What happened to this forum?

[gijohn2]

Whats happened to this forum? It used to be stupidly busy with new sales threads and random other threads starting everyday and now its just a baron forum with not much going on?

Did the admins have a power trip and ruin it all for everyone?

[R34V3R]

Re: What happened to this forum?

It may have something to do with the fact its Xmas?

[gijohn2]

Re: What happened to this forum?

It may have something to do with the fact its Xmas?

Nah, that has naff all to do with it! Back when i used to use these forums day in day out it was rammed with new content everyday. The "show new posts" after a day at work would come up with 3-4 pages of new posts/threads and now its just 1-2 pages after a week or 4 posts a night.

[Trouble]

Re: What happened to this forum?

I've popped back in this week for a gander. Have had a post on a camo thread, waiting to see if there's any interesting discussion... Picked up a bargain recently on a sales thread, happy with that.

My feeling is, from speaking to people face to face, is that most folk don't bother coming on here any more because of the over moderation of general discussions and the lack of moderation of dodgy sales threads.

Don't shoot the messenger.

(Crossing my fingers that the moderators don't give me a warning here, or such like. It usually happens for saying boo to a ghost)

[Proffrink]

Re: What happened to this forum?

I don't mind saying it: I come here a lot less often because I can't post links to places. Airsoft is about acquiring cool new toys, and helping new and experienced players is hard if you can't link to a retailer's page. I understand Zero One's policy on this, but they need a better understanding of the passive publicity that they could get from this forum if less people we're turned off by not having to tip-toe around sharing links with one-another. Hey ho.

[emergencychimp]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Is it just that all the questions have been asked a million times before eg what am best gun and how do I get more range?

There hasn't been any majorly interesting developments in the last 3 years with camo- everyone is still using multicam, there isn't a new cool trend out for the next airsoft fashion related piece because people don't seem inclined to move on from multi cam.

Milsims have been spoken about lots, night games aren't new, day skirmishes are the same steady site again and again.

Our sport doesn't really seem to be innovating in anyway it's just more repetition of the old stuff again and again and there's already threads about it all. Eg when zero dark thirty came out it was massive, new, never seen like that before, it's old hat now and been done to death. There hasn't been a new big thing

No new sites, game ideas or new trends so nobody has anything new to talk about.

The over zealous modding probably doesn't help but even talking about that seems repetitive

[Bryan Mills]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Facebook happened.

You can join specialist groups, you can talk freely, it's easier to have a meme war.......

The downside to Facebook is the lack of organisation like in a forum so your stuff soon drops off the radar and is nigh on impossible to find again.

[PureSilver]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Is it just that all the questions have been asked a million times before

Hah! Get a load of this guy, acting like just because something's been asked and answered three times a week for the past two hundred consecutive weeks it's not going to get asked again! I bet you believe people realise this forum has a search function!

Facebook happened.

This is what killed ZeroIn. There are a million different Facebook groups under the sun, it takes virtually no effort to start your own, any they're barely moderated if they even have any rules to adhere to. ZeroIn was particularly badly affected because so many of its users are new or casual players, rather than established members of an online community, and because the forum is very generalised rather than specialised. More hardcore and/or focused forums (e.g. Arnie's Airsoft, Airsoft Sniper Forum) are much more reliably busy because Facebook is a crap platform for a forum and more committed airsofters realise that.

ZeroIn's major strength remains is its Classifieds, because this is still the most heavily trafficked UK-based airsoft forum that I know of, anyway. If you put stuff up for sale here, it will be seen by a lot of people, and you have a higher chance of selling it. It's a shame that the Classifieds are also one of ZeroIn's major weaknesses, because they're so notoriously scam-prone, but that's arguably a function more of popularity and lack of entry requirements than any major failing on the part of the moderators. At any rate, I reckon the Classifieds alone will drag the forum along for a while yet.

[cayuse13]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Forum is too restricted imo.

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk

[McKillmore]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Facebook. Forums in general are suffering. It's a shame because not everyone uses face book and I think the discussion forum is a great format. You can be part of a nice little discussion community with it's own cliques, memes and social stucture, then tab to another forum which is totally different and just as enjoyable. From what I understand of facebook, everything is interconnected. Yeah you can be part of any number of groups, but only as yourself using your one profile. I dunno, I've never liked the idea of facebook and there are a lot of now defunct forums that I miss.

