Gabriel
New Member
The face of a man who has seen the Ancient Ones is forever twisted by the memory.
Posts: 455
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Post by Gabriel on Nov 13, 2014 15:47:15 GMT -5
I just want to say thank you on behalf of pretty much everybody on MiA to the guys who are putting their busy schedules aside to make this possible. You guys the real MVPs. And to ProBoards, I wanted to write a little poem:
Proboards was the when we needed it Can we really be angry at someone's fit? Go look in the mirror and say Fuck, why should I stay? Itself, it was not the enemy. With peoples zealotry, A single company is not blame! Cactus are the ones with shame!
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Post by Knief on Nov 13, 2014 16:02:00 GMT -5
It's probably not a doomsday scenario if we wait a couple more days and actually talk with each other about how we could do this, right Squirrel? It might even help keep the whole community together instead of splitting it further apart.
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Post by X on Nov 13, 2014 16:14:30 GMT -5
I think some people are freaking out here, when it's not that big a deal. The forum is slow right now because it's November, not because everyone is so disgruntled at the commerce section shut down that they just straight up quit airsoft. This forum will continue to slow down and be damn near dead until spring. That's just the nature of a seasonal hobby.
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Post by voodoo on Nov 13, 2014 18:08:35 GMT -5
I agree with the seasonal argument, BUT I have also found myself visiting MiA less with the lack of the commerce section. I'm not going to make accounts on new forums just for our commerce section. I've been waiting it out, and I'm not worried about people leaving the sport. But I definitely would like something concrete figured out. I've got stuff piling up I'd like to get rid of haha.
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Post by Ogre on Nov 13, 2014 18:15:24 GMT -5
Step 1: Wait until proboards and the troll that reported us lose interest in us or we can reach an agreement. Step 2: Put commerce section back up anyways. Step 3: #Fight The Power by Public Enemy Step 4: ?? Step 5: Profit
In all seriousness. We wait this out, put the commerce section back up in a few months(possibly spring since that is when the forum will become active again) Everything will be fine.
If we actually lose members because commerce is down, the way I see it, it doesn't matter anyways. They are the type of people who were just here TO sell. Not actual bodies on the field, which is what matters
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Post by Squirrel on Nov 13, 2014 18:20:17 GMT -5
It's probably not a doomsday scenario if we wait a couple more days and actually talk with each other about how we could do this, right Squirrel? It might even help keep the whole community together instead of splitting it further apart. We've been open to talk, but nobody is talking to us. In the interest of keeping things in the eye of the community, what are you concerns about MI6MM? I don't like to talk in private when it comes to community issues.
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Roger Monk
New Member
Just call me monk ... please
Posts: 451
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Post by Roger Monk on Nov 13, 2014 19:51:32 GMT -5
What about a website called "michiganairsoft.com"? I saw the domain for sale a few months ago by a member. Use the website domain and integrate a forum format. I know that's easier said than done though.
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Post by X on Nov 13, 2014 20:30:06 GMT -5
What about a website called "michiganairsoft.com"? I saw the domain for sale a few months ago by a member. Use the website domain and integrate a forum format. I know that's easier said than done though. Correct easier said than done. Quick 101 on websites. 3 things to run a website. 1) Domain. This the address. It costs money to keep a web address. 2) Server hardware. You have to pay some company to host the website. Usually like $5 a month or sometimes cheaper. Depends highly on the expected traffic and the requirements of the servers software. 3) Server Software. This is the code that actually runs the forum. Generally you have to pay for nice forum software but there's probably decent open source stuff out there. So to respond to your comment. Yes, someone has the Michiganairsoft domain, but we still need 2 and 3. Based on previous comments it sounds like that's already underway.
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Post by Thor on Nov 18, 2014 18:21:40 GMT -5
In addition to what X has mentioned, there's also the issues of ownership of all the above. If someone volunteers to do all the grunt work (hosting, maintenance, etc) even provided others are willing to chip in and foot the bill, what happens when/if that person gets bored or just simply tired of dealing with the hassle of it all? People come and go over the years. There are lots of people who used to post here all the time back when I first joined that have not been active in years. I myself have become much, much less active in the last few years to the point that there are probably few people on this board besides the current mod staff and a few others who have even met me.
