Forum Etiquette
 

I'm posting this because I was appalled at what I saw in a recent post. This is not intended to be for anyone specific but rather the airsoft community in general.
Anytime someone asks for questions about airsoft, there are people who answer their questions politely, and that's fantastic, your excellent people. And there are those who recommend they get age verified, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's a step in the right direction for the person asking questions.
But now someone who was trying to get age verified for a long time, and is reasonably angry, posts about the slow service and immediately some people jump in to bash this person.
Now I'm guilty of filling threads with useless rhetoric and non-helpful comments as well, no doubt about that, but when someone's trying to get age verified and actually use our system the way we want it to be used, it's completely un-professional to add negative comments. Remember it's US representing airsoft in Canada, not our admins or moderators or retailers by themselves.

So please just be more aware of what your saying and how your replying, just because this is the internet it doesn't mean you'll never meet up with these people.

If you have a problem with the wording of this post please PM me and I'll get it reworded right away.

Unfortunately that's the nature of online forums. Not always the best places.

Considering that this is an airsoft community forum, I'd think that half the point is to meet up and play with the other airsofters here eventually. ;)

The nature of an online forum is dependent upon those who make up said community. Do we like that type of behaviour or want it to be the public face of airsoft in Canada? Change starts with one's own actions, and when a community at large makes it known that it will not accept or tolerate a certain type of behaviour, new members will have little choice but to conform or find themselves ostracized. This is already the case with players on the field. Why should we accept any less on the forums just because that is the current "nature of online forums"?

Well said. I totally agree with your point of view. Change of attitude however, has to start at the top, in any organization! If rules are put in place and strictly enforced, then no one will step over the line without facing the consequences.

Look at some forums and their all:

"Noob, faggot lol rofl GTFO noob."

Then look at other forums and everyone (on the most part) is all nice and everything (take ubuntu forums for example):

"Well IMO it's really better to get the 8800 vs the 3850 because...... but it's really your choice"

IMO ASC falls closer to the middle-"noob faggot lol" side of the spectrum. Albeit there are some pretty nice people.

ALSO is this how you would treat someone IRL? Think about it chances are most of us are going to meet other people on the forums at games, and events and such. If you're a douche on the forums what does that make the other user(s) think of you. Remember just because you can hide behind a computer screen on most forums doesn't mean that you can on this one (except for the international players from Phillipines, HK, US, and the UK) you're going to meet other people sooner or later (especially if you go to games).

Sure I'm not verified yet, I'm doing that in about 2 months (when I turn 18) but still keep in mind that peoples opinions of you and the community as a whole are based on the forums before they even meet you.

Sure you can reply sarcastically once in a while everyone does it but try not to make yourself look like a fool.

If you can't wait to be verified I question your maturity and ability to participate.

If you can't follow up the chain of contacts starting with your verifier I question your other problem solving skills.

And then of course we are talking about volunteers taking their time to meet strangers in parking lots or what have you. It's not Dominos 40 minutes or free.

Yes, I saw that thread as well, and I agree that it's taken far too long for the member's verification process. It took me 5 weeks from the time I spoke to my rep for mine to go through. I was patient for the first 3 weeks or so, because I did take into account that the reps and admins / mods are volunteers with lives outside of ASC. At that point, I sent several (unreplied to) PMs to the rep. Then I sent PMs to a couple of the mods about it. It was finally at the beginning of the fifth week that my status was updated. Yes, it was very frustrating, and in this world of electronic communications, something like that could have been done the same day, not 5 weeks later.

So yeah, there's nothing wrong with the user being frustrated with his age-verification problem. He got reamed on by people to get age-verified, went through the process, and 3 months later is still on square 1. Whatever the cause of the problem is, it needs to be fixed. If the age verifiers aren't posting the info the way they're supposed to, then perhaps the admins should send PMs to the verifiers and inform / remind them of the correct procedure so that this issue can be resolved. As it stands, it seems that this is a pretty common problem. If everyone is just out to cover their asses rather than try to fix the problem, nothing will ever get fixed. No offense to anyone intended with this, but if a process seems to be this problematic, then there's obviously something in the chair that's awry and needs to be adjusted.

And I think that's all the guy is after in the end - that this problem gets resolved and he can be granted access. That's no reason for anyone to get rude with him for it. It's possible to express your opinion or dissatisfaction with something in an articulate manner without being a rude asshole, just as he did in his original post. There was no reason for anyone to come down on him for it.

People like to bash others, for some reason, and use every chance they get to do it on the Internet. I find it's pretty sad when we have a community where most of the members are over 18 acting like 12 year olds in the school playground. It's amazing how people will act when the fear of getting their asses kicked for being rude, ignorant fucks is removed from the equation. I'm not just referring to that thread in particular, but general behaviour around the Internet in general. Our forum seems quite tame compared to most, but still, there are a lot of unecessary, unprovoked rudeness and bashing going on.

Can you imagine what a ASC national convention would look like?

The thread and posts that Thundercactus is referring to were quite disgusting. We are a community and should be assisting each other; telling people to "deal with it" in a very condescending and disrespectful way is very inappropriate. Some people on these boards really need to adjust their attitudes and realize we are all in this community together.

Being on a forum is no excuse, treat people the way you would in person.

+1

You wouldn't say half the things to someone in person pointing their 500 FPS sniper at you like you say to them on here.

ToTaL....I don't want to think about it. ......It'd be like Kindergarten all over again; getting caught throwing rocks at the ladies car; which I tell you got me expelled.....from Kindergarten.

Like some of you, I agree, can't really think of a reason yet, but it's positive.

She must've been a real ugly and nasty lady to have gotten you expelled.

Absolutely!! People on ASC have to realize that this forum is not only read by members (new or otherwise), but is in fact often frequented by members of legal and political groups who are interested in "keeping tabs" on us. There are those who are constantly looking for "leads" on those who are intent on blatantly breaking the law, and so forth. Other interest groups parouse the forums for various reasons, as do those who are interested in sales directed at milsim players.

And what they find......
Unbelievable.

SHA DO

is 95% whiny crap, 2% useful information and 3% funny pictures