Airsoft UK Facebook?

[Saber6-1]

If this topic has already been addressed, and finalized, then I apologize, if not, does this group have an actual Facebook group? The reason I ask is because back in the States we ran a very similar forum group and finally branched out to FB. At that point in time we somehow managed to connect with more players. The region we covered actually close to a 50% increase in player turn out. We reached more people. The Facebook group also allowed us to coordinate and schedule games, practices, and other events. I know the way we do things back in the States is not how things are done here, but I was curious is all. Almost everyone I know utilizes social media and especially Facebook. It was a great way for everyone to stay connected in regards to airsoft, but also personally. We met knew players. More people mean bigger games (not always better). But it allowed players in geographic areas hook up and begin to start creating teams. We saw a reduced number of Rambo players (the one guy who thinks he can take out a fire team single handed while firing his AK from his hip) and more players working together as a team.

 

Again...curiosity

[Baz JJ]

I cant answer for this forum.

 

Ive been involved in non-Airsoft forums which have branched out into FB and have found it increased the membership but polarised the members, Some people don't like Facebook so prefer a web based forum, Existing FB users on the other hand prefer FB access.

 

Interestingly, we started a milsim community group and decided not to open a website, just relying on Facebook.

 

It works for us and the medium is ideal for what we need.

[Saber6-1]

Very true about the anti FB position. We had that as well. Not everyone is onboard with social media. Most of the non-FB users still got the info about games/etc from friends and what not. We did maintain a forum as well and it was cross connected for the most part. Our experiences were that a lot of the "younguns" never experienced forum boards since they predated FB. They had no idea that they existed. Was there really communication before Facebook? Sarcasm.....

[Guest PT247]

I used to use a few various motorcycle forums, Facebook has pretty much killed all of them. I like having a forum to use for this stuff, I wouldn't use a Facebook version of this site as I think personally that Facebook is for people, forums are for hobbies.

[Aaron-Sniper]

Facebook Is very good to get date's out of events but as said above it could have an effect with the quality of players

[M_P]

This forum does have a Facebook group/page. The thing is that this is a forum so using it isn't needed, there are already eleventy gazillion airsoft pages on Facebook that having another would be a waste of time.

 

All it would do is reduce the traffic on the forum and have it on Facebook instead as far as I can see which isn't what's wanted

[Baz JJ]

I think you will find that those already on the forum quite like, well the forum - thats why they are here and not on Facebook.

 

Those on Facebook wont hear you, because, well they are looking at Facebook :-p

[Airsoft-Ed]

I think what you have to realise is that this forum is for the whole of the UK, not just a bit of it.

There are a lot of Facebook groups for regions within the UK, but I don't think there are any forums, because the regions are too small for them to be worth making a forum for, so Facebook has filled in a lot of gaps.

I imagine in the US it's different because the scale of the place is significantly more massive. I bet there are states as big as the UK.

But also, aside from it being a scale issue. Why would we want to draw traffic away from the forum and to Facebook? If there was a Facebook group instead, it'd be easier for everyone to just do that. Might as well get the hammer and nails out ready if you're going to set the coffin open like that.

[Saber6-1]

I think what you have to realise is that this forum is for the whole of the UK, not just a bit of it.

 

There are a lot of Facebook groups for regions within the UK, but I don't think there are any forums, because the regions are too small for them to be worth making a forum for, so Facebook has filled in a lot of gaps.

 

I imagine in the US it's different because the scale of the place is significantly more massive. I bet there are states as big as the UK.

 

But also, aside from it being a scale issue. Why would we want to draw traffic away from the forum and to Facebook? If there was a Facebook group instead, it'd be easier for everyone to just do that. Might as well get the hammer and nails out ready if you're going to set the coffin open like that.

Ed, I think you hit the nail right on the head, and answered several questions floating around my head. Its geography. Yes, England can fit inside of either Alaska, Texas, or California. I am used to living near more metropolitan areas which larger player bases. I think the airsoft community is just spread out, and I am not anywhere near a highly populated area.

 

Thanks all for the info, as I said, this was just a fact finding mission, learning how things are done here.

[Baz JJ]

There is one nationwide group on Facebook that I can think of, that has more active members than the forum and has a higher activity level.

 

However, quality counts.

 

The nature of Facebook means that these groups tend to get a lot of trolls and people arguing about UKARA and so on.

 

This group, although quieter, tends to be more respectful and with a similar wide knowledge base.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Biggest group I'm on has about 3k members last time I checked, I think this forum's somewhere around the 10k mark at the minute, not looked for a while.

[Zak Da Mack]

I think this forum has just over 9000 members, but I'd say a large proportion of this number is just inactive members.Most people who use these forums still seem to post regularly, with a few people floating around, with alot of guests as well I noticed. But I love this forum: quality, not quantity is what makes a forum.

