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I'm just setting this thread up as a permanent thread for everyone to make any constructive feedback they feel is appropriate, whether good or bad.

 

While I recognise it is much easier to criticise than to be constructive, I must ask that any posts made here are made in a constructive manner - posts made just to bash the forum without suggestions for improvement will be pulled. Positive feedback, picking out elements of the site that you like and maybe want expanding, are also welcome - the more feedback you give, the more you can help shape Arnie's future shape.

 

So...what do you think? Let us know. :)

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I've been thinking for a while that we seem to lack a sort of 'general questions and help section'. It's hard to pin it down exactly, but I often find myself wishing I could get some advice on which part/accessory to buy, but it's not a technical question, not something a newbie would ask and not a general discussion on airsoft.

 

The gear discussion section is the best example I can think of, if I have have a question along the lines of 'I've got this funny shaped mag/bit of gear, can someone tell me which would be a good MOLLE pouch for it', then it fits in there perfectly. Even if it's not an actual problem and more a 'looking-to-improve my kit, any tips?' sort of thing it can go in there, but when it comes to weaponry, or indeed skirmish tactics (though mostly gun stuff), I'm not sure where more generalised questions like that should be going. I'd have thought a 'Guns discussion' sub-section would perhaps make sense, 'I'm playing this sort of game, which optic should I use?' and questions like that, stuff to do with grips, stocks, receivers etc that aren't about wiring or gearboxes or heavy use of tools.

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Well I'm not sure to be honest, as it's partly a lack of certainty as to the rules that causes me to mention the issue. When I have a question like that relating to accessories for RiFs I'm not sure where it should go.

 

When I have a general question about MOLLE vests or holsters etc it's obvious it goes in Gear Discussion. When I have one about scopes or stocks then I shouldn't put it in the picture threads because that's now what they're for, but I can;t really figure our where else it would fit. That and I think perhaps having a guns section might be helpful, along the lines of gear discussion, where all the info can coagulate about buffer tube diamaters, cross-manufacturer compatibility and which flashlight will fit in which mount etc.

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General discussion is for such topics, would make general pretty barren if there was another forum for the same purpose. :P

 

I can understand the point about a 'Gun discussion' forum similar to Gear but I have a feeling that it'd simply result in a lot of dupe-threads in each subforum, as has happened before.

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I'm happy with it so far, my biggest bugbear has been fixed, the labeling of US & UK trade pages. Moderation and Admin is usually kept to a pretty high standard (having run forums for a living for an MMORPG company, this is something I always look at), also you have a good global spread of staff, which means response times aren't limited to US or UK timezones. Bizarely I only just noticed the show hide content buttons after thinking that was needed... so that is taken care of and many sections I never use are now hidden. I do think a copy of the Classified Forum rules should be contained in the sub forum linked to from the top right "Forum Rules & Guidelines" hyperlink.

 

Other than that I don't think there is much I'd change from your current model, I'll have a think on it for a few more days

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Matt: thanks for the feedback. I entirely agree it makes sense to have all of the rules in one place - I think it was an oversight leading back a few years when R22Master first established the commercial rules as an announcement. While I have been at pains to update them, I never considered that there wasn't a copy in the rules section contained at the bottom left link bar which accompanies the new forum skin.

 

Anyway, a long story short; I have added a copy of the rules as a pinned thread in the section - they are now visible at http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=194127.

 

Ckinnerley: I'm trying to work out how to best achieve what you want but I'm struggling to work out how to resolve it without duplicating content unecessarily. If you have any thoughts please let me know.

 

Thanks for the great feedback guys - even if it's not something I necessary always will agree with, it is great to hear other people's thoughts and opinions, as I'm keen to keep Arnies as relevant and as appropriate to meeting your needs as I can. :)

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Well as misfit has kindly highlighted it's perhaps not the best idea to have a new section if general already covers the sorts of things I mentioned, but possibly some clarification of the rules might be handy. The slight confusion I found is that at the moment 'general' doesn't quite mean general, because there's so many sub-sections that cover... well pretty much every aspect of the sport, you kind of get in to the mind set of assuming that there must be a sub-section for whatever question you have, and that if you put it in general it'll just be moved and you'll have made more work for the mods.

 

I reckon perhaps changing the sub-heading/descriptive text under the section name would help a lot. I mean it could be that everyone else has already figured out the exact place to put each kind of question they have and I'm just being dense, but hopefully not.

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Is there any update on the plan for what's going to happen with the rep? I appreciate it's probably a bit of a contentious issue, but I've seen a few examples around of people getting negs for really no reason, particularly in picture threads and the like where it really makes no sense. I'd imagine if I was on the receiving end of something like that it wouldn't exactly make me feel great, and with it being anonymous anyone wanting to cause upset can just hit red on any perfectly good/normal post with no possible repercussions, or anyone even knowing who did it.

