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217 members have voted

  1. 1. Are you happy to keep using these gigantic threads for everything related to a specific gun?

    • Yes
      73
    • No
      144


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how about uploading all of the actual reviews to the reviews database and then leaving the giant thread open for people to ask questions

Because the review database is something of a failed experiment, much like the auctions section.

 

It seems far more straightforward to simply request people use the forums as they should be:- That is, to use the technical section for its intended purpose and the review section for its.

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TBH, I don't think they neccesarily deserve to be closed.

 

The problem is that they become a sort of self-perpetuating monster.

People post stuff in the thread and then others with questions also post there so the people posting the info will see their questions.

It quickly snowballs into what we now have.

 

Ideally, I wish there was a way to display something on each page reminding people to post questions in the tech forum rather than adding to these colossal threads.

 

Now, ideally it'd be nice if all the regulars in those threads would start asking people not to post questions in the reviews but, erm, I'm not sure if they would. :(

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But it shouldnt become an expectation that other folks new to gun X or gun Y plough thru them, or search them first, or only post any questions on those guns in them and nowhere else, because then they cease to be threads and turn into ghettos.

 

 

Wait. Isn't that exactly whats expected when a person wants information on a forum? Plow and search through all the existing information before posting a new question?

 

And personally, if i just got an AGM especially, id read every page. I would want to know the in and outs of such a new system, as every end user should.

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Wait. Isn't that exactly whats expected when a person wants information on a forum? Plow and search through all the existing information before posting a new question?

 

And personally, if i just got an AGM especially, id read every page. I would want to know the in and outs of such a new system, as every end user should.

 

difference with any other gun that doesnt have a humungous thread, is that the owners of those can search a whole host of different threads - some more upto date than others. Stuff thats only related to early revisions of a gun, will tend to be in the earlier threads.

 

As a result theres less chance of folks stumbling on that old smelly info by accident, and getting led on a wild goose chase based on out of date info, than doing same search in a single giant topic that covers a gun from its 'barely into public beta' version thru to its 12 months later mature release.

 

They also generally feel free to post a query about any of those other guns as a new topic in technical, with reasonable hope it'll get answered, even if it has been asked a dozen times before.

 

Thats entirely different from having A thread on a gun and expecting everyone who owns one (or is thinking of buying one) to search inside it and keep uptodate with it - with any other fresh topic on that gun getting instantly closed on basis 'the answer you seek is in that 300 page thread'

 

Thats NOT a valid reason for closing a topic, if it was we might as well take the view 'well y'know everything you seek about AEGs is on arnies already, so we'll have no new posts in technical at all - just go ploughing and searching whats already here for a day or two instead'.

 

and its hardly going to encourage folks with an interest in buying a particular gun, if the forum they're most familiar/use most often has developed an expectation that "for info on that gun you must plough thru its 300 page thread".

 

ghettoisation

We've got a G&P WOC thread, an AGM thread and a WE thread. Lets say each of them grows to 400 pages ...theres not many folks going to keep up to speed with all of them, instead at most they'll pick the one that corresponds to the gun they've bought and thats going to be it

 

Sooooo along comes joe with a shiny new AGM, he sticks a question in the big giant AGM thread about a problem no one with an AGM has had before, the regulars in that thread scratch their heads and have a fruitless guess or two, leaving him none the wiser.

 

Now unbeknown to joe, Dave with a G&P WOC has had that same problem on his G&P and he knows exactly how to fix it, its just a pity that dave doesnt bother keeping uptodate with a 400 page AGM thread to actually notice joes problem...

 

Course had Joe felt it OK to start a new topic about his AGM in technical (without fear of the captain obviouses telling him to go search the pre-existing 400 page AGM thread) then Dave with the WOC might have seen the topic title and realised he had the answer being sought...

Edited by snorkelman
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Yes,

 

 

But ONLY if there was another sub forum for GBB longarms. We allready have a subforum for GBB pistols, so i'd say set up another forum for the GBB longs and it will help people find things rather than having to search through the entire technical forum.

 

Saying that this forum has advance recently(in good ways) through creating new sub forums to help people out(the review forums are case in point) so it could do with some attention to the techical discussion.

 

Just my idea but it could look something like this:

 

Technical discussion

>GBB pistols

>GBB rifles

>Gas other (NBBs and moscarts)

>AEGs

>AEPs

>Radios

>Other electronics

 

 

 

What do people think about this?

 

 

 

 

{edit} another thought, as there is SO much information on AEGs then it could be split up further into "AEG repair" and "AEG upgrade/tuning"

though maby not.....

Edited by ED-SKaR
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Cutting down the forums even more is sillly, there are already too many subforums to keep track of.

