Tommikka

In theory yes They would document a history of, and imply an intention to “skirmish at an insured site” But that’s up to Border Force, and especially the individuals of Border Force/ the carrier that handle passing through customs - whether that’s in luggage or by container. The relevant import documents would declare contents and relevant justifications eg - declaring a RIF as UK legal, with a VCRA defence (skirmishing), but due to circumstances without UKARA - which is not a legal requirement but the most recognised defence Possession is perfectly fine with an expired UKARA (or even without ever having UKARA) Your ‘problem’ is the confidence of documenting/justifying the import part of VCRA which has the same defence on intent to skirmish at an insured site (Something none of us has commented on, is if you have any accessories that may have arms export/import restrictions - these can flag on the most obscure point)

For my activities I use: forums public Facebook pages/groups restricted membership Facebook pages/groups My personal facebook My team/group public facing Facebook pages/groups Private pre set & event specific Facebook/pages/groups/chats YouTube and/or public facing Facebook galleries OneDrive and/or google hosting Accommodation apps Navigation / geo visual apps Calendar scheduling Personal / business / team banking Payment processing Event ticket host services I have gone into overkill there, especially with accommodation, travel etc and niche areas on co-ordinating a team or event ……. But the honest question(s) is/are: what are these key features? why aren’t they available from existing social media ? (by potentially turning on optional social media features that have existed for over 60 years), why do they need to be in one point of failure? (last weeks CrowdStrike update final outage)

A two parter: With Toms rough history of forums & social media, then my key questions Fairly abridged history of social media/forums: Newsgroups / bulletin boards, chat rooms, conferencing systems Accessed by exlusive dial up or network/internet These evolved into internet forums Social media is sometimes considered a 'modern' thing with Facebook, X/Twitter etc - there have been many along the way GeoCities, MySpace etc which came and went sometimes generational (of the user) and sometimes corporate/technolgy change - mostly generational and corporate But the functionality of social media was around long before BBSs and the internet, in (or before) the 60s within university & governemnt local(-ish) networks - which became connected giving birth ARPANET and subsequently to the internet In their heyday forums were the place for 'enthusiasts' of a subject. In the paintball context there were a handful of 'international' and 'national' forums (primarily US ones could have an international section), and the'enthusiasts' would tend to be a member of an 'overarching paintball' forum plus a 'specific' flavour of forum such as WalkOnZone, UKScenario, P8ntballer (mostly tournament themed) Sites/event organisers probably had a website, which may or may not get updated. Facebook pages, became more useful than push based websites, and with the ability for the site to run rather than rely on a web geek (often free 'volunteer' from the marshalling team) to update their pages. The forums would have regional/team/event sections / thrreads. Facebook 'group' and 'page' functions allowed for the more specific interested parties to focus on a topic. e.g. a sites walkon group, or an events faction groups etc. Then rather than have a forum opener & overview leading to specific conversations / date scheduling some would move fully away from the forum. Cliques occured, e.g. Fred didn't like the Bert forum discussion/classifieds rules, so Fred took all his friends to the new Bert Facebook group. Dodgy Dave got caught on all the forums for all his scam sales, so created his own Facebook sales groups, scamming the new blood & blocking those warning about Daves scams before that group died and created a new one The handful of forum flavours with sub-categories also moved into nieche Facebook groups, fragmenting away and also into cliques (I can instantly name two MagFed paintball cliques and then cliques within cliques) The 'groups' fractured, and the 'current' nature of Facebook etc loses information into history, with constant repetition and opinion easily disguised as fact. Facebook groups tried to set rules, and if enforced would result in further splintering, then Facebook set rules which resulted in secret languages which have the potential of suddenly killing off an entire Facebook group when the wrong word flags up. Somme users returned to forums - but for about a week whilst spamming threads with one line comments to gain calssifieds privileges to be followed by disappearing when they make their sale/purchase or a moderator resets their spam posts. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ This then brings us to your problem statements: (1) The community is fractured and (2) social media is applying its rules. The answer to number 2 is easy, return to the forums. What are the elements that forums don't work for? Why is there a need for a new 'social media website' , which would just fracture the community even more, and how would anyone find it? (And how will hosting be provided for all the functionally / be paid for *) (a forum is a social media website - an online discussion site with extra functionality - as above, social meadia features have been around for longer than the internet) * the last UK paintball forum closed three weeks ago, I was a moderator and am still a moderator on the related Facebook page (which was a front end in for messaging in case of failure) That forum has always been owned by a particular ‘character/face’ of paintball with a funding stream from retailer advertising - I know nothing more about the closure, it just went down and parked on a holding page. The domain is now (potentially) available to buy, with the domain registrar accepting bids

