armysurplusandtoys

Every forum has its bias and issues around the culture that has grown there, its all part of fitting in to that community that you don't rock the boat too much. I suspect that Arrse is one of those places where the reasonable and nice guys in the armed forces don't go, or leave very quickly because the existing culture is full of the horrible idiots that no one likes anyway.
 
Plenty of forums are just broken and it all stems from the moderators. The moderation team makes the entire difference on a forum, they drive the behaviour of the forum entirely they set the tone and culture and enforce it that way.

You mean the ones who got "badged" by watching Ronin?! lol

Spotting fake SF for dummies: "How do you pronounce Herford?"

Ducatiforum is the best biking forum I have been on. OK I know it's marque specific but I haven't found a nicer forum or one with more help.

NNOOOOOOooooooo.........

Zero In forums... never had a look there... might be worth a look

I bet if I could get a moderator position on the other forums I could make them much better places to be. It might take me a while, and the hardest part would be building up a positive relationship with the actual members, but I bet I could at least make a dent.

But it seems that being a nobend is part of the job description on other forums, so there's no chance I'd get on the mod team. =/

AF-UK is just the nicest place to be. Letting people get on with it and not imposing a load of pointless, moronic restrictions is the way to go, because people aren't stupid. Everyone knows why there are a load of stupid rules elsewhere, it's just to allow the mods to "moderate" posts of the people who do it wrong, and it serves no purpose but to boost their egos because they can exercise their power over people, and disenfranchise the community. They try and run it as a dictatorship instead of leading by example.

A little bit of respect for people goes a long, long way, this forum community is testament to that.

I just imagine the mod team of some other forum having a discussion in the private forums... "Hehe, guys, guys, what if we made it illegal to mention other retailers? We could make out that they don't exist, like the info can't be found elsewhere... I mean, they'll use PM, I know, and people will get asked the same questions millions of times, by millions of people, when they could just publicly post the answer once... But I want to be able to delete people's content when they half mutter another shop! :lol:"

Y'know, I'm done being coy now... Can we just please nuke Zero In from orbit and just leave the classifieds?

Not really anything to add to what Lozart said, it's worth being on a few, arnies is a good knowledge bank for example. Zin is worth a flick from time to time but there's more idiots that anything.
 
That's why I like afuk, there's respect for the mods and members even when there's a disagreement for whatever reason. There's very rarely any problems because even if someone doesn't agree with what another says, more often than not the opinion is respected nonetheless.

Is it a good idea to be members of many forums??
I mean this as, do you get a more varied number of opinions etc wasnt meant as:
Is it really a good idea to be members of other forums!? In a mean voice...

Ha haaa! That's exactly how I heard it in my head!
 
More forums is always a good thing if you're after a wider range of opinionated twaddle. Not that that's always a bad thing of course. I generally find when I start an interest/hobby I scattergun every forum I can think of and gradually dial back my presence on the ones most full of idiots/rubbish/devoid of any interaction whatsoever. Which is why I have a handful of posts on Zeroin and faaaaaaaahsands on here.

Ok, glad you didn't take it the wrong way!

I know they have let the side down but its like everything you will always get some

That is very true Richie
 
I took the oath but end of the day, who did I have to rely on in the mix of it ?
 
God, queen or country ?? It was the men next to me, the ones who saw each other through training, the guys who stood shoulder to shoulder, they were family to me
 
I hate these people who are letting the side down

you start of signing the oath of allegiance and pledging to fight for queen and country but in reality you fight for you and the guys fighting next to you no matter what they look like or whether you love or loathe them

made me smile the last part

The thing to bear in mind is that soldiers don't get paid much, when you consider what they are called on to do for the money (in between long bouts of make-work and playing at it with blanks). The only way you're going to get people to be prepared to risk their lives is 'esprit de corps'. The sad truth is that you can reach a lower common denominator by teaching them to find common ground with each other because they are all against someone/thing else, than you can by trying to teach them all to be for someone/thing.
 
