Sorting out "Gear Discussion" Forum

[McArthur]

Hi there,

 

I was having a bit of a think about this last night. The way i see it - there are 5-6 gear discussion thread which are huge. Huge in that they contain massive amounts of information from a lot of different people. Threads like "Marine Loadouts" and "Modern Ranger Loadout".

 

Well - there are always hassle with people repeating questions, posting repeat pictures or simply ignorant of something because it's piled under a thousand or so posts.

 

Why don't the people who run this forum actually create subforums under Gear Discussion which relate to each of the major loadouts. So the end result is that each major loadout will have it's own forum. And inside that forum things could be further broken down into different threads such as:

 

Headgear

Clothing

Load Bearing Equipment

Weapons

Equipment

General Discussion

Real Picture Thread

Airsoft Picture Thread

 

That way, it's very easy and fast to find information, stay on topic and there's a thread there just for general discussion of the loadout in general.

 

Problem is - Arnies Airsoft staff are not going to want to deal with extra threads. So I thought - well, each thread seems to have people who dominate, who know a lot about the subject and basically run the show. Why not have a little poll thread where people can nominate mods for their own Loadout forum, then they can be voted in as Moderation staff for that particular sub-forum.

 

I know a lot more thought could be put into this - but I think it could help. That way, the Marine guys would run the Marine forum, the Rangers would run theirs, and each forum would contain easy to access and read threads full of appropriate information and discussion.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

 

 

 

[Marlowe]

It's a good idea, but we had a considerable amount of flak from disgruntled members:

 

1) When we created the gear discussion section...

 

2) When we tried to simplify and make easier the looking-up of relevant gear by seperating into themes / periods (even more than the original split!)

 

...As a result I'd really not want to go down this route unless it had widespread support. If you can secure that I'm sure we'd be happy to consider such a classification system. Until then I'm afraid it'll have to remain just an idea.

 

In regards to your second point about a poll for moderators, this is really not a good idea. The end result (as we have seen in some threads already set up) is that users who have repetitively breached forum rules in the past are placed in a position of upholding them, simply because they are popular within a niche audience. I'm all for giving folks a second chance, but from experience on here, all it ever leads to is the inevitable abuse of that responsibility by members to condone further abuse of forum rules by new members and, more importantly, a move towards a less friendly, more antagonistic climate on here which I am really keen to avoid.

 

We'd be happy to listen to people putting forth nominations of suitable members, but ultimately it'd fall to the moderators to put forward suitable subforum moderators, as it always has.

[Gigueand]

The least that could be done would be to select someone knowledgeable about a particular load and have that individual write up what would be appropriate for that impression. For example, Titleist (or Justin.Kovacs) could be asked to do a brief write up of what gear constitutes a proper 75th Ranger Regiment from Iraq during such and such a period. Then that post could be stickied at the top of the specific loadout thread (in this cash the "Modern Ranger loadout" thread) for all to see. A few references photographs could be included.

 

The same thing could be done for the Navy SEAL thread (perhaps by LORD SEX, or, again, Titleist), the Marines thread (perhaps by MasakariJoe), etc.

 

 

In terms of the Modern Ranger Thread I've linked two examples below that could simply be "edit-pasted" right into a sticky, no fuss needed.

 

here

 

and

 

here (Needs a label to designate time period).

 

 

[ErikBobbo]

On the Norwegian forum we have a sticky called "Questions about *-kit" and one called "*-kit, How-to" or something. One being a discussion like the threads here, and the other of course being a guide telling people what stuff is koscher and what am bestest and all that. So far we only have Brit's and Norwegian (+ several ww2-kits), but they aren't very detailed yet. Works pretty good. But a forum with LOCKED threads with information about each kit would be great. There's probably some knowledgeable people willing do do it, and stuff could be edited in when something new appeared in the discussion thread.

[Marlowe]

As I said the 'least we can do' is see if this a popular idea. While I'm all for further classification if it helps you guys locate the relevant info (that's why I started breaking the gear discussion into categories after all), I don't want to see more people posting abuse and snide comments on here because they feel it's been done without consulting the forum members (which, I should point out, it was).

 

If enough people chip in a 'that's a great idea' etc, then I'll be happy to do this for you.

[IronWolf]

Nice idea McArthur, providing the mods don't mind the extra workload I can't see how it would hurt the forum.

[McArthur]

Mods: Perhaps a trial run is in order?

 

I have messaged masakarijoe (He's on leave atm, won't be back until later) about it. I think that seeing as how the Marine Corp thread has very few problems at the moment (Ie, the thread very rarely has any problems unlike other threads *COUGH*SEALS*COUGH* )

 

I think the Marine Corp thread should be made into a sub-forum, the appropriate threads should be created, then an appropriate person in made a Mod for the single sub-forum. If it goes well - then perhaps we could try with other loadouts as well?

Edited September 19, 2008 by McArthur

[Marlowe]

Again, I'd have to see what popular sentiment is on this before we commit to anything this time-intensive. Feel free to post a poll within the gear discussion section if you'd like. I'll happily sticky it.

[Hoppum]

We already suggested a 'How to be a...' sticky here, although I never heard anything from the original posters.

 

If you guys or anyone else for that matter want to PM me an article, go for it.

[justin.kovacs]

Great idea, and as I said in the other thread, Im in the process of writing up a (somewhat) comprehensive guide for the "Modern Ranger" and "Navy SEAL Discussion" threads as far as gear and equipment that I have seen in use.

 

Like I said, Im not 100% on both areas, but I have put together several loadouts from the information I have gathered both from the threads themselves and by doing my own personal research.

 

I would hope that a nice "guide" if you will, based on all the equipment that has been seen and confirmed in use, would be nice for a newer player, or a veteran player who has questions, or is looking for information pertaining to the specific loadouts.

 

Again, Great Idea! Im willing to help any way I can.

[Fatal]

I think it would work great if the said Mod for each sub category only had power in that thread. I know D0LCE is an actual Ranger, so I think he should really be put onto that.

[Marlowe]

As there is now a poll on this issue, I'm locking this thread to avoid confusion.