How do we fix AO?

[thecavemankevin]

Again, and your pretty famous for this, you assume everything played out in public. When in fact things happened off AO and you would be suprised how nasty they were. But I cannot talk about it. But again.... I caution you.. to not assume you have seen it all or know it all from what you see in posts here on AO. You would be mistaken.

ahh, but i never assumed i knew the entire story. In fact i usually only here the banned persons side of things. Therefore, thats all the info i have, plus what i can scrounge if the posts ect haven't been deleted/moved. Thus makeing it seem like you mods are on a power trip. because when i try and find out, you guys come out looking like a jerk...evern if you were justified.

I know as a non mod i am along with the rest of AO not owed an explination for why people were banned and so on. However, if it was explained to the public why there were banned perhaps it would clear things up and hurt less feelings of their "friends/elder members." Plus it would prevent others from makeing the same/similar mistakes seeing as otherwise they might not know better. Thats all i ask anyways. And miscue asked how we could fix things, i don't think this would fix everything, but i think it would deffinatly help.

it seems to me that many of the "rules" are made up as you mods go. Minor case in point, my thread about modding a ps2, broke none of the publicly stated rules/guidlines. Yet it was closed nontheless just because a power-tripping mod felt like it. Perhaps if mods stuck to the RULES it would help too?

[thecavemankevin]

Yeah, that's a problem. There's often a background story that others are not aware of, and then do not understand why we take certain actions. We should not have to explain it everytime.

perhaps not, but it could help people understand all points of view rather than the just banned persons point of view.

[Miscue]

cphilip - how about a separate, exclusive forum. One pristine forum. Let me have ownership of it.

[thecavemankevin]

cphilip - how about a separate, exclusive forum. Let me have ownership of it.

sounds good to me

plus it'd rid phil of the headache i know he must have right now trying to police the e-brats like myself

[FooTemps]

no effort into reading the thread... I just have a couple things to say

[soapbox] (remember when people actually used fake tags to represent something?)

These days AO seems to be more bogged down with more "footemps" like characters than say "nicad" like characters. Back in the day, there were more technically inclined members or more members in tune to the spirit of the game. I remember where there was only one predominant postwhore to pissed everyone off. And that postwhore was ME.

Now instead of only one postwhore who gets the occasional 7 day ban for posting 50 posts a day, there are groups of postwhore that are warring against each other. I see the emagballa/dj68/oysterboy/allthoselittlepricks conflict going on constantly almost all throughout friendly corner. FC has arisen to fight some of the idiots but they've already given up and have jumped ship the thorums.

Since back in the day there was only one postwhore and his little posse of maybe one or two occasional members, the quality of the whole forum was better since it wasn't as cluttered with useless info. Now there are all those kiddies who jump over here to be cool and part of the AO community.

My solution...
Newbs forum: it's there for all the starting out questions and to establish your character on AO. They can say hi or ask something about mags. There ought to be stickies that touch on all the big info for beginners
Articles: AO ought to have more articles on the site. You see, NO ONE ever goes to the main site. Do you know why? there's nothing there! We have tom's tech tips and stuff, but who cares? I see websites like hardocp and bit-tech having a main forum with articles and reviews. The articles go over things such as "how to do this" or "comparing this and that" or "editorial on blah blah blah". Wouldn't it be useful to have occasional columnists for AO to give the AO community something to read and learn from? It could be a valuable resource that avoids a crapload of posts.

See, if we had a bigger pool of starting information, we'd have less starting questions. That means more educated members and a better quality of posts and ultimately less posts. We gotta get serious about this if we want to pick AO out of the hellhole it's in.
[/soapbox]

The ex-postwhore has spoken...

oh yeah, I forgot to mention this...
I'm probably not going to come back except to lurk now, bye

[Miscue]

My thoughts are: Any member can invite any number of new members - advised to do so carefully. The basis for selection: maturity. Plain and simple. Any who display anything to the contrary in the forum, gets axed. It would be a filtered "Paintball Talk" forum.

[Blazestorm]

AO sucks because of people treating it like PBN...

It soon became "ok" to flame people, instead of helping someone, people will simply flame them. In some threads this is not prominate (in which the old AO appears to shine through), but it is almost everywhere. People post stupid, and pointless threads because they find it funny. Back in the day, every thread had meaning or purpose, every thread had something you could enjoy reading. There was nothing pointless or stupid. Nobody flamed without reason.