[sparrowhawk]

Re: What happened to this forum?

I use Facebook a lot because it's faster to post info eg photos, links to sites, companies, maps etc using my mobile and people respond a lot quicker

[seansamurai1]

Re: What happened to this forum?

I'll mirror the Facebook thing.
You can even tell what page most of the users have gone to.
This forum has lost a lot of its following which is kinda like a snowball effect.
Plenty of characters have been banned because they went against the grain, sadly they tended to be really helpful.
When that starts happening, it aids in the migration to other platforms.
On here at least the stupid was entertaining, on Facebook it just seems to be full of keyboard warriors.
Groups like the 'admin group', run by the same guy who got banned from here and other forums multiple times for being a cnut are a pestilence that frankly ruins the face of Airsoft, even when you leave said groups or block said assholes, they still insist on spouting BS.

[Caldymoose]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Its already been said. Facebook.

The vast majority of people will have an account, its very quick and easy to look at photos of your mates holiday, whilst wishing somebody a happy birthday, whilst posting your Glock for sale. Some people are lazy and don't want to have to open a new internet tab and go a new webpage just to get onto Zero In. That said, Facebook is, from my experience, awful for selling on. Yes, your ad can be seen by hundreds, perhaps thousands of people (depending on the group) but theres almost no moderation, and even then, its not hard to set up a new profile. You get so many people who will just offer daft prices for items and then wonder why you have declined their offers. The amount of people who then complain of being scammed (and the ensuing keyboard warrior comments) makes me want to stay clear of them as best I can. Which is annoying, because if that ends up being the best place to sell then so be it.

Its a matter of sheer convenience for most people, and the fact that there are so many groups (even though ironically most of them contain the same people....). The problem I find though with it all is that getting genuine advice from some groups is impossible, as people just seem to want to troll the posts of post memes on everything. And jesus....the mis information thats gets spread!! The whole surrounding of how to buy a RIF, site memberships, UKARA and the other forms of defence and tech advice seems to be given (all in varying forms of correctness and accuracy ranging from very good to abysmal) can be so poor its only worth reading if you fancy a chuckle. Until you realise that its being given by people who are genuinely serious and if you try and correct them you're treated like the anti christ. And the person who's been lapping their wrong info plays at your site...then gets pissy when they're told that 'No, you cant chrono on 0.3g rounds and the fact your gun does 400 FPS means that we won't allow it on a CQB site' But somebody on Facebook said....


Heard it many times!

The forum may pick up again after the festive period but who knows. Forums may start to reduce in numbers and activity as a whole in the coming years as social media does start to add more features/functions which start to intrude on the forums niches and USPs.

[emergencychimp]

Re: What happened to this forum?

Hah! Get a load of this guy, acting like just because something's been asked and answered three times a week for the past two hundred consecutive weeks it's not going to get asked again! I bet you believe people realise

There is a search function and it bloody works!

In all seriousness though, it's not just this forum, ukaz, arnies etc have all gone down hill in terms of content on the actual forums, ok ish selling places but the actual threads all seem boring, even the dedicated picture threads have stopped being populated, there used to be people regularly updating their load outs, being stitch bitches, showing off their latest and greatest guns etc all the time and now it's just generally pretty rubbish for sale threads.

What I mean by pretty rubbish is rarely is any of it of interest to an airsofter with more than 6 months of experience and it's often well over priced (the source of many a thread in that one!)

I don't think it will be long before we see some forums close as the cost just won't be worth it.

[Marc.RG1]

Re: What happened to this forum?

I can also say airgun forums have also slowed down a lot as well, some as you say down to things like Facebook, but also because of the time of year but other reasons to.. For example I find on one of the airgun forums umarexboysclub quite a lot of people are only interested in posting a reply on the topics they have started and don't reply much at all to other people topics, which makes the forum seem less busy then it is, don't get me wrong those a handfull of us put a lot of time into the forum and other people on it, BUT it will always be my home and first go 2 site and will be all the time it's running asit was my first gun site I joined a few years back and I have meet up with some cool guys one there..

As for Facebook I'm not a member and that will not change lol..

Happy Christmas all I hope you and your families have a good one.
ATB Marc