Airsoft Nation (airsoftnation.co.uk)

[Sacarathe]

What do people think about this then?

 

https://airsoftnation.co.uk/about-airsoft-nation/

 

It would be nice to have an up to date database of airsoft sites with more than cursory information presented on the same screen.

 

 

EDIT: Removed alternate discussion, it was not a criticism, nor relevant or appropriate.

[Samurai]

I like the idea. I think it would be beneficial for airsoft to get a common platform for the whole community. More uniform rules throughout the sites, ability to check a player's airsoft history when you want to sell a RIF, etc. I want to keep my FB profile airsoft free (more or less) so I welcome this.

 

Also there is a lot of potential in it if it gets widely used. Like common platform for registering for games. I hate that I don't see how many people have registered, or have to do it through the phone, and it's hard to find good info on a site or a game beforehand.

 

I spoke to the guy who creates it and he really is making it for the benefit of the community, not as a business opportunity.

[Baz JJ]

Ive registered because Im always willing to look at new ideas.

 

The guy who created it has been working on it for some time and as always when you create something in the UK, people focus on whats wrong and want to critique, even though they're not capable of creating it. Certainly, I wouldnt know where to start.

 

Its competing with Facebook which is a difficult task because its so global, but he's been helped by their ban on private RIF sales.

 

We will see if it succeeds - its only been launched tonight, its free and its creator is willing to listen to constructive criticism from his customer base.

 

I would imagine that it will gradually get more polished and features like the event calendar will be put into practice.

 

I for one, wish him well.

[Sacarathe]

Would be neet to put in a postcode and get a report of all airsoft games happening in calender form within X "kilometres".

[Jedi_Master]

Would be neet to put in a postcode and get a report of all airsoft games happening in calender form within X "kilometres".

 

Distance in miles, this is the UK . Same as using feet per second and not metres per second.

 

Use of the term "AirSim" immediately makes me think of flight simulation gaming, and there are already AirSim websites. Think it needs a change of name so that airsoft is not confused with aircraft.

[mimozine]

well i clicked the link and the web page is just frozen for me, cant do anything

[proffrink]

I foresee some significant service issues with such a site. You need a properly set up network to host something like this - that's a lot of very dynamic data and it'll destroy any regular hosting. I hope they intend to take it onto a bunch of VPSs at the very least in the future.

 

Good idea though. Hopefully it gets executed correctly.

[Baz JJ]

it is working on iOS and web but they have a problem with the Android app at the moment so Graham the creator has to reluctantly take it off air for a week or so to address this issue and a password/registration issue. He tried a Beta test with 20 people and now its gone live and has about 500 members, its revealed these problems.

 

It will get there, but nobodys posting much atm.

[jcheeseright]

Nobody posted much on facebook the first few days it was on... it'll build.

 

My main worry is that since it's 'social media', there will be a VAST amount of bullshit info going round as gospel (UKARA License, long barrel for accuracy, TM guns explode with green gas etc).

 

Fingers crossed most of the major sites and organisers will get on board and it'll be a useful resource, especially if as Sacarathe suggested you can put in a postcode and it gives you all the sites within x distance. Even better if you can put in a postcode and a day and it shows you all the ones that have a game running!

[Bencupra]

My Team mate Graham done this all off his own back and at his own expense. It's only just gone live and will obviously improve as it goes with more and more content etc. Look at Facebook when it started these things improve with time and the kinks are ironed out.

[ak2m4]

Great to see innovation like this, only time will tell if the masses from Facebook come over. One way would be to get the skirmish sites involved and have them use this for player registration etc, could have a nice alternative to UKARA which would be player run and controlled. Easier said than done though.

[Gtech]

Hey Guys, this is Graham from Airsoft Nation. Sorry I'm late to the chat.

Firstly, thanks for all the comments - as Baz said, this is a tool for the players (by a player) and I'm constantly looking to improve and build upon the site.

At the moment stage 1 launch is simply the site information, milsim calendar and player/groups. Due to my time contraints spending so much time working on the iOS and Android app I didn't get half as much information on from launch but I'm working on that as much as possible.

Note: the website is offline as after publishing the Android App it refuses to get through the security of the website. Should be resolved within the next 2 weeks.

Stage 2 will be more centred around sites and organiser features. I'm actually close to having that ready to roll out and I'm planning to have it tested before I relaunch with the android app.

I've got big plans for the future, but it's small stepping-stones and then reliant on the community to make use of the tool/features. I'm always open for input so feel free to shout me on here, FB page or email me directly - [email protected]

[djben9]

Thanks for the update, hopefully I won't be blocked at work 🙂

[Sacarathe]

Hey Guys, this is Graham from Airsoft Nation. Sorry I'm late to the chat.