I mean, the queen? Really? Who would risk the steam off their piss for some uber-rich old dear in a big house? The British Government? Lying, expense fiddling, sleaze-meisters doing their best to feather their own nests before they'd lift a finger to help a constituent, and even then they'd only do it for the publicity... A rag on a pole? The bloke next to you? Who is he? He hates lefties, liberals, and walts too, he's alright...

Bloody hell, just ready that thread and it's not pretty. You know when they say there are no stupid questions, well I guess we can put that one to bed ;-)
Or is it more like there's no stupid question, just a stupid place to ask it?
 
I can see why you asked though. It would be interesting to get feedback from serving and ex-forces about our hobby. I know the site I'm a member of has a number of serving soldiers come along every now and again and they seem to enjoy it. I'm ex-army myself, a number of years ago now, but I really enjoy airsoft and take it for what it is, a hobby, a sport, a way to blow off steam from the day job. No one I know involved in airsoft takes it any more seriously than that and I think with the amount of money we spend on weapons and loadouts we can do whatever the bloody hell we like.
 
I am 100% behind all our armed forces, but unfortunately there are some who are just a bunch of knobs, like there are in any job. Good effort for putting yourself in harms way like that though, I dare you to ask again ;-)

What tickles me is how much the majority of airsofters dislike walts and try to replicate military uniforms in the most respectful way- without wearing badges they don't have the right to or by wearing berets with pins on and a bunch of tits on some forum call us all walting pen pushers. Nowt like sweeping generalizations is there?

HAHAHAHA! F*ckin love that mate! ;op

These responses are obviously only the people who have an axe to grind. There are former soldiers and serving soldiers who are fine with airsoft. I done my bit and left after my first tour (decided I didn't want to be put in that situation again), but I still miss it hence airsoft Its good clean fun and I can sleep at night without nightmares anymore.
 
The people who responded in that link I suspect have self esteem issues and are just defended what is probably the only aspect of their lives that has given them true meaning and confidence.
 
From a psychotherapists point of view I find this all rather interesting

goes back to me saying if ya post count is low when joining a forum
in a nutshell the longer serving members just think you are a noob or nob or both
 
alas as with many forums you have to be posting for quite a while before "some" people
start to take you seriously - kind of sterotype n all that of low post = low experience
 
hang on - when the hell did anybody really take me or what I post seriously ???
oh well carry on chaps at ease n all that

Hahaha, there are some exceptions to the rule but most of us are tolerent and easy going people
 
its just those ignorant and ill informed pillocks that let the side down
 
Unfortunately we do need people like them to make the rest of us look good

Its a reflection on how thick most Army squaddies are.......
 
*Now if that doesn't get a flash from an ex Army lot on here *
 
Seriously, posting on there anything related to airsoft is like sticking your cock in a blender; obvious stupid and going to cause a lot of pain.

It's not just that forum though. I used to regularly post on a bikers forum call The Rev Counter. If a noob said the wrong thing there it was a 15 page minimum flame war almost instantly. The general consensus was "welcome to TRC, grow a thicker skin".
 
Unfortunately the rise of the keyboard warrior with the shield of anonymity has all but destroyed many online communities. I'm just glad it hasn't got to this place yet!

I never thought of civvies as lower class human beings when I was in
 
I do now though
 
 
they come across as a bunch of narrow minded bullys in which case, IF they even signed up, I doubt they would have passed out (out of basic training. I have no doubt that they have passed out through alcoholic consumption).
their military references seem very vague and I reckon some simple questions would have them flustered quite easily
 
or go straight for the jugular. Why airsoft instead of joining up and playing with real guns? Because an ICS L85A2 is more reliable than the real thing
 
or more realistically, a lot of airsofters have injuries from military service which prevents them from being a reserve. I am planning on trying but I think airsofting is my limit due to my medical records
 
the irony is that airsofters seem much friendlier towards their own kind than a lot of serving soldiers did at my first unit. It was very cliquey there (my next posting was completely different) but that has not been the case in any of the skirmishes I have been to (admittedly, all at players of war) so far