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Well yes, I did make my post with that in mind. It doesn't have any effect on any kind of data attached to this forum, but someone posting a load-out or something who's then getting anonymous neg reps probably isn't going to be over the moon about it. It was mostly the fact there was a fair amount of discussion some time back and I was more inquiring as to whether any decision had been made, if in fact changes are intended to be made.

 

At the moment if someone wants to actually say something negative or criticise in a post, they at least have to put their name to it with a PM button just below. But the fact there's no such thing with rep points is a bit of an issue to me. Obviously if it's the opinion of the staff that it's fine then that's up to you guys, I'm just trying to do what the thread title asks for.

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To be honest the whole return of the reputation system was a bit of a surprise, even to the staff (me included).

 

When it first returned I complained a little about it as it seemed like a return of the much-detested rep system we had before, which became an irrelevant popularity contest.

 

This one, over time, I've come to realise, is a fairly insignificant version as it simply lets you know that what you're posting either is meeting with approval / disapproval - weirdly I've had more approval in my posts in here than in living memory - thanks for that!

 

I think for now we'll leave the rep system as it isn't hurting anyone. If enough people have an issue with it, we'll run a poll upon it and go from there - we don't want to keep it if it's highly unpopular. :)

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Just a question on the forum sublevel headers on the default skin? Is there anything that could be done, since navigating in the lower levels of Gear and Picture sections gets cumbersome with the default three-level quick links at the bottom navigation bar?

 

Also as an aside on CKinnerley's point about 'Gun discussion' section, it could be nice if there was some way to tag stuff together somehow, as people keep discussing cosmetic or functional modifications to various RIFs in threads concerning them in News, Pictures, Reviews and sometimes even Gear, if it is a RIF tied to some specific loadout. For example, trying to track down L119A1 parts used on GBBR bodies can get confusing when one needs to check UKSF loadouts, AR pictures, various GBBR review threads, even some of the Project suggestions threads.

 

Maybe having a way to 'Tag' posts with keywords when posting could help? Especially since many of the designations are very short and thus hard to locate with Search. And it might not need be free-word tagging, but a Mod-updated list of relevant tags, thus avoiding all the bramston pickle that would come from cleaning up after users' entries?

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I'm not sure how feasible 'tagging' would be - it depends on whether there is a plug-in which is compatible with the forum software, which is Arnie's area of expertise. I can look into it though. :)

 

I'm not sure what exactly you want changing to the link bar at the bottom of the screen. It only serves a 'quick navigation' feature, and doesn't really replace the traditional forum interface.

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Right, I'll try to give a step-by-step example of what I meant with the bar.

 

- Go to General Discussion > Airsofting Picture Threads > Weapons > Shotgun picture thread

- Next step is coming back to the Weapons level in the sub-categories... Back button on the browser is cumbersome and needs refreshes, and if one has waded through multiple pages in same thread, it can get really cumbersome.

 

The navigation bar at bottom stops at Airsofting picture Threads level, so it gets one back that level and then back to Weapons sublevel.

 

Hope this clears what I was intending to say?

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Sandstorm: I'm afraid not. When you get to the 'Weapon' subsection and go into a thread, you can return to the parent section simply by pressing the 'Weapon' tab in the bottom bar.

 

If you cannot see this bar, this is likely due to the resolution of your screen. At 1920x1200 it displays fine with plenty of space for further levels. :)

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The reason for the 'tagging' is already dealt with using the current search facility's full capabilities, such as searching particular forums and using standard search operators in order to refine your search.

 

After all, you would have to search tags and all posts such as those containing images of people with multiple guns would contain tags for each of those guns so you would just encounter the same issue again, unless you use operators etc.

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Sandstorm: I'm afraid not. When you get to the 'Weapon' subsection and go into a thread, you can return to the parent section simply by pressing the 'Weapon' tab in the bottom bar.

 

If you cannot see this bar, this is likely due to the resolution of your screen. At 1920x1200 it displays fine with plenty of space for further levels. :)

 

I see the quickbar, but not the Weapon subsection. Not a resolution problem, since I have 24" widescreen monitor running the same 1920x1200... There's wide empty space between Pictures and then Forum Rules & Guidelines.

 

Are you certain you use the default forum skin?

 

And Misfit, does the search work with three-letter acronyms? Most forum searches don't handle those, since they are too short to index properly.

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I see the quickbar, but not the Weapon subsection. Not a resolution problem, since I have 24" widescreen monitor running the same 1920x1200... There's wide empty space between Pictures and then Forum Rules & Guidelines.

 

 

I do use the default skin with the identical monitor (same size and resolution), and it's there. I'm unsure why yours isn't.

 

 

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