 

Firstly, thanks for all the comments - as Baz said, this is a tool for the players (by a player) and I'm constantly looking to improve and build upon the site.

 

At the moment stage 1 launch is simply the site information, milsim calendar and player/groups. Due to my time contraints spending so much time working on the iOS and Android app I didn't get half as much information on from launch but I'm working on that as much as possible.

 

Note: the website is offline as after publishing the Android App it refuses to get through the security of the website. Should be resolved within the next 2 weeks.

 

Stage 2 will be more centred around sites and organiser features. I'm actually close to having that ready to roll out and I'm planning to have it tested before I relaunch with the android app.

 

I've got big plans for the future, but it's small stepping-stones and then reliant on the community to make use of the tool/features. I'm always open for input so feel free to shout me on here, FB page or email me directly - [email protected]

 

Keep up the good work!

 

As Jcheeseright reiterated above from my post, what would be really lovely is an option to enter a UK postcode and distance and have all sites in range pop up on the map with a calendar style screen below showing the dates which have games for all of those sites with basic pertinent information such as start time. And with mouseover extra information before clicking the links to their pages on your site.

 

Even better, if in the calendar screen if the names of the sites somehow noted the distance for that event from the starting postcode.

 

A user could view on the calendar a view of all game sites (within the circumference) over the next 30 days which have game days (with start times and distance from postcode).

 

I know I would attend a larger variety of sites if this information was available. Sometimes I'm thinking - shall I go to a site I know is good, or spend an hour or more figuring out which sites in range have events on and how much it will cost to get there etc etc.

 

Plus navigating the morass of facebook is just bullshit - I have chosen not to attend events on a few occasions due to awful websites (plain text websites can be better than many many others) or over reliance on facebook.

[Gtech]

 

Keep up the good work!

 

As Jcheeseright reiterated above from my post, what would be really lovely is an option to enter a UK postcode and distance and have all sites in range pop up on the map with a calendar style screen below showing the dates which have games for all of those sites with basic pertinent information such as start time. And with mouseover extra information before clicking the links to their pages on your site.

 

Even better, if in the calendar screen if the names of the sites somehow noted the distance for that event from the starting postcode.

 

A user could view on the calendar a view of all game sites (within the circumference) over the next 30 days which have game days (with start times and distance from postcode).

 

I know I would attend a larger variety of sites if this information was available. Sometimes I'm thinking - shall I go to a site I know is good, or spend an hour or more figuring out which sites in range have events on and how much it will cost to get there etc etc.

 

Plus navigating the morass of facebook is just bullshit - I have chosen not to attend events on a few occasions due to awful websites (plain text websites can be better than many many others) or over reliance on facebook.

 

Thanks, I have already noted down the suggestion as it's not what I have at the moment but it's definitely possible in the future.

 

1. At the moment I have a UK map, from there you can pick a site and it will open to a page giving a full breakdown of the site.
   • Name, Location,
   • Facilities on site (techs, charging facilities, hot/cold food, disability access etc),
   • Basic FPS rules (aeg/dmr/sniper / semi auto only)
   • A small selection of photos (5 max at the moment)
   • Prices and where to book (external links).
   • There's also a link to the 'group' on Airsoft Nation related to that site (new feature).
2. Below the map I've broken the sites down into counties. So you could look in 'Kent' to find all the available sites.
3. Players can leave a comment/review at the bottom of the site page, there's also a 1-5 star review area at the top.

I'll take a look into the postcode/location finder, it's more than possible - just depends how easy it is to implement on mobile as I'm trying to keep both mobile/desktop features the same. I'd already looked a having a 'Live Chat' feature but it's just not feasible on mobile and still keep a clean user interface.

 

I love the idea of a grouped calendar of events. I've already done this for the milsim calendar, I'll see how I could make it flexible for skirmish events/near you.

[Gtech]

Thanks for the update, hopefully I won't be blocked at work

Can you get to https://airsoftnation.co.uk on your device? Even on a mobile, the browser version is an enjoyable experience and you could just bookmark it.

 

If you've got an iPhone the app is on the market place already (but will be .2 versions behind at the moment). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1114398167

 

Don't try with Android as I've taken it off the store.

 

ps: I'm thinking of doing a 'mask', so that the website won't have 'airsoft' in the title. This will be for users who want to browse on a machine which may be monitored, is this something you'd be interested in?

[djben9]

Yeah I checked after posting and it opens up ok, with fixing banner,, I can view a few Airsoft sites except the forum and Firesupport 'WEAPONS' it tells me'.which is annoying so I have to view on phone, luckily I get 4G

If it helps and easy to do, add it in 🙂

[Sacarathe]

 

Thanks, I have already noted down the suggestion as it's not what I have at the moment but it's definitely possible in the future.

