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Before facebook - AKA Making 20 posts ‍♂️ (In a meaningful manner)

Wingnut79

London Tigers
Dec 2, 2014
21
6
13
44
Stevenage
Making 20 posts so I can sell my marker is proving difficult as it’s quite quiet on here since Facebook started.
So I thought I’d start a thread to discuss what you guys used to like before Facebook ruled world.
Mines not seeing what everyone had for breakfast or dinner, or what their kid looks like at the start of a new terms!

steve
 

Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
4,076
1,210
198
Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
Making 20 posts so I can sell my marker is proving difficult as it’s quite quiet on here since Facebook started.
So I thought I’d start a thread to discuss what you guys used to like before Facebook ruled world.
Mines not seeing what everyone had for breakfast or dinner, or what their kid looks like at the start of a new terms!

steve
I used to like forums

Forums forums everywhere
Walkonzone
Ukscenario
Talkpaintball
SpecOps paintball
Mcartbrown
Pbnation

There was also one called something like p8ntballer. Wonder what happened to that one?
 

Wingnut79

London Tigers
Dec 2, 2014
21
6
13
44
Stevenage
I agree.
Facebook I believe is the true culprit in the death of forums.
I used to be heavily active on the fishing and gaming forums years gone by. But started playing paintball a few years after Facebook started and just watched the paintball forums along with all the others just fall flat on their asses in favour of these group chats.
It’s a shame as so much conversation gets lost on groups in a short space of time, where as on here the threads stay active for so much longer

Steve
 

ant290

BOOOOM!
May 15, 2007
605
155
78
Southampton
ant290.wixsite.com
Problem is, no-one cares to go looking for information anymore.

Why bother searching for where walk-ons are or when tournament dates are.. when you can just bang a throwaway post on UK Paintball and never bother going anyway.

That said, i tend to log on here most week nights, and there is usually one or two posts that have gone up (admittedly lots of the time they are in for sale threads, but I like seeing whats about anyway).

what are you planning to do once you sell your gat? replace it with a new one?

Ant
 

Wingnut79

London Tigers
Dec 2, 2014
21
6
13
44
Stevenage
To be fair I’ve already got the new one, but need to sell my old one to pay what I borrowed back.
but I’m gonna do my best to stick around on here and see what’s happening

Steve
 
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Tom

Tom
Nov 27, 2006
4,076
1,210
198
Salisbury
www.TaskForceDelta.co.uk
I agree.
Facebook I believe is the true culprit in the death of forums.
I used to be heavily active on the fishing and gaming forums years gone by. But started playing paintball a few years after Facebook started and just watched the paintball forums along with all the others just fall flat on their asses in favour of these group chats.
It’s a shame as so much conversation gets lost on groups in a short space of time, where as on here the threads stay active for so much longer

Steve
Facebook groups did serve a purpose alongside forums -

Forum for discussion, then off to the local walkon Facebook to find out who will be around, or to an events facebook to harass the opposition or to plan a faction etc

Things began to fracture when you had a Facebook group for this and for that, breaking up into little communities


When I started paintball I searched the Internet, found some forums and videos etc, but got the first impression that everything was happening in America, Russia and up north
Further searching and also pointers from people at games brought me to the above mentioned forums.
P8ntballer wasn’t really my thing as it seemed to be tournament/speedball dominated but it was paintball so it opened up another community and knowledge
Once I discovered it, scenario was my love so ukscenario was my home forum. The others would be my next stops

PBNation was swamped, mostly by ‘agg’ teenagers so I’d browse it but there was so much noise and little information to find.
I’d pass on the help I was given by others and find brits who had worked their way to pbnation and SpecOps to show them there was a world of paintball here in the UK too.


I claim responsibility for a kid who went on to form his own scenario team - as I found him on SpecOps ...... though it was bit of a tense moment when I wondered what the reaction would be from his mother .....
I pointed him to scenario games and he booked into a game.
(It was the one where you parked up at a farm then rode in the back of a clapped out van down to the site)
On the way back I noticed a little kid with his mother ..... and braved saying “are you x by any chance?” Then made eye contact with his mother trying to work out what her response would be to introducing myself as the man on chatting to a schoolboy on Internet forums!!!!
Firstly I thought his first event was sounding badly - he couldn’t use his co2 and his tippmann 98 wasn’t working on the site air bottle —— and then he said “so this guy gave me his ego for the day”
He was grinning from ear to ear
 

Wingnut79

London Tigers
Dec 2, 2014
21
6
13
44
Stevenage
That’s awesome, nothing better than seeing a new player grinning after their first event especially if you’ve introduced them into the industry.
Yeah sure Facebook group have their place, Tigers have been using groups for years, but like you say it factions off when different friendship groups or sister teams under the same banner start making their own little groups.
With everything else in the world going round in circles, like vinyl music making a comeback, it’d be nice to see forums becoming a little more popular rather than it being jumped up kids thinking they’re billy big boy

Steve
 
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Dusty

Don't run, you'll only die tired....
May 19, 2004
7,606
2,407
348
45
Northern Ireland
To be fair I’ve already got the new one, but need to sell my old one to pay what I borrowed back.
but I’m gonna do my best to stick around on here and see what’s happening

Steve
Did you not have another account? IF so do you want me to reset your password for you?