After the storm.

[Disrupted]

Hello all,

I'm officially back, with a new username. I've been lurking for a while, and the old feel of this place is starting to return. Many still seem to be missing, but there seems to be new faces. Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to spend more time here in the future.future...

[DavidBoren]

It takes time. The more people post, the more it will start feeling like home again.

It seems people post less now, maybe because something about the site still doesn't feel right... it's us, posting $#!+ that makes it feel like a community, if people don't post, then it will never fill up with that old warmth.

And by warmth, I mean knowledge and sarcasm. And mayo.

[Meleager7]

This. keep posting everyone!

[Deus Machina]

And warm mayo.

[Cunha]

I don't like mayo to be honest.

This forum software makes me uncomfortable. Its better than facebook but I really don't enjoy cruising around here. Maybe we should switch to phpbb? I don't know enough.

I'm one of the old users that is having a really hard time getting engaged after the dump.

[JonM]

It took me a little while to get used to the new look & feel, but after a while it starts to feel like a new normal. Are there things I wish I could change? Sure. But then again, it's certainly manageable. It just takes time.

[Axel]

Honestly I just kept posting and it gets to feeling normal. Did I like the old site better... Yes... But as we all know, that version of vbulletin is no longer secure

I do not have any special knowledge just because I'm red now, so this is just my personal unvalidated opinion, but I don't see Carter up and switching to php or doing any other kind of reset. Personally, I will die at my keyboard someday as long as the site is still around, but imagine the exodus if we had to start over a second time in 3 months

[lew]

The more we populate this new place with that old MCB filth and sleaze, the sooner we will all be comfortable and miserable, just like it used to be!

[Cunha]

To me the filth and sleaze is part of mid grade MCB that I really don't have anything to do with or really care about. The aspect of MCB that was valuable to me and the paintball community as a whole was a passion for paintball guns in particular guns that were forgotten and neglected all together by what was once the great PBNation where all the other paintball forums got gobbled into.

The most important part is not being a pile of jerks that try to make people feel excluded for not knowing much, or liking different things. We had some of that going on and we should all do our part to reduce it to zero. Every other paintball message board has a lot of that, and reddit (a sort of bastard half message board piece of shit) has the in droves.

We really are here to connect with people who all have the same probably unhealthy passion for paintball with an emphasize on the obscure or obsolete.

Why the devil is my text box expanding by a line and then contracting by a line every 4 or so letters I type? Its like the forum is begging me not to post. Every 2 key inputs it expands, on the third it collapses. 2 more inputs it expands, third it collapses.

I'm talking about the reply box on desktop version of this site.

I agree about the hyper low chance of switching forum software.


The fact is that we are up against facebook, which is degrading messageboards and online communities of all kinds, all while literally destroying human civilization as we know it. Our once massive opponent in this space, pbnation is drying up hard as well. I know that MCB never tried to displace PBN but they were the other main forum, after all the old ones went away like warpig pbreview paintmagazine phog maybe pblegion. Automags.org might be the only one I am familiar with still standing.

Making photos easier to upload especially via mobile phone is going to be a key point of ease-of-access because facebook makes that VERY easy. Since we are on the latest generation of vbulletin the biggest messageboard company on the planet hopefully this process is working for people.

People will come here and stay here if those of us that use facebook direct people to come here to find real actual information and if some of us step up and try to create actual content. I have never been much of a content creator but I have lurked around the forums repeating the information that I have learned about paintball for the benefit of whoever is asking a question. I mainly want to find and learn about cool paintball parts.


In summary

Things that will make this forum die:
a. cliquiness of members
b. lack of content creation

Things that will make this forum thrive:
a. great helpful info (think of diomedes mask comparison thread, good stuff)
b. good community

It's extra hard when we have really important manufacturers like CCM posting primarily on facebook since that is where they have more buyers (and at higher prices!) I don't know what to do about that. We really need guys like CCM to spend their time here, and not there. We could beg. I would consider begging. I may just beg. If we had CCM use this as a platform, and CCI use this as a platform, we would be OK. Right now CCI and CCM post on facebook, and there are facebook community pages that generate info that never gets here. No one will be here to create long lasting content if no one is here posting that I will call NEWS or announcements that are hot off the press.

Apologies for the long post, and any redundancy. I am watching this text box expand and contract and letting it make me into a crazy person.

I really like paintball guns. Pew pew pew



Another note is that we have a lot of knowledge pile people that aren't really talking here much, or are gone all together. Guys like B gave up on the forum some time ago. That guy from europe who extensively modified sheridans with larger transfer ports was banned for some reason and his posts are gone with the old forum.

We have a lot of good folks here so I hope that the steam picks up again.

One additional suggestion is that maybe we need to clean house on some of the sections on this site. When we were busier, the many sections made more sense, but now that many of them are very lightly occupied it might make sense to tighten it up.

The Dead Zone and New To the Sport might be combined,

Tournaments and Scenarios / Big Games

Outlaw should be merged into Local Games which should be moved into Outlaw's place above MCB Reviews it (this change I think should really happen)

Just some thoughts that should be in the suggestions area instead of here.

[DavidBoren]

Well said...

[Axel]

I liked your post and then unliked it so I could like it a second time

[Cunha]

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been making great posts here. This forum is awesome and I don't mean to be disparaging. Theres tons of awesome dudes here and a lot of us don't use facebook at all.

[DavidBoren]

Regardless of format, I'm here for the community, and I will remain an active part of the community as long as it exists...

I fucking love MCB, I don't give a shit what format I have to view it in.

[MrKittyCatMeowFace]

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been making great posts here. This forum is awesome and I don't mean to be disparaging. Theres tons of awesome dudes here and a lot of us don't use facebook at all.

/.\/.\
( - )

i made a thing

[Dusty Bottoms]

I agree with Cuhna's post, but at the same time I think it's good to be realistic about the future of forums in general. Forums have been in decline for a few years, and there's no indicators that that will change in the era of the smart phone. Technology changes, and culture with it. Remember AOL chatrooms? Most of us have been on multiple paintball forums that died or ossified over time. My own tally is Pbnation, A5OG, 98OG, SpecOps forum, and Automag Org. The weird thing about MCB going down and losing all those years of data was that it was a clear reminder that all of this is virtual, and all your contributions and the knowledge assembled here can be wiped off the earth in the blink of an eye, as if it never happened. People live on their phones now, and forums were from a time when people lived on their desktop computer. I don't think we're going back to that.

[screwloose45]

I would just like certain things to work...like being able to upload an image, or subscribe to a forum.

[Arthur]

MCB is not a home, it’s a people. An opportunity to rebuild and do it right.