 

1. At the moment I have a UK map, from there you can pick a site and it will open to a page giving a full breakdown of the site.
   • Name, Location,
   • Facilities on site (techs, charging facilities, hot/cold food, disability access etc),
   • Basic FPS rules (aeg/dmr/sniper / semi auto only)
   • A small selection of photos (5 max at the moment)
   • Prices and where to book (external links).
   • There's also a link to the 'group' on Airsoft Nation related to that site (new feature).
2. Below the map I've broken the sites down into counties. So you could look in 'Kent' to find all the available sites.
3. Players can leave a comment/review at the bottom of the site page, there's also a 1-5 star review area at the top.

I'll take a look into the postcode/location finder, it's more than possible - just depends how easy it is to implement on mobile as I'm trying to keep both mobile/desktop features the same. I'd already looked a having a 'Live Chat' feature but it's just not feasible on mobile and still keep a clean user interface.

 

I love the idea of a grouped calendar of events. I've already done this for the milsim calendar, I'll see how I could make it flexible for skirmish events/near you.

 

Interesting.

 

Can you also, perhaps, for the FPS rules part, perhaps in future refer to it only as "Muzzle Energy Rules"? This way you can avoid imperial/metric altogether, and you could have two mutually exclusive icons: one with a [J - Chronographs in Joules] - for sites which chrono in Joules, and one for sites which chrono with ammo weight [0.2g - Chronographs with 0.2g BBs]. It's a mostly useless detail - but if you're going to specifically write the AEG limit (and ignore CO2/GAS) and state when HPA is prohibited (presumably due to staff incompetence*) - it becomes more relevant.

 

One of the problems with our airsoft 'nation' is the propensity to use a variety of means to accomplish the same goals at different sites.

 

If you stick with your 350 FPS icons - can I suggest a mouseover dropdown which shows what 350 FPS @ 0.2g becomes with other ammo weights?

 

We should be ditching FPS and a new project like this is a great place to start.

 

/opinionated

 

*Because really what other reason could there be to ban HPA.

[Gtech]

 

Interesting.

 

Can you also, perhaps, for the FPS rules part, perhaps in future refer to it only as "Muzzle Energy Rules"? This way you can avoid imperial/metric altogether, and you could have two mutually exclusive icons: one with a [J - Chronographs in Joules] - for sites which chrono in Joules, and one for sites which chrono with ammo weight [0.2g - Chronographs with 0.2g BBs]. It's a mostly useless detail - but if you're going to specifically write the AEG limit (and ignore CO2/GAS) and state when HPA is prohibited (presumably due to staff incompetence*) - it becomes more relevant.

 

One of the problems with our airsoft 'nation' is the propensity to use a variety of means to accomplish the same goals at different sites.

 

If you stick with your 350 FPS icons - can I suggest a mouseover dropdown which shows what 350 FPS @ 0.2g becomes with other ammo weights?

 

We should be ditching FPS and a new project like this is a great place to start.

 

/opinionated

 

*Because really what other reason could there be to ban HPA.

Wow it feels good to be here, most people don't recognise some of the basic problems that really (really, really) need addressing across airsoft (at least here, in the UK).

 

At the moment I ask for FPS, but I'm looking to build a connection with these site organisers and get an agreement together or at least discuss some of these topics.

 

I don't believe we should be using FPS, and do I believe we should be chronoing on the weight we use (eliminating joule creep). HPA needs more awareness, hence why I've approached Incentive Designs and Beestring airsoft to do some content on the website.

 

We've all seen 'Patch Kid', but that's a very small percentage of HPA users. I use my Tippmann at 330 and 14rps, it's lovely and more than sufficient.

 

I personally would love to see a clamp down on ROF and that measured in the future, especially at some of these sites that really have a reputation of overkill.

 

If I remember, I'll drop a link to an FPS image/calculator for those who aren't running .2s. Although ultimately I'd love an interactive calculator built into Airsoft Nation (like the one here, it's awesome!)

 

It's just putting all the resources into one hub, but still trying to keep it manageable. Oh, and ensuring I can keep the webhosting up

[jcheeseright]

Any update on this, the site has been 'down for maintenance' for a long time now.

[proffrink]

I mean I don't want to say I called it, but I'm pretty sure I might have. I bet this is a hardware-related issue (i.e. not having enough of it and it not being networked at all properly).

[Sacarathe]

Oh my word, a map wot works.

[Jay85]

Site is back up and running, a hell of a lot of hard work by G has got it into a nice usable format! Slightly bias as I was a beta tester but this is the start of something great! But it needs the community to support it by using it and popping their own reviews and stuff on the site!

[AshOnSnow]

The airsoft nation link eventually lead me to the UKAPU site.

 

Holy crap. The chairman's name is Matt Fury King

 

That might just be the most badass thing yet.