 

We need an unbiased non-advertisement arnies wiki style site to quantify threads like these and the ones in the sniper subforum into useful information, There are a few of these out there but I think they are rather questionable sources of raw information.

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I like the idea of the big theads and am not adverse to reading them on a quiet night. What does get to be a bit of a bore is the folks who have to jump in with 100% opinion and zero hard info on why the subject of the thread is *suitcase*, the old "man with a horse told me" bit.

 

Maybe some kind of a tree type arrangement could play out. The SCAR reveiw would have links right in the first post to SCAR accessories, SCAR tech and tuning tips, and more, general Gas tips, or a Battery FAQ. You could read up on the review, and then jump to a comments thread. You'd still have to hope folks would still post in the proper places in the sub topics.

 

What you'd want is template for the reviews so the person writing it would need to punch in those other topics also so the links are in from the get go, and then for the reveiw and sub-topics to stay "invisible" till OK'd by the mod for that section.

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I must admit, I think I'm gonna try and advise people NOT to make use of any new review threads the way the WE and AGM threads have gone.

As I say, I think it's kinda self-perpetuating.

I reckon (as do the majority of you, apparently) that it'd be better for faults and upgrades to be discussed in the tech forum, where they belong.

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Having read the WE one from the start and actually using it as a basis for buying the gun I think it has been useful BUT only because I read from the start! For new people I can imagine they would run a mile!

 

I vote for keeping reviews for reviews and the tech section for problems/solutions. if you do encounter a problem when writing a review and the silution exists in the tech area you could always link the relevant topic too.

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Just came on here looking for an AGM review. Hopefully some informed opinions as to how the internals compare to the WA ect. I'm not new, I use review threads often to check out guns I might buy. I'm in fact quite happy to read through, say... 10 pages of information. The AGM thread is a little large for me though. You can tell by the size it's gone beyond a review thread, and I don't like it. By all means have a discussion thread, the Sniper haven has a 170 page VSR discussion thread, that's great. But when it's in the review section, I think it should be purely a review. If I was moderating this, I'd probably move these threads to the game section, or a new sub forum for gun discussion, even the tech forums, wherever. Then start a new thread for reviews only, and link to the discussion page, and indicate people to ask their if they have any questions. I'm hardly the kind of moderator Stealthbomber is though.

 

I just think leaving those threads as they are, means you wont get any sense of a useful review for the WA, AGM or WE M4s. People will look at the thread and give up.

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I don't really see a problem. Whether it's "only" 30 pages or 300 pages. You wouldn't browse every single page, but use the search function. In either case the machine is doing the work for you regardless the number of pages.

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That's really my point.

 

These should be REVIEW threads.

 

To use the forums properly we SHOULD all be posting technical questions about the item in the tech forum and restricting use of these threads to, perhaps, discussion about what fits where etc.

 

The problem is that these threads become like a black hole. They attract EVERYTHING related to a specific subject and then swallow it up so that nobody can actually see it easily again.

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The review threads are way too much on the chatty side with the occasional gem of info in there. To have to sift through the X amount of a "review" thread to find technical fix info is a bit off even more so when the techy part of the forum has no info in it.

What makes it worse is when some one asks they are pointed at the mega thread of doom to find the info :S

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I agree that some of the threads are getting unwieldy. I myself ended up reading 150 pages of the WE M4 thread before I bit the bullet and got one :). Posting technical questions in the technical section would be the logical thing to do.

 

However, I think the technical section would probably need to be subdivided into the various categories just like the review section. With Arnies and its huge community, relevant questions will invariably get knocked off the first page in no time. And I don't know how many people will actually want to click to page 4 onwards to seek answers...

 

This wouldn't be a big issue if the search function was more refined though.

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  • 3 months later...

Big threads are not really usefull IMO.

They become so big that people are rather lazy to look through the pages and end up posting a question that might allready have been posted 6 pages ago.

 

I think that if they end up so big, they should get their own sub section (like AEG rifles and GBB rifles). After that has been created people can submit new threads asking questions about the gun and that way people can just look at the threads to see if their question has been answered before.

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this thread on massive threads is in danger of becoming 'massive' in itself :-)

 

Having worked tirelessly with WIKI's and CMS and Forums over the years the real issue isn't what tech you use, yes it's part of the solution but generally you need people to police it. Unfortunately it's often difficult to know what works the best till you actually implement something. WIKI's can be great but need to be properly integrated into the forums, some sort of standard link in each Review thread. There are Forum/WIKI combination out there that do just this...

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  • 2 months later...

I voted "NO" because it does get daunting when I see that there are like 50 pages to sort through. I wouldn't mind if Mods/Admins edited threads to make them more useful and informative. The OMG comments are fine but they do get cumbersome sometimes and maybe should have an expiration date. Hell, I've been guilty of an OMG or two in my day! :rolleyes:

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