Other airgun forums....

I hate to be judgmental (well, no, I don’t if we are being honest) but am I the only one who thinks the sheer number of sub-forums at Gateway To Airguns is overwhelming and repetitive? Please don’t get me wrong, there is a tremendous amount of valuable and entertaining information to be had there, I doubt that anyone could argue otherwise, but trying to sift through it or decide which forum that might hold the key to a question is just a pain in the derrière. Really, it just seems tiresome to try to recall which sub-forum (or sub-sub forum!) is where I want to be, and there seems to be a few that essentially duplicate themselves in different areas. Not really user friendly in the long run, and certainly not for quick references either.

My memory isn’t what it used to be, but I seem to recall an earlier version of GTA that wasn’t quite so, um, exuberant in its number of choices. Am I wrong about that? For that matter, does anyone share my admittedly harsh opinion of the place? I have no axe to grind, but boy that sharpening wheel does seems pretty close to hand!
 
I already spend too much time on airgun forums so can’t be bothered to wade through numerous sub forums on GTA,

As well as AGN I actively post on AGF (airgun forum uk) which is a good site for general information on airguns and R7OC (rapid 7 owners club) which is the best site on the web for anything to do with Rapids, RAW and other Rapid based platforms.

A forum that was an excellent place for technical information on airguns was Airgun Advice sadly this closed down a few years ago.

The forums I frequent, have a small but active membership, it’s much easier to keep track on who are to “go to” guys for help and advice on any particular model and manufacturer.👍



Bb
 
I immediately ran into an Ahole over at GTA that had a mild understanding of the subject matter of the thread and when I stated my opinion he got mad and began his attack, the kind of guy I've seen on other forums, one of those bully types. I gave multiple examples I had experienced myself and had also read about. By the end of that exchange I think he felt pretty stupid because he quit responding back.

I get all I need here so I'm good.
 
There is indeed a huge wealth of information over there, that I have explored quite a bit. I agree that Bob & Lloyd’s Workshop is excellent, probably one of the best sub-forums on the site.

Just of of curiosity, however, I popped in a few moments ago to see if I was overstating the issue. If you include the 50 different Discussions By State forums, there are a total of 124 forums altogether! Even leaving those 50 out, you are left with an overwhelming 74 forums! It seems like micro-managing on a macro scale. There are far worse things in this world to concern yourself about, so I guess I’ll just have a bit of cheese with my whine and get over myself.

But really, 124? Wow!
 
GTA had, and probably still has, some good qualities and very educated members in particular subject matters. Personally, I was never very active on GTA. I think I still have a membership there but, I haven't been by there in years. It has always seemed to have a consistent place in the background of the airgun world (no offense intended). I find myself visiting there from time to time when I'm researching something through google. The old yellow forum was the top place to be until AGN came along and changed everything. But, the design of that forum and the way it flowed was very poor and made following a topic increasingly difficult as time went on. The design naturally lent itself to killing topics. Admittedly, I was very disappointed when I saw that they basically cloned AGN for their relaunch under their new name. No idea what's going on over there these days. It's not really even a thought that crosses my mind to go there. I think my disappointment at their carbon copying of AGN was so great that I immediately wrote the whole place off on day 1. I've read the other side of the discussion, as well, and can understand the perspective that there are forum "designs" or "prescriptions" and this one works very well for our application. It still sits a little uneasy with me, though. Also, the name, "Airgun Warriors". Just the name can put someone into a slightly defensive state of mind before they even read anything. Are we in some kind of a fight here that we have to title ourselves "warriors"? Every forum has, let's call them... "vocal personalities" that read things in certain ways, that trigger their defenses, which comes out in their responses and, it generally ends up as an argument, which rarely ends well! Logging onto a place where you call yourself a "warrior" seems like it would help to prime those vocal personalities to change from a discussive state of mind over to an argumentative one. 

I like AGN. I have since it was created. I think it flows well and allows members to not only communicate effectively with each other but, also with the owner, moderators, and manufacturers with suggestions for improvements moving forward. And, I've seen those suggestions come to light over the years so, you can tell they're listening! From my perspective, the moderators seem to treat everyone fairly, and without bias. I haven't agreed with everything AGN has done but, I can see the logic behind the decisions and respect them. For me, those are the kinds of things that keep me coming back. Happy Shooting! 

Thank you, Veterans! 

Tom