Other forums that have come and gone

[Hp_lovecraft]

@Hp_lovecraft, were you around when paintballforum.com was hacked and deleted, similar to this?!

I was an admin at PBF from about the start (2000) to around 2007. That was the hay day. I tried so hard to make that forum everything that PBN was not. Everyone, and every question was welcome. Nobody was allowed to say "google is your friend", or "check the stickies". Links to penny auctions or ipod pyramids where automatic temp bans. No bashing, flames, or trolls.
But the other admin was handing out mod status to all his "bros", and they would get bored and flood the forum with porn, and other sick stuff. Eventually, I told them they all had to go, or I walked.... and I walked. PBF was on life support after that, getting hacked all the time.

Today is a different time for forums. Facebook has kinda killed lots of forums, but facebook is a terrible format for forums. Google tried, but nobody used google forums. Even worse, Google bought up Dejanews and basically erased all the old rec/alt.sport.paintball history. Private forums are a better format, but inconsistently run, and prone to hacks.

[Ledthrax]

I was originally part of the IPR (Internet Paintball Resource) crew and moved over here after it finally died. I miss that group, but MCB is just as close knit as IPR was so it’s like a different family.

[Cdn_Cuda]

I started on my local forum, paintballer.ca. From there it was SCP and PHOG, then MCB. Lurked on Tinkers Guild and PBN.

I started on paintballer.ca as well. Spent some time at A5OG, lurked PBReview and here.

[Grendel]

PBJunkie (original) is another one that is gone. It was mostly South East Centric but had a pretty good active community through most of the first decade of the 2000s. I was an admin on PBJunkie when I found MCB, I would take time off from PBJunkie to come over here and just be one of the crowd with like minded purveyors of old school paintball and gear. PBJunkie was more of a player's [Rec/Scenario] forum and less a gear oriented forum where MCB was more gear over player. Also I did not have to deal with admin/moderator responsibilities here on MCB.

[OpusX]

SCP is what brought me over here way back.

[CaptainNeeda]

I recall Pun having his own forum, for a time.

... wonder if he could be persuaded to take another deposit on a crowd buster.

I think I started off on warpig, branching into AO and PhoG, before arriving at MCB. Is TechPB still a thing?

[Niterocker]

Warpig was a big one after the Usenet days were over.

Also spent a lot of time on AOG. That site eventually evolved beyond Mags.

[DocsMachine]

Warpig was the big one. I got my first dial-up account in late '95 or early '96, and of course the first thing I looked up was 'paintball', which led me to Warpig. At the time, it was pretty much the only paintball site on the internet- there were a couple of personal-type Geocities homepages, and I think Olympic Paintball had a rudimentary company page, but that was it.

And of course Warpig had Tech Talk, basically the first non-usenet, prototypical forum we all came to know and love.

And it's on TechTalk that I gained my reputation. I was the answer guy, and after a few months, players were asking for me by name. And in a few cases, I knew exactly what the problem was, but couldn't fix it via typed message. In a few cases, I'd tell people that if you mailed that sucker to me, I could fix it in, like, five minutes and mail it back.

And at some point, people started taking me up on that.

I had a ratty old mill-drill in the garage, that I'd been using to do my own mods, so it wasn't long 'til I was telling people yeah, I can do 'Cocker milling, I can make you that drop-forward, etc.

And it all started from Warpig's Tech Talk.

the Tinkerer's guild, * before it became more about comics than relatable or useful paintball-related content.

-A forum is only as good as it's input. The Guild started out back in the days of "Owner's Groups"- there was the Phantom Owner's Group, the Palmer's Owner's Group, the Automag Owner's Group, the Angel Owner's Group, the Rainmaker Owner's Group and so on and so on. (Most of them on free sites like Geocities, Angelfire, Xoom, etc.)

I wanted to start one for the oddballs, the ones that don't necessarily fit anywhere else- like a semiauto PGP, or an entirely homemmade Angel, or a double-barreled VM-68, or a low-pressure TS-1 with 'Cocker pneumatics, etc. So I launched the Tinker's Guild.

But over time, fewer and fewer people really sat down and built a true oddball- when's the last time anybody built their own semiauto PGP? And more and more dedicated pages came up, and the stuff that was once the fodder for the Guild went elsewhere. So it kind of naturally evolved into an "anything tinkery-related" type of place, and years later, a common forum to chat about the comic. (The comic had been started to basically help advertise for the machine shop, and has of course evolved into it's own business in and of itself.)

But the Guild is still certainly open to paintball, still. It may not be as huge a percentage as it once was, but we still talk about it.

Doc.

[Siress]

But the Guild is still certainly open to paintball, still. It may not be as huge a percentage as it once was, but we still talk about it.

And I still swing by once in a blue moon. There was a time when I was checking it multiple times a day. Honestly, that Network54 format was a godsend for my abysmal internet connection. Warpig was a slow, grueling experience in comparison.

Wish there were more odd ball creations out there...

[THE SHOOTIST]

I was originally part of the IPR (Internet Paintball Resource) crew and moved over here after it finally died. I miss that group, but MCB is just as close knit as IPR was so it’s like a different family.

IPR, Spyder Club, SCP. I used to troll them all. KPOG. Same username for all of them.

[lew]

I was quite a bit bummed when AIR Powered went tits up. There was a crapload of information and good folks. Custom Cockers just wasn't up to the task of replacing it.

[punkncat]

Agree with loads of the previous posts.

Can't forget the "real" AOG, as linked and shared with AO IIRC. That site was always oddly dead, and yet there was TONS of really good resource to be had there.

One of my early favorites was a hosted forum within something like Alta Vista or Yahoo Groups type thing. Team Waterworks forum. There were SO many local folks playing and a huge scenario and woodsball scene. I would love to know what happened to some of those folks.

[mtaylor]

I started my paintball forum career on spec ops.

[DocsMachine]

Wish there were more odd ball creations out there...

-You n' me both. I miss the days when more people customized their markers. It used to be the more wild your gun was on the field, the cooler you were. Nowadays, the guys with the unusual guns are seen ans weirdos. "You made that?!? Why didn't you just buy one of these?" (Holds up box-stock electrowhatever.)

Doc.

[WilD]

I spent way to much time on the warpig forums back in the day. I took a few years off from paintball entirely and was pretty bummed to discover it wad dead when I went looking for it again.

I also miss PGPOG and POG...