Getting back into the sport

[mrStat]

Hi all

So I used to be a regular 6-7 years ago and then children came along, so I could never seem to get a pass, let alone manage to tie up dates with other friend players.  We've moved a couple of times since then and I kind of floated away from the sport.

I was cleaning the garage out a few weeks back and came across my dry stored RIFs, so it sparked a renewed interest and I quickly found myself digging through boxes looking for my old LiPO battery charger and then painfully spending the next 2hrs staring at the charging light so I could blast some BBs into the kids playhouse at the bottom of the garden.... Just like the old times and I am hooked again and planning on getting back out into the sport when the school holidays have finished, so any good site suggestions in Hertfordshire (Baldock area) would be greatly received.

At the same time, it re-engaged the brain about a project I was thinking about starting back then and I've just had a good old Google and not found any solution to this quandary has appeared since I left the hobby and wondered what your thoughts were.... It relates to RIF sales... I had UKARA and had to visit the same site and do the 2 months/3 games thing to get membership, even though me and my friends of the time used to prefer travelling between several sites as we all took it in turns to go local to where one another lived, this was fine, but I could never quite get my head around the fact that I had to be a member of one site, yet the law (Correct me if I am wrong here) allows you to just be a "regular player" rather than a fully fledged member that dedicated themselves to a single site.  You used to see old schoolers turn up to trade their old kit at certain clubs because that was the only way they could verify someone was a "regular player" with the club owners confirming regular and non regular players - This all seemed and still does seem completely in-appropriate to me, why has no-one started up a player to player network?  I have the theory and some of the resources needed to make it compliant, I just wondered if people would want it.  I was talking to the guy that founded the UKAPU all them years ago about this project and he said that that's what they was looking to do in the future (If he's here then I am sorry, but I forgot your name and if you was to remember me, my tag would have been "Sleepy" or "ccMods").  Does player 2 player sales bother you in anyway?  I know most members will only trade with other members which is fine, but what about them people that lurk around until they have something to say (Kind of like me)...

Anyway, pleased to sign up and put this out there and hopefully I will be back in the game(zone) in the very near future.    Dan

 

[Adolf Hamster]

hey man welcome back.

ukara hasn't changed much, it's still the same old story of having to stick to 1 site as there's still no infrastructure for a player database.

i get what your saying, let anyone "sign up" to the ukara database, give them a number, then use that number as a sign on at any site and they log the attendance, then you can automate the process of if you're allowed to buy, wether your an active player etc.

plus it'll give some great stats on who is actually in the hobby.

but of course it's pipe dreams, we can talk of such a thing but i for one don't have the time or skillset to develop such a system let alone the money to implement it.

 

[mrStat]

Hey Adolf

Thanks for the response and yes, that is exactly what I am talking about, something simple like a player ID card, registered sites simply scan you in and everyone can check everyone else (Subject to the GDPR guidelines).  We all have smart phones these days so theoretically, it's a coding issue with some basic admin on site insurance and personal IDs.  The more time I spending browsing airsoft forums again, the more I think this is something that could help the sport continue in the future.  Especially as I completely agree, UKARA is the same as what it was back then... I can even remember downloading that PDF form and filling it in, getting in the queue at the end of a club shoot and waiting for the guy to stamp everyone's sheet.  Seemed a hardship then and nothing seems to have changed.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

Hey Adolf

Thanks for the response and yes, that is exactly what I am talking about, something simple like a player ID card, registered sites simply scan you in and everyone can check everyone else (Subject to the GDPR guidelines).  We all have smart phones these days so theoretically, it's a coding issue with some basic admin on site insurance and personal IDs.  The more time I spending browsing airsoft forums again, the more I think this is something that could help the sport continue in the future.  Especially as I completely agree, UKARA is the same as what it was back then... I can even remember downloading that PDF form and filling it in, getting in the queue at the end of a club shoot and waiting for the guy to stamp everyone's sheet.  Seemed a hardship then and nothing seems to have changed.

indeed, currently i have no idea if my ukara is even still active as it was with a site i no longer play at, sadly the site i currently go to (the only decent outdoor site in the local area) doesn't do it so there's not much option i have for renewing anyway.

fortunately i've gotten away with it as the local shop knows me well enough they don't need to ask, but it kinda sucks being limited in that regard.

 

[Rogerborg]

yet the law (Correct me if I am wrong here) allows you to just be a "regular player"

The law says:

3.—(1) It shall be a defence in proceedings for an offence under section 36 of the 2006 Act or under paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to that Act for the person charged with the offence to show that his conduct was for the purpose only of making the imitation firearm in question available for one or more of the purposes specified in paragraph (2).