On the basis of ‘skirmishing at an insured site’ - technically yes Between the lines on the intent of ‘realistic look for immersive skirmishing’ then one booking doesn’t prove anything - you could be going on a stag do where bright orange site supplied IFs do the job (hence the VCRbill consultation proposed time window and UKARA time window) With the ‘actual’ defence being intent to skirmish it really comes down to ‘can you convince the person you’re trying to convince’? —- and that will vary On a semi related note, when crossing a border anyone may have to convince immigration on intent, eg as a tourist by having accommodation booked, a return ticket and enough funds to last that period of time - and anyone could be sent back on the next flight out if they aren’t convinced

What would make me a good bets tester? Attention to detail

Your reason for importing would be for the purpose of Airsoft skirmishing, therefore under VCRA terms you would be within the law But without UKARA - and obviously without the ability to play until you get here - you won’t have the common documentation method that they would use to validate ….. now is the time for one of the previous travellers to post up their experiences - these are fairly common questions about bringing RIFs across borders but the final experience rarely gets fed back

When was this ? An official Army campaign or something knocked together with a stock photo beside it? Just to be sure though - was it a Marine commando flash or a commando flash? There are Army qualified commandos who wear the Army commando flash (Note that Army commandos precede the Royal Marine commandos) You’re not thinking of the time that the Marines bought the adverising slot in the middle of an Army fly on the wall documentary?

…… and an uncropped version Shame that most of you won’t be able to see the full RUSI content (which the article references), some extracts will get uploaded on YouTube, the more interesting points happen with live mics during breaks ….. https://youtube.com/@rusiorg?si=hB2hJOuxpT3SC8jl ….. If any of you do have access to yesterdays full 7 hour stream then replay between 3:59:20 and 4:00:10 stream

My world is paintball, both as player and organiser, and my airsoft experience is as an organiser but alongside those experienced in airsoft. So I have always left the airsoft rules and knowledge of airsoft tricks to others Lots of chronos is a real benefit ( but also being aware that different models and even individual chronos can give different results) Back when I began playing scenario events they would be run by a local team at a local site, you would have approx 100 players getting chrono checked at one ‘big red’ chrono. After my first scenario game I bought my own handheld (little yellow radarchron), https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sports-Sensors-Hand-Radar-Chronograph/dp/B001AI0NE4 later upgrading to the grey (x-radar) https://www.justpaintball.co.uk/products/x-radr-chronograph-and-bps-counter and subsequently moving onto a team virtue clock https://www.bzpaintball.co.uk/virtue-clock-iii-chrono-black We partner with sites for our events so would make use of site staff and site chronos, but the Clock was a real bonus for in game quick checks, and as part of event organiser collaboration many of us will lend out chronos to each other I wouldn’t add someone going down the queue with a chrono, as that person could be at the front of the queue doing official chrono checks But I would allow for any spare chronos to be on tables available for people to check and adjust Even better is to minimise the chances of having a queue by opening chrono checks as early as possible so people are checking and getting tagged instead of just socialising then suddenly generating a queue I’d want a minimum of 3 shots, but not averaging - taking the maximum If one was over then making a judgement call - eg a couple more shots to check the rest are below. But if the first shot is excessive followed by lower velocities then the gun might have a first shot peak which is hot, so we want that reduced I prefer scenario games, generally the woods but especially interesting places Back in the day the rules would vary between events even between two standard woods games. Some players would want to crank up to the maximum per event, I’d generally be happy that it’s within the limit and goes in the general direction I’m pointing, so if it was 10fps below I’d be happy rather than tweaking for the extra fps and a couple of inches of range I’ve played a couple of competitive tournaments, so then would pre check to as close as I could consistently get to maximum. At the first round on the way in I was chronoed over (If I recall correctly that was one of the shots, which could have been a rogue shot or an inconsistency between practice chrono and Marshal chrono) - and informed that my gun was banned for the day. This was resolved by reaching out of the net for the spare (ready for that exact reason) and using that for the rest of the day It all depends, there are many factors that impact on consistency. A well tuned gun rather than just buying lots of ‘upgrades’ will aid consistency Small balls bouncing around a wide bore will be less consistent than a good fit / small cushion of air Gas powered guns in changeable weather will vary, or at least change velocity from a cold morning to a sunny afternoon These are dependant on rules, and in airsoft it’s more likely that there will be rules for weapon/role classes such as sniper, general player, single shot etc

Here are a couple of videos giving examples of a sites arrival talkthrough and a chrono check example The latter is paintball but the general process is the same Every site and event will have their own processes and rules Airsoft booking in, chrono etc talk through https://youtu.be/Ab9Z8_YW3OM?feature=shared Paintball chorno check https://youtu.be/zyZabatE9ME?si=OibofheXng5P1VvA