[Saber6-1]

Ok, help me understand how things run here. You specify that this forum had between 9-10k members, yet many members here state that a lot of games are just skirmish based. Now I understand people just showing up and playing, but why so little cohesion? I know that 9-10k forum members does not equate to 9-10k active players, but I see little organization. Perhaps I am looking in the wrong area, or perhaps I am injecting too much American style of play, I don't know. I am trying to understand how things work here. Prior to moving here, the airsoft community I played with held games once or twice a month with a turn out of 50-75 players, and at best 100. Now I am not expecting that here as geography does not permit as such, but am I possibly missing something?

[M_P]

In the UK people are scared of inanimate objects so less people are comfortable with the idea of replica versions of them. Airsoft isn't very well known and so numbers of players are smaller. It depends where you go to play, at the larger sites you'll get 50-100 depending on the day you attend at smaller ones it can be anywhere from 10-30 etc.

In the UK 50% of the people play for the fun of it whereas in the US people appear to take it more seriously. There are quite a few milsims and other stuff around you just need to know who hosts them etc. But yeah for average sunday day game it'll be a skirmish thing.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Also, in the US it's probably not uncommon for you to have to drive what we would consider ridiculously far to get to a game site, purely because the US is enormous and everything will be a lot more spaced out. At least I'm guessing that's the case? How far do you go to get to your events?

In the UK most people can be at a site in the space of anything from 10 minutes, to about 45 minutes, almost entirely regardless of where they are. There's probably something like a thousand skirmish sites across the UK, but the country is barely 1000 miles long.

Organisation is unnecessary. We can guarantee there'll be people at any open site running an event on that day.

Also, when organisation is necessary, it won't be done on a forum, it'll be done on Facebook, or with a booking page on the site operator's website.

[Saber6-1]

Wow, I must say, airsoft in the UK is far different than back in the States. But then again, we crazy Americans love our guns. As to distance, well it all depended on where we wanted to play. We had indoor and outdoor fields withing 10-30 minutes, our open range games (areas in excess of several acres) maybe 45-60 minutes out, but sometimes we would drive up to 2 hours or more to play. One place we really like was a 4 hour drive.

 

As to the style I am used to, well I guess thats called milsim here. I worked in 5-10 man fire groups. We were all military, so we knew how to fire, move, communicate.

[Guest PT247]

I personally don't use this forum to find folk to play with or to organize any games, my friends all go to the same site and a few of us travel to other sites which we organise face to face (most of my friends are airsofters and we all live in the same town so work things out over a few pints in our local pub) :-)

 

To me this forum is for technical help and advice and to see different peoples loadouts etc to see what looks good/works well etc. The chaps on here are also not dicks which keeps me showing my face to see what they have been upto! :-)

[Ian_Gere]

My objection to fb is that you can't easily find information which you have previously read, unless somebody makes it into a file and saves it to the group's archive. But what to save? Who do you allow access to save/change files?

 

What is just chit chat often contains a gem of info, where to get some item, how something works, reference to a review, etc. and on a forum all you need to remember is the subject of the thread, even if you cannot remember the thread title, a search will usually produce it, and you have the info at your fingertips again.

 

I cant escape fb entirely, because so many people use it, but as has been said, it's best only for people and events. I suspect that airsoft in the UK is much less about teams too, less organised than in the states. I think more than half of UK players do not belong to a team and never have, probably never will, but then i also think that serving/ex military are also in the minority. Having said that, there are plenty of teams comprised of non-military players.

 

As it happens, I'm one of those weirdos who not only dislike social media intensely, I also would like to see more organisation amongst players - not all of them mind you because, although i do enjoy a challenge, i also enjoy pwning the opposition as if i was the hero of a film!

[n1ckh]

I think airsoft is a lot like the England squad

 

They play for various teams and only train together when theres an international tournament going on

 

Us ex military personnel have the training but the non military wouldn't like us treating them like soldiers etc and dont want to do the training

 

Yes we have the die hards who are fanatical about milsim (I personally want to do it aswell) but for me personally, its fun running around but also its to put the army skills I learned back into practice knowing I'll get a 2nd chance

 

I think its brilliant and so do my teenage boys, like any sport its all about the fun side of it

 

In the US, you have a lot of old military bases where ours are still in use so have to use other facility's to the best we can

[remus]

the site i go to has a facebook page and i can find out via it when big events are on(games every sat, sometimes weed nights/sundays) we have a team page to share our airsoft pics( partially to avoid questions about being in the paramilitary)we have a team page for team discussion to organise our own players to get out and play. i use this site to learn and to find out things that i think ill likel not find out from local airsofters. better to find out some things from a range of players whove had experiences with the things im looking to know about