(2) Those purposes are—

(a) the organisation and holding of permitted activities for which public liability insurance is held in relation to liabilities to third parties arising from or in connection with the organisation and holding of those activities;
4.  For the purposes of regulation 3 a person shall be taken to have shown a matter specified in that regulation if—

(a) sufficient evidence of that matter is adduced to raise an issue with respect to it; and

(b) the contrary is not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

The suggestion that "permitted activities" means airsoft, and the idea about at least 3 games in not less than 2 months, comes from this Home Office circular, but it's suggestive, not prescriptive.  What's is clear is that the nebulous burden of proof falls on the seller.

Sellers want to sell, and there's no reason why they couldn't choose to accept the identical BAC scheme (which I suspect is now effectively defunct), or at their own risk, UKAPU membership.  They could also accept some sort of site membership document, contact sites directly, or even make purchasers enter into a contract where they agree to use the RIF only for the purpose of airsoft skirmishing at an insured site.  I suggest the last because the defence is about future behaviour, not past.

I'd laud any attempt to provide retailers and private sellers with another way to adduce a defence, but the issue is persuading them to trust and adopt it.

Oh, and welcome back.

 

[mrStat]

Hi Rogerborg and thanks, I’m looking forward to getting back out in the field. May have to treat myself to some more toys. 

To to be honest, the BAC has never come onto my radar so I will take a look and see what their offering is, thanks for the info and the welcome. 

 

[Game Cam]

Welcome back mate, good to see the old disease is taking hold again
When I was starting i bought a two tone and painted it black (nothing I can see against that).

I play this sport a lot, what I do is every third Sunday of the month I will go to the same site (one I like most) then I will try other sites or go to other sites I enjoy on the other Sundays when I wana go pew pew.

My mates have varying degrees of commitment so some sort their own UKARAs out while others that go randomly when they have time, I will usually sort stuff for them.

So I wouldn't mind helping mates but I don't think I would do it for people I don't know. 

 

[Keldon]

Hi I'm new here about to play my second game at the outpost run by Xsite near Tring. The closest two I can think of for you are run by r.i.f.t, the ridge in Barton le clay and the village near Royston. There is also reforger near Watford just off m25. Hope this helps and welcome back. 

 

[mrStat]

Game Cam, to be honest, that’s how we used to do it, one of us would always ensure our UKARA was in order and we’d get stuff delivered to whoever had the most recent application as none of us ever knew who was registered and who wasn’t. I remember buying at Wolf in Camden and the guy wasn’t exactly happy about it, hence why I was wondering why no-one had launched a true membership scheme that’s managed by the player over the site/shops - The BAC seem to have the right idea, but as Rogerborg pointed out, it’s about trust I suppose, although I’m not sure how the £300 shop fee for UKARA outlets inspires trust, so there must be something in the background. I believe they have interests in a few of the larger retailers. Zero1 comes to mind. I’ve shot an email over to UKAPU to see where they are at and if they’d be interested in having a coder develop something a bit more of an open framework. 

Thanks Keldon - I used to play the odd game at TechBrigade but if there’s something on my doorstep that’s not too commercial, then I’m all in so will take a look. 

 

[Jedi_Master]

Welcome .

 

[Prisce]

Hey fella, couple miles up the road from me. RIFT Village in Royston is your closest, AWA in sawbridgeworth isn’t too far to travel, there is Dragons Lair in ongar(you can make your own mind up about this one). 

We tend to go a bit further a field, AP in Ingatestone,  Tuddenham, Skirmish Billericay, etc.

If you want a couple of friendly faces to play with, drop us a line and we can arrange a game day. Quite a few of us in Herts currently.

 

[Markuz]

Hi guys me and some mates are going to rift village at Royston this Sunday.  Anyone here fancy going? 

 

[mrStat]

Hey Prisce and Markuz, I’d be up for this weekend if I wasn’t on holiday, back end of next week, so kind of hoping that when the kids go back to school I can get back out in the field. 

 

[Prisce]

I’m busy this weekend too.  Don’t think I’ll be available for Airsoft till the Mall game in October now. Damn having other commitments.

 

[Markuz]

Hey Prisce and Markuz, I’d be up for this weekend if I wasn’t on holiday, back end of next week, so kind of hoping that when the kids go back to school I can get back out in the field. 

Cool just give us a shout when you're free. Sites that I've been to in Cambridgeshire so far include:

Urban assault at RAF Upwood

Rift Village Royston

Free fire zone Bourne Lincolnshire 

Mag dog Brampton

Me and my mate Andy also on forum would like to try Coms site 3 soon.