This is a nice simple solution, it requires a staffed station at the entrance (which is fairly easy at the start of a game, but less so during a game as this removes a potential Marshall from being on the field) Its nice and simple as it means the gun going onto the field has been checked (provided they also notice holstered pistols etc) But players must be turned away for failures, then you end up with delays due to players needing to adjust …. If they attempt to adjust at the point of chrono then the queue is held up, if they go away and come back they might still need to adjust down or have gone down too far and want to adjust back up Ideally you have official observed chronos and spare chronos for adjusting and for before queuing to the official check ……….. Pre game chrono involves opening up the chrono area at a set time, perhaps just chronos on tables as early as possible followed by official checks from specified times …… Official approved checks need to be marked. One way is to hand out arm bands/arm tape during chrono - which works if it is one gun per person, but what about those with pistols or an armoury brought for the day? Or what about teams that bring out a handful of guns to chrono for the others ? (((( Or what about a faction leader who cannot get a single gun to chronograph today but needs an armband to get onto the game field ???? That happened to me, leading the first game with grenades and subsequent games with dual pistols once team mates sorted them for me)))) Tagging the gun deals with that, such as a zip tie, electrical tape etc (Or tag gun and tag the player) In an ideal world tag guns through a tournament lock to prevent adjustment, but in reality it’s probably tape around the barrel or zip tie on a trigger guard Supplement pre game chronos with in game random (and targeted) marshal chrono checks using handhelds

Every site should be chronographing Anywhere that isn’t projects a giant red flag about their ability to run a business or game

There’s no such thing as a RIF licence. There are restrictions on the sale, manufacture, import of RIFs under the VCRA with defences: Cosplay is not a defence (despite claims by a certain retailer) ’Professional cosplay’ (not dressing up and paying to get into a comicon) can be ‘theatrical’ with the public appearances and appropriate liability insurance etc Stills photography is not a defence - but film is (not just YouTube) The VCRA references the copyright act https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/5B For your primary requirement of photography there may be elements of a defence and you can contact retailers on that basis. But you don’t have to own the props to take photos, (of course if you own the props for the photography you want then you can select your models rather than relying on whoever has their own props). You can still ask out for RIF owners to loan props - perhaps take some photos of them as well as the main photo shoot or see if who offers fits into your planned photos To become a venue you don’t need your own RIFs if you are running an event for existing players with their own equipment. You do need to not go in blind and involve experienced organsiers/marshalls/players If you’re a venue with the appropriate safety set up and liability insurance then you would meet the criteria with the purpose being to run airsoft skirmishing, therefore wouldn’t sign up to the UKARA as a player but as a venue Contact the UKARA and other sites for advice and wholesale/major retailers regarding buying RIFs as a site

A chrono takes 2 readings of the BB passing it, over a known distance and the time it took to pass between those two known points - giving the velocity Velocity = distance / time (Though to be pedantic that is actually the speed, because velocity includes direction - a chronograph assumes that the object is going in the right direction) Joules are the energy, therefore the mass must be taken into the equation Chronos don’t have scales so a calculation is made against a set mass In paintball we make the assumption that paintballs are ‘standard’ and measure the velocity (the general maximum is below the legal energy limit for paintball) and the international standard for paintball goggles includes a maximum velocity in the design as well as the impact limit of the lens itself …. Which includes the breathing holes etc In airsoft due to the smaller mass there has always been scope for higher velocities (and then changes occurred on joule limit - if applied to paintball our balls would just about roll out of the barrel) With the range of different BB weights depending on material specifics airsoft rules get set in joules and therefore should be checked on a case by case basis against the BB Therefore paintball chronos are expected to report velocity in FPS and airsoft chronos are either set to convert velocity to energy internally or a reference table is used As you’ve noted your chrono has an assumed mass therefore gives you the wrong joules, which means it’s measuring velocity, calculating joules at an assumed mass and then you need to recalculate back from that 0.2gram mass to velocity then apply 0.23 gram to come up with a corrected energy ….. You should be able to divide by 0.2, and multiply by 0.23 (or just multiply by 1.15?)

Been there, done that Old Bert, odd job man & delivery driver of Enola finally fully retired a couple of years before covid I do hope that he fulfilled his retirement plan as described to me with his overseas girlfriend …. whether that is a long or short lived retirement he would be a happy man

Indefinitely is excessive for the retention of personal data, but it may be justifiable It is fully justifiable to retain expired membership information if it could be used to confirm that details were valid at the time of a purchase if required by a retailer - if for example the retailer maintained records that a check had been made but they discarded personal details no longer required. Those of you who have had an expiry reminder - was it from the UKARA or from your member site ? That could account for differing experiences

