these started when Tom bought this forum from Flamebo like 10 years ago.

Yes, and no. Of course.

You are going to have transient member groups, AO "generations" so to speak. Most people don't stick around on an internet forum forever. As one group starts to fade, less and less of their friends and acquaintences are around on the forums. This gives them a feel that the forums are declining. The newest crop of members becomes the dominant group, and the cycle repeats. Then throw in events which cause tension and hostility between "new" and "old" membership generations and you get even more gripes about forum decline as older members blame the influx of new members for the issues, even though everyone is probably equally to blame.

The truth is, there are only two measures you can use. Activity, and post quality.

Activity is down, so in that regard AO is falling. It's been steadily declining since Tom retired. It's not hard to understand why.

Quality, on the other hand, has remained mostly constant. You can't look at posts from 5 years ago and compare them to today's posts and say "Wow, these new posts are really awful". You've lost a few of the really in-depth discussions due to a loss of activity, not a loss of quality, but theres little that can be done about that.

My point is, if you lurked moar, newblar, you would have realized all this, thereby saving me from typing all this, leaving me to actually accomplish some work and not waste time on an internet forum.

/2001 join date, eat it!

[MANN]

/2001 join date, eat it!

yes, but how many have changed names. not everyone with a 2k8 join date started in 2k8

Some post here went poof.

[Mongoose]

Whoa, another "Is AO getting suckier?" thread. I think these started when Tom bought this forum from Flamebo like 10 years ago.

Yes, and no. Of course.

You are going to have transient member groups, AO "generations" so to speak. Most people don't stick around on an internet forum forever. As one group starts to fade, less and less of their friends and acquaintences are around on the forums. This gives them a feel that the forums are declining. The newest crop of members becomes the dominant group, and the cycle repeats. Then throw in events which cause tension and hostility between "new" and "old" membership generations and you get even more gripes about forum decline as older members blame the influx of new members for the issues, even though everyone is probably equally to blame.

The truth is, there are only two measures you can use. Activity, and post quality.

Activity is down, so in that regard AO is falling. It's been steadily declining since Tom retired. It's not hard to understand why.

Quality, on the other hand, has remained mostly constant. You can't look at posts from 5 years ago and compare them to today's posts and say "Wow, these new posts are really awful". You've lost a few of the really in-depth discussions due to a loss of activity, not a loss of quality, but theres little that can be done about that.

My point is, if you lurked moar, newblar, you would have realized all this, thereby saving me from typing all this, leaving me to actually accomplish some work and not waste time on an internet forum.

/2001 join date, eat it!

Well said sir......well said

[SCpoloRicker]

My point is, if you lurked moar, newblar...

Huzzah, I can has UltraAO!

[Beemer]

Whoa, another "Is AO getting suckier?" thread. I think these started when Tom bought this forum from Flamebo like 10 years ago.

Yes, and no. Of course.

You are going to have transient member groups, AO "generations" so to speak. Most people don't stick around on an internet forum forever. As one group starts to fade, less and less of their friends and acquaintences are around on the forums. This gives them a feel that the forums are declining. The newest crop of members becomes the dominant group, and the cycle repeats. Then throw in events which cause tension and hostility between "new" and "old" membership generations and you get even more gripes about forum decline as older members blame the influx of new members for the issues, even though everyone is probably equally to blame.

The truth is, there are only two measures you can use. Activity, and post quality.

Activity is down, so in that regard AO is falling. It's been steadily declining since Tom retired. It's not hard to understand why.

Quality, on the other hand, has remained mostly constant. You can't look at posts from 5 years ago and compare them to today's posts and say "Wow, these new posts are really awful". You've lost a few of the really in-depth discussions due to a loss of activity, not a loss of quality, but theres little that can be done about that.

My point is, if you lurked moar, newblar, you would have realized all this, thereby saving me from typing all this, leaving me to actually accomplish some work and not waste time on an internet forum.