And moderators weren't randomly banning people who have been contributing to this forum for years...

And this is coming from a person who first joined the forum when he was 12...

This is stupid, I plan to follow Footemps... I'm not going to post a lot, only where I can help... and that's it...

*Holy Crap I have a lot of posts...

[fcpchop]

Compare it to a new car. Once the "new car smelll" is gone all you can do is go buy a can of the fake scent from the store and reminisce.

a well put anology, and it really saddens me to say that it is true. I dont beleive that it is possible to make AO into what it once was, we can try and probably get close but it will never be the same no matter how hard we try. I remember when i was honostly pround of AO, I honostly beleived that it was by far the best forum out there. It really hurts to know that it will never be the same again, it can never again be the place I go for advice and the place I can open up and not worry about others flaming me or posting useless annoying things. You really just cant explain to the new members what it was like, you really can't. But Miscue is definitly onto something with this new forum idea. Although we can not recreate the "new car small" we can get a new car I think a fresh start can be good. I used to think that the mods were too strict but now i see that they only do it for our own good, they are trying to get AO to what it once was, but like i said before unfortunitly it simply isn't possible. I think we should start a new forum where people know in advance that it will be strict but that doesn't mean that there has to be alot of banning, we just have to be mature, anyone who cant just shouldn't come to the forum. Lets go for it

[magman007]

yes q, thank god for suggesting it. Bring back another forum, one much like fightclub, but for members diserving it. upstanding members, and members of join dates before a certain date, say 2k2 since 2k3 is when we really started our decent. there were a few ripples in the pond then, and these ripples have turned into waves, that have eroded what is ao. i for one say q diserves this forum, diserves to give it a chance. only allow say 100 members in at first, then allow them each 2 invites to people they feel worthy. another thing, is never let the rest of ao know about it. allow the people in the forum to see a link to it, and no one else. such as the mod forum. you dont talk about the forum in any open air places, such as pb talk or friendly corner. there fore, other members dont get jealous about what they dont have. understand what im comming from?

also, i say we give those that have contributed to our forums a while to cool down, then invite them back. people like thordic and TSC. you know these people didnt really diserve to be banned. i also suggest having army moderate the forum with you once he returns. he was one of the best mods to date, besides you of course. i truely felt like he was an "internet dad" and you as my internet "brother". im sure others feel this way as well.

[brianlojeck]

if I may, and take this for what it is, my opinion..

The reason the talk isn't about paintball any longer is that there's nothing to talk about in paintball any longer. Very few people hide, move, aim, or tech their own guns any longer. I may very well have one of the most unique mags here, because I have both a drop-forward and a shoulder stock on it (gasp and horror and amazement). Look at all the "my gun is cool" threads... they all look the same.

what else is there to talk about? everything else... politics, religion, and life. Even a talk about Smart Parts new patent battle is sure to turn to a political discussion.

and the background noise? that's the way of the net. Find me a forum without it these days...

[bornl33t]

I think the flaming was ppl defending themselves from being belittled. Over time Ao developed a little posse that did nothing other then condesend to ppls threads. I have deleted MANY thread myself because after 3 posts it was pure crap and I achieved nothing. Usually followed by an addition to my ignor list.


BBQ pit.. it's the ONLY way to fix AO

[bornl33t]

if I may, and take this for what it is, my opinion..

The reason the talk isn't about paintball any longer is that there's nothing to talk about in paintball any longer. Very few people hide, move, aim, or tech their own guns any longer. I may very well have one of the most unique mags here, because I have both a drop-forward and a shoulder stock on it (gasp and horror and amazement). Look at all the "my gun is cool" threads... they all look the same.

what else is there to talk about? everything else... politics, religion, and life. Even a talk about Smart Parts new patent battle is sure to turn to a political discussion.

and the background noise? that's the way of the net. Find me a forum without it these days...

one word... PHOG! I switched to a phanto a long time ago and in no small part because of that forum!

[FreakBaller12]

unban everybody.

lighten up.

stop complaing about where AO has gone, ti will go back if you stop and if you all just calm down.


remember, this is the internet


kthx

[Mango]

[SAW]

Thanks Mango.