Just for the record, no ‘helmet visor’ is rated for paintball ASTM F1776 is the standard for paintball goggles, which includes impact protection, but also covers numerous other factors with enclosing the eyes, greater face coverage, ears, main head straps, chin straps and allows for multiple directions The nearest thing to a ‘helmet visor’ in paintball goggles was the Angel Eyes / C2 Eyon, which was effectively a giant lens. This never made it to production due to ASTM requirements. More than a recommendation, for anything like this a proper set of impact protection glasses etc must be worn

To keep cameras running for a longer day, I’d personally go for spare batteries rather than power banks. With a power bank you to expand a cameras battery life you’re adding some weight and a cable to get tangled, or the alternative option is to keep plugging into a power bank to top up the battery charge Far easier and more convenient to swap batteries to be fully charged again. ………… I do however have a few power banks and solar panels as I have an iPhone and am always connected doing something. Power banks are flexible in that sense, so if it was more days such as a weekend in the woods then power banks plus solar panels allow topping up / recharging along the way Nowadays my main camping session is whilst on a trade pitch with mains hookup to the van, so power packs only get used during the day for pocket access to power - and spare in case the power goes down ….. My power pack purchases have always been based on £ vs mwh at a convenient size, and my solar panels on discounted prices

Everyone’s experience may vary. I don’t believe that the sawfly’s have any pre-treatment, but Revision provide multi-use anti fog cloths. I would say to keep them in a resealable bag If you don’t have the original cloth and experience fogging then take your pick between wipes & cat crap

The first anti fog action is to do nothing. If there is any manufacturer anti fog coating then leave it, any aftermarket product you add will have an effect on the existing coating. Give it a chance to do its job, and support it by allowing it some air flow. It is a pet hate of mine with the use of minimal glasses, but ….. They have less surface area, and are away of direct warm air from your mouth and nostrils, but can be affected by a sweaty face. The frame needs to be close to your face which leaves no airflow A snow type goggle gives more space for air, and will have a foam/rubber seal (not a perfect air tight seal, but a good protective seal from side on BBs and a reasonable area of air inside - there may A problem that occurs with both is that the face is exposed, so players typically add a snood, shemagh, scarf etc ….. which may block any inlet of fresh air around edges, but also keep your head warm and heat the enclosed air adding to the risk of fogging Full face goggles still suffer from trapped air, but are designed to aid airflow. A good set matched to your head will give optimum flow, a badly matched set for your head will trap you breath Clean lenses with water only, using a microfibre. When playing use a microfibre with a wet corner and a dry corner - clean with the wet, then buff with the dry. If you have a multi layered lens then don’t immerse in water For aftermarket products there is a degree of finding what works for you. Cheap and easy to try are antifog wipes, but typically won’t last long A polish type such as Cat Crap with a tiny amount rubbed on & buffed gives a good protective layer

There are many factors Try two chronos against each other for multiple shots The angle and proximity of a chronograph can get different results If you’re using a gas based system then changes can occur with ambient temperature and also the rate of fire / length of refresh time between shots Different types of chrono can get different results, even two of the same type/model may show a different result Chronographs try to measure the velocity of distance vs time, and where applicable Airsoft chronographs add the extra step of converting velocity to energy based on the entered weight / mass

The VCRA fine is the same whether it’s an individual or retailer. A retailer could get multiple incidents brought in and potentially a total of more fines on scale of transactions Both private seller and retailer could use any of those, there’s no legally required record under the VCRA, just the potential risk that it may be necessary to defend your sales in court as to reasonably believing the buyer had a defence as defined Exactly Different beasts and different laws I would say that an air rifle is a low powered air weapon, which is within firearms legislation and therefore a firearm. An identical air rifle to a RIF would not be an IF or RIF in my interpretaton (because it’s not an imitation if it’s already a firearm) But case law has happened. An air rifle that had the look of a ‘real’ firearm has been found in court to be a RIF @Rogerborgand I have have discussed our differing interpretations on this many times. Case law took place placing the interpretation on that side There is no longer any irony in this, and based on that case law lookalike / replica air weapon sales ought to take into account the VCRA as well

You do not need to valid UKARA in particular. But the relevant offence places the onus on the seller to only sell a RIF to a person (or organisation) with a defence under the VCRA In the context of this forum that defence is Airsoft skirmishing and the most commonly recognised scheme is the UKARA You can accept anything that you are willing to accept as a VCRA defence. If you end up facing the justice system as a result of an idiot could you reasonably back up your decision ?

He was terminated by the taxi company (sounds a bit harsh) within days of the footage ‘coming to their attention’ On that basis I’m guessing that it was the cab companies car/camera, and therefore adds to the stupidity level of doing this on camera https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/man-charged-after-fonacab-taxi-drivers-gun-threat-to-passenger/1832617692.html

Criminal commits crime In car CCTV with a fish eye wide angle lens Another idiot creating their own evidence against themselves