/2001 join date, eat it!

Heh heh. Nice post. The question is why are you wasteing your time on a crappy internet Forum?

Did you all miss post 37 or do I need to quote myself. If you see the big picture, it still is all in my user title no matter which side you look at it from. I copied it from another member, forgot who it was.

PS........Eat your join date.

[snoopay700]

Heh heh. Nice post. The question is why are you wasteing your time on a crappy internet Forum?

Did you all miss post 37 or do I need to quote myself. If you see the big picture, it still is all in my user title no matter which side you look at it from. I copied it from another member, forgot who it was.

PS........Eat your join date.

I missed that because the thread was too long, and i didn't feel like reading through a bunch of posts saying the same thing or claiming AO is dying. Granted i miss how it was, but i joined shortly after Tom left as president of AGD, so there were still a lot of people and there was a lot of discussion, but now the numbers have dwindled. These threads seem a lot like the whole "OMGFSDFG AGD IS DYINGZ" threads that keep popping up.

[behemoth]

My point is, if you lurked moar, newblar, you would have realized all this, thereby saving me from typing all this, leaving me to actually accomplish some work and not waste time on an internet forum.

/2001 join date, eat it!

/Epic win
//Viva La Thorde

[Thordic]

[gimp]

When I first started playing, and I wanted to upgrade from my Puma, I came across AO. That was before AGD bought it. Everyone was very helpful, they answered all my questions. I can ask a question today and get the same type of response I got back then.

I have an account at PBN, but I never use actually use it. I really can't compare the two. I suppose if I were looking for information on tournaments and stuff I'd check PBN, but I'm not really into that.

[dark blade]

k well i just did a search for threads like this and i found 4

3 back before 2004
1 back in 08 (regarding how AO is "broken" and we need to fix it)

so how am i repeating a commonly asked question seeing as i am the first to ask if the likes of the nation are infultrating AO... it is the first time it has been asked.

However... i shall "look more" and i rather dislike being called a newblar... but feel free to call me what you wish

[Thordic]

lurk != look

To lurk is to read a forum, either before or after signing up, usually in an attempt to understand the zeitgeist of the forum before posting and proving yourself a newblar.

You can search all you want, but you don't need to. The point people were trying to make is that this type of subject comes up very often. How the quality of AO is degrading, and other such related subjects. The thread titles may vary but the concept is brought up fairly consistently.

And if you had read my post rather than being insulted by the ending, you'd realize that I was saying that no, nothing is changing besides lower active membership.

PBNation is like a picture of what a post-apocolyptic world would be like if it were run by 16-year olds whose only education came from watching MTV reruns.

[dark blade]

i was not offended by the ending of your post and i had read the entire thing. And i knew that lurk = look.

My only point (which you obviously hadnt read from before) was that i can search all i want, but if i want to see the CURRENT opinions regarding something that has changed since I have joined, i cannot search for a thread a year ago.

I have also been reading a lot of the threads in the PB talk section on here and i have yet to see another one like mine, hence why i posted this thread.

However, continue to tell me to look more and i will continue to do so, my point still remains that in order for me to see the CURRENT opinions of people, i need to make a CURRENT thread to get them. Reading their opinions of a somewhat related topic a year ago isnt going to apply to this current topic at all.

[behemoth]

i was not offended by the ending of your post and i had read the entire thing. And i knew that lurk = look.

My only point (which you obviously hadnt read from before) was that i can search all i want, but if i want to see the CURRENT opinions regarding something that has changed since I have joined, i cannot search for a thread a year ago.

I have also been reading a lot of the threads in the PB talk section on here and i have yet to see another one like mine, hence why i posted this thread.

However, continue to tell me to look more and i will continue to do so, my point still remains that in order for me to see the CURRENT opinions of people, i need to make a CURRENT thread to get them. Reading their opinions of a somewhat related topic a year ago isnt going to apply to this current topic at all.