A free forum has been good for us over the years, but with the changes in the TOS I'm not so sure those benefits outweigh the restrictions anymore. There has been active discussion over in the mod section, but don't think that means anyone is just going to arbitrarily make a decision one way or the other. This is something that deserves a lot of careful thought and planning over the long term sustainability of this community.
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Post by Deacon on Nov 18, 2014 18:54:30 GMT -5
This has been discussed time and time again and ignored time and time again.
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Post by Squirrel on Nov 18, 2014 18:56:26 GMT -5
This is not meant to sound insulting or disrespectful, but you say you have not been active in the past few years, I've been playing for almost three years now and haven't met most of the mod staff. As you guys become less active, who is going to take the reigns here? What interest is there here other than being an MIA mod?
If you look at the staff on the other forum, the staff is actively hosting games, participating in events around the state, buying and selling gear in state, doing tech work for MIA players, ect. Does it sound like we are a group that doesn't care about the community? We play a pretty big role I think. Does it seem like we are going anywhere any time soon, or did we do something in an attempt to better the community?
I know a lot of staff here were reached out to before we started posting on Facebook and other places. We were met largely with silence at first. We are not anti-MIA, we are not against the mod staff here, we are trying to better the community while it is in a time of need. We don't want MIA to go away, it is a fantastic archive of information. Best of luck finding another free forum service that wont have ToS violations down the road. There is a reason why any gun / knife / airsoft forum that sees a lot of traffic is privately hosted now.
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Post by Thor on Nov 18, 2014 22:07:04 GMT -5
I don't think anyone assumes any ill intent or the like, but to not discuss those facets would be foolish. I don't think anyone has an intent to screw over the moderator staff here or anything of the sort. I applaud Deacon for taking some initiative and making the offer he has, but it doesn't mean I don't worry about what might happen 5 or 10 years down the road. This forum has been around for over a decade, I'd like to see the community at large continue for another in some form.
Squirrel, your concerns about moderators being active/inactive are valid. I would agree that having mods that are also active face-to-face in the community is probably better, and perhaps that's something we have failed to keep up with as well as we could have. However, you haven't been around long enough to remember what the forum was like when most of the moderators were all on the same team (in this case, it was Geist Kompanie). I was just barely here for the tail end of it, but essentially the forums felt more like GK's forum rather than a Michigan forum. The forum has become much more even-handed and democratic since then.
I don't think the silence was due to any enmity toward anyone, I think it was largely due to "Oh shit, what do we do?" Figuring out whether to close shop and migrate to another place or try to stick it out here with a patchwork commerce system is a BIG thing. I don't want to discourage Deacon from what he's trying to do, even if the decision is made to keep MIA open for as long as people are coming here, I don't think we need to be in competition with each other. He's trying to do right by everyone at his own expense, be it money or even just time. I respect that, and commend it.
Now, as I am not as active as I once was, I will say that these thoughts are all my own. I don't speak for any of the other mods, and ultimately I will support whichever decision sounds best for all involved. I don't have much stake in it one way or the other, just because I don't really know when/if I'll have time to get back into it like I would like.
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Post by Squirrel on Nov 19, 2014 11:05:20 GMT -5
I completely agree that a community should not be run by one team in the interest of keeping things fair and balanced. M.S. Arc has jumped on board, as well as Devil. The staff that is there right now came largely from people who expressed interest and help get the project off the ground. We are fine with mods who are not SK guys, Deacon is not part of SK. The biggest issue so far has been the issue of Admin rights to those who are not backing the project. That just isn't logical.
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Post by Deacon on Dec 5, 2014 16:12:16 GMT -5
Still waiting for something to be done.
There's a solid community waiting to be used but... it's being blocked here.
I'm not trying to start war. I'm growing impatient with the indecision of allowing the site to be posted so that the community can decide what they want to do.
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Post by Mosin on Dec 5, 2014 16:56:26 GMT -5
I proposed we make a commerce section that allows everything but the sale of complete airsoft gat blasters. Considering a good bit of airsoft is gear and parts, that'd still leave just about everything open to sale save for a complete replica. Waiting to hear back from other Mods on that before we pull trigger.
If you want to make a thread about your board, there is nothing against our terms that would prohibit you from doing so, as long as it didn't reach a point of spam status.
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