Marlowe
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Posts posted by Marlowe
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Bought my Guarder RPK kit from them back in 2004 without problems, but obviously to a lot of you young 'uns that was a lifetime ago and clearly poor basis for their current effectiveness.
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Retailer Section is sadly a bit neglected - most retailers don't seem to want to have to maintain their own area and prefer to drop in and post occasionally.
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As a starting point I'd suggest if you see posts which are not announcing something new but simply 'we have x back in stock' being made, report them and we will aim to take down. If after that the consensus is that the news section is still being abused, I'll start to tighten up posting restrictions.
I'm apprehensive to initiate a heavy-handed lockdown immediately as many smaller commercial organisations (usually the one-man businesses which are highly specialised) find it much more preferable to post in the news section where they can offer more personable responses to queries. I'll happily take the counsel and views of everyone on the matter though - if nobody bothers with news as they see it as just a spam section then it'll be redundant anyway.
Thanks.
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It should be visible for you below Off-Topic.
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The Regs requirement is 1,000 posts. In Tink's case this is most likely a permission glitch due to him also being staff - in Jal's case it's due to insufficient posts / his vast Gimli-esque beard getting caught in the door on the way in.
I'll check it out and try to fix it for you, Tink. If anyone else with 1k+ posts is having similiar issues please let me know.
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If there's anything more I can do behind the scenes to help Arn, just give me a shout.
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Based upon personal experience, organising anything involving airsofters is much the same as herding cats.
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Rather than the massive variation of non UK times being used on a UK forum, could you please use GMT to record the issues?
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Arnie, this is mainly one for you. I think it'd help out everyone in the UK if it's an option in the ACP - can't see it myself.
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I've been gradually cleaning older / defunct areas of the forums that weren't used / of any relevance or consequence to most members for the past month to try and reduce the demands on the server. If problems persist it might be necessary to remove a lot of the nonposting / stuck in validating limbo accounts.
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Essentially if a 'review' thread here at Arnies is not actually a review but just a 'go visit my awesome site', we treat this as what it is - unsolicited commercial posting. It's essentially no different in our eyes to any other entity trying to take advantage of the forum to gain more traffic to its own site.
However, if a person submits a full review here (text or video) and then chooses to include a link to the original article on a personal site, that's absolutely fine - we just take exception to individuals that feel we exist as an advertising board for their own site, as most people click on a review thread expecting to not have to be redirected somewhere else to get access.
I'm unsure of the benefit of a separate video review section really - it would be a move back towards uncategorised reviews as there would be insufficient to warrant categories, and would therefore result in dual approaches to reviews on the site. Can video reviews not run alongside text-based variants, or am I missing something? We could ask posters to add a (Video) tag to review thread titles, but given how few people actually bother to check the rules as it is, I think we'd just dissuade a small minority from contributing and the rest would just post in ignorance of any stated rules.
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Afraid so - otherwise no content is shared here, and the forum just becomes a graveyard of links to personal sites that invariably vanish at some point. Much better to centralise data and allow a link to the original copy also. If you find any which do nothing other than just a link to a review, report them and we'll pull.
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loki7491: Yes, the site is run entirely on a voluntary basis. None of the staff, including Arnie, take a profit from the site - the main source of revenue the site makes is from the front-page-only sponsorship banners, which go towards paying the site's software licences & hosting fees. A very long time ago (back in 2004/5) we had the 'Arnaholic' member group before the modern Forum Regulars occurred, which gave users a custom user group if they made a donation - since then Arnie has been very keen to keep the site 'free-to-use'.
Whitehawksan: that was the jist of it. One of the moderators (who shall remain nameless...) just suggested we charge user to report things but I think that might be a bit overeager.
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No.
Just to bounce an idea off people, a member just contacted me to request a name change and offered to make a donation to the site in return. I haven't accepted one but how would people feel about such an idea? I'm keen to try and build up a 'prize fund' so that we can offer periodic competitions for members only.
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Just want to add that in particular I have in mind people who have signed up using their facebook account, and don't wish their real name to be on display here.
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Send me a pm.
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Done. While I'm in a charitable disposition, if any members with SINCERE reasons for name changes (ie 'my real name given and I wish to preserve anonymity, rather than 'I am bored of my name'), I will review and, where appropriate, change names. Please don't contact me with silly reasons as I offer no guarantee I will change.
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You would need to ask myself or Arnie - please make sure you have a very good reason to avoid disappointment - 'I am bored of my name' etc sadly are not considered acceptable reasons.
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As already discussed, this is an airsoft community forum that exists principally for the discussion of airsoft in its many forms. The classified section is a secondary feature for regular members. There are many countless other online sources of purchase for airsoft replicas where you would probably be better served, if your only intention in being here is to purchase a RIF.
Years ago we used to allow all members, regardless of post count to participate in sales. Whilst this did wonders for the forum 'popularity' (hundreds of registrations each month), this was because the forum became used increasingly as a place of commerce - a place where anyone could sign up, offer an item for sale or buy an item, and few questions were asked. This laissez faire attitude sadly resulted in increasing numbers of disputes arising due to individuals intentional defrauding buyers / sellers. As a result a 100 post requirement for access to the sales forum was implemented. Over time this has been tested and found to be the best safeguard for our members so as to ensure that they are buying and selling with reputable, committed members of the airsoft community. I have discussed previously lowering the post count requirement and the overwhelming response was that members were happy with the 100 post count - they feel it works.
Your idea for an optional registration scheme for sales is a good one, and definitely one that I will discuss with Arnie in more detail. Unfortunately for the time being you must play by the terms and conditions set for this forum - terms you agreed to when you registered to participate here. This includes not intentionally spamming so as to gain access. If you feel you cannot comply with these conditions, you are advised to seek alternate sources for purchasing a FN FAL. As already discussed, there are numerous other places on the internet far less concerned with duty of care to its members.
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As of today (03/04/12), the following is in effect:
- All Retailers / Manufacturers will be listed alphabetically to make locating a specific company easier for members.
- Any company section not updated by their respective staff for a period of greater than 356 days will be closed and posts transferred to General Discussion, to ensure that members are not left with unanswered queries and to return the focus in the Retailer & Manufacturer sections to discussion of specific companies. Companies are welcome to speak to Arnie to discuss news updates / advertising rates if they wish to simply advertise their presence to the Arnies community.
Thanks.
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Contribution of video reviews are excellent but there's no need for two threads on the same rifle. I'm closing this one to avoid duplicated information. Thanks.
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Just to confirm I axed your post count at the request of multiple staff members.
Upon viewing your contributions I was somewhat disappointed to note that, while you seemed to set off on the right tact, a lot of your latter posts were unfortunately what we categorise as spam - short, 2-3 word replies that offered little to take the discussion in the threads you were responding to any further.
While I appreciate the 100 post limit can be frustrating for new members, it's there as a necessity. As the rules state, spamming in order to reach it is not considered acceptable. For that reason I was obliged to pull your posts.
Thanks for understanding.
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I'm afraid not - the (8 year) is in parenthesis, indicated a subordinate clause. The main subject of the sentence that the indefinite article refers to has an initial consonant; hence there is no need for an. Good effort though.
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It's a (8 year) tradition. Given that I am an English Lecturer, we're well aware of the grammatical error. Thanks though.
FAO: Arnie and/or Marlowe
in Site Errors and Suggestions
Posted
Apologies - have been out of the country. Now responded.