Air Gun Home :: View topic

Admin · Site Admin

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Welcome to the newly created Air Gun Home forum.

The intent of this forum is to provide air gun enthusiasts from (at this time) English-speaking areas of the world a "barrier-free" zone to primarily discuss improvements and modifications to their tools/toys as well as anything else related to the air gun hobby/industry- whether this be politics, events, or generic this-and-that.

"But why?" You may ask, "There are plenty of air gun forums out there already."

The reason this site was put together is two-fold:

The first reason is that many airgun sites with great reference materials are run by a retailer or distributor aimed entirely at selling you some goods. Or, in the case of a huge number of the privately-run forums, they are falling way behind in respect to forum layout, navigation and ability-to-use effectively. Everyone knows them: single color backgrounds, all text with maybe the occasional picture, topics are displayed chronologically based on the date/time the first post was put up- not when the last post to it was inserted, etc. etc. These things make the majority of the best sites out there hard to navigate and virtually impossible to search effectively (I spent about 3 days a few weeks ago reading over 500 pages of info from one site to get details on basic modifications/maintenance to a commonly-available Crosman rifle because that was the ONLY way to search the forum and not miss critical posts). This is not to "knock" the sites on content or contributors- there is fantastic information and fantastic people on these 'old-school' type forums- but if no one can find the info they seek- something significant is lacking.

The second reason was mentioned in the opening paragraph: less barriers. Virtually all forums out there cater to people in a specific geographic area (typically the United States, but there are a few forums for Australians, Britons, Canadians, etc.). By the nature of concentrating on a specific geography- many subjects, being "taboo" in that region- never get mentioned. For example, in the U.S. no ones wants to discuss silencers; how they operate, how they are constructed, nothing. Why? Because they are generally illegal. However, people in Britain and Europe can talk about them until they're blue-in-the-face- silencers or "moderators" are legal and accepted with the right permits/licenses in most European countries. Another example of this sort of "taboo" is Canadian airgunners- their (few) forums typically will not discuss modifications/improvement to air guns because once an air gun reaches a velocity over 495fps and a muzzle energy over 5.7 Joules (4.2fpe) it becomes a "firearm" requiring a license/permit. Excluding very basic maintenance and cosmetic improvements- Canadians won't discuss significant power-enhancing changes to air guns for fear someone might modify theirs in an illegal manner and not follow the appropriate laws/fulfill the legal requirements in order to do this. These are just artificial barriers in mindset- if a person in the UK wants to know about putting together a silencer and have/will obtain the appropriate license- why should they be forced to stay in a UK forum and hope someone there has the expertise required when this expertise is undoubtedly out in the world somewhere- but is just not being talked about. Canadians want to improve upon the factory specifications and bring their air gun closer to the legal limit before a license is required, or want to extensively modify their airgun beyond the licensing threshold must typically go to U.S. sites to obtain this info. The idea with this forum is to tie all these bits & pieces into one place of reference so muddling about out in cyberspace is not required to find the information one seeks.

All that being said- this site still will not tolerate subjects that are basically immoral, unethical, illegal or otherwise offensive virtually everywhere. For example, racism, sexism, cruelty to animals, etc. Also- for your specific geographic region- discussing topics that are illegal in your locale is not something you will be censored on- but stating that you are violating your local laws and are not doing anything to resolve this will be edited/deleted and any other action deemed appropriate may be utilized.

Finally- this novella is done.

Welcome to the Air Gun Home forum! We hope you find what you are looking for, and will contribute your knowledge and experience to other airgun enthusiasts.

Eric
aka AirGunEric
(the Administrator)

AirGunEric · Site Admin

Addendum to the "Welcome" message:

Often I go poking around other airgun forums- some I contribute commentary on, some not. But recently I've seen a couple of other airgun forums completely re-arrange themselves, converting themselves into seemingly closed-minded environments. This is not going to happen here!

Items such as "no links to other airgun materials or what could be construed as 'advertisements', for example, your airgun blog, will be tolerated" have been seen out and around on some forums. What? Question

How does eliminating information on available airgun resources to people benefit the airgun community? Apparently it doesn't- but it does allow some sites/forums to try and force anyone with a source of information to have to pay to get some exposure- i.e. $$$ through advertisements and sponsorships without the inconvenience of having members providing free resources for everyone's benefit. This is just 'wrong' in so many ways it's almost scary.

Another interesting item I came across on another forum lately was "there will be no questioning of this forum's moderation or management allowed." "Wow" is about all I can say in response to that. 'Democracy! We don't need no stinking democracy!' Rolling Eyes

In any event- it strikes me that because of these sorts of activities, a number of members on other sites and forums may be looking around for a new "home". AirGunHome welcomes everyone.

If enough people have a desire to have a forum area to address a specific model or manufacturer of airgun- that can be provided, assuming there is sufficient information and volume to make such an area useful. For example, if we have 100 members who would like a forum specifically for, say Beeman or AirForce Talon/TalonSS/Condor or Umarex guns- we can implements these as required.

Final note: Information, resources and open communication are what makes a forum successful. AirGunHome.com and the forum will not fall victim to petty closed-mindedness in order to line our wallet or play supreme dictator to the membership.