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Is Organized Airsoft In Indiana A Thing Of The Past?


HelsinkiTorpedo

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Hey everybody out there! I posted up in the Introductions section about a week ago. I used to play with the Tristar Rebellion under the moniker The Bear (not the current Bear), back in 2007-2009. Back then, airsoft in Indiana looked like it was really picking up steam.

 

Now, a decade later, and from my view it seems all but gone... the forums are pretty dead. I barely see new posts, and I feel like I can't contribute to many of the topics because they're all months and months old, often with barely any replies or discussion.

 

Yeah, I've read about Facebook pulling traffic away, but I'm not even seeing much activity on the Facebook group. Honestly, I've seen a lot more out-of-state games posted in the last week than anything located in Indiana, which is a bit discouraging.

 

I don't mean this as a criticism or to raise any hackles. I could have tried to involve myself in the last 10 years as well (not that I could have changed anything).

 

I just... I'd love to jump back into the sport, but it almost feels like there's no sport locally to jump back into.

 

I'm still gonna try, regardless. My gun arrived yesterday, I'm looking to take care of the support logistics soon (extra mags, ammunition, silicone oil, and gas). I'm even trying to get one of the supervisors and one of my other inspectors into the game as well.

 

I hope this is an appropriate forum to post this in. Again, none of it is intended to be crappy or criticizing. I suppose i'm really just asking: what's going on, and how can I help?

Edited by HelsinkiTorpedo
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We live in indiana.. Most fields are in spring thaw which mean knee deep mud..    temperatures are near nothing one weekend than the next so not much is being planned right now.  Happens every season.     Indoor has been hopping Around 60 players at spec ops last weekend when I was their.     One the weather warms up games start popping up.   Right now there are only a few active private fields left.   Few news one popping up here and there.  Hang in there it will pick up soon.    Also like you said social media has all but killed most forums we are working on that now.. trying to drive traphic back here..   Where we can talk about what we love without being banned.  

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You're definitely right about the seasons, for sure. I just recall a lot more discussion online, even in the off-seasons. It's a shame about private fields dwindling. I've got a place where a few folks could play, but it's not mine and I don't know if my father-in-law wants a ton of folks traipsing around our hunting grounds all summer long, lol.

 

Forums are a bit of an anachronism this day and age it seems. I mean, I'm having to re-aquaint myself with how they work, and I practically lived on forums in high school. I'm gonna try to get my coworkers more involved as well. I know some of them have some property to play on, but I'm not sure how they'd feel about an event there.

 

I just wanna help however I can.

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The Bear... I remember that name... do you remember me? Back then my forum name would have been triggerboy. But yes the Facebook page seems to have the most traffic these days.

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Trigger, it's been a long time, so my memory isn't so great. Were you with Horizon, by any chance? If so, do you guys still have access to the field we played?

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Yep, Horizon was the team name. Unfortunately I don't have access to that field anymore due to insurance worries. I've also moved to northern Indiana since then so I'm not in the area much.

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Trigger, where are you at in NWI? 


Teams are still active minus the forums and FB, they do not dictate or control our media. Most of the true blue groups still follow forums even though we don't say much. (our bad but it i what it is) Most social media is BS, but a lot of us are still very active ;) 

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I'm glad to hear that many are still active, Gerbil! For me though, I almost feel like a new player again, with all the advances and changes. What's the new FPS limits? What is this Joule limit that I've seen here and there?

 

Honestly, one of my concerns is that I've got questions about the changes in Indiana, and there doesn't seem to be any concrete information that I can find with Google. And with the forums this dead, how are new players (or returning players) gonna find that information?

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Rules have all but stayed the same.. the thing with Joules has always been around but being HPA is bigger now and heavy bbs are the norm..  We use a power rating rather than a speed one for safety.    Games are usually posted on this page some of us tty and keep things updated as we see stuff posted other places and share it here.   We have a large indoor in Martinsville now.   Actaully headed there today myself.    Spec Op group.   We have more commercial fields than in the past as airsoft has started to change and grow.   Big names like Tipman and Valken stepped into the game.  Although personally not a fan of either of them.  It honeslty getting exciting for me again to see whats to come.. has slowed down and is now picking back up again.  

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Crimson, I have noticed that there are actual commercial fields now, and more paintball fields allowing some airsoft, which is awesome!

 

Speaking of velocity and energy limits, I ordered an NPAS for my GBBR. Would that be sufficient to bring my velocity down, per the rules? The stat block for the gun I ordered claimed 410-450fps with .20 gram BBs

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We are still here. Just with the same problems we’ve always had, which is plenty of players but not enough fields or willing hosts to step up and actually host. Social media is definitely not doing us any favors (don’t get me started on that). The weather thing as been addressed. Give it a month or so and the event section will have events fighting over dates lol. You may have to do a bit of driving but you can find somewhere to play.

 

The best way to help, if you are not hosting, would be telling those who are to post their events here. Or if you see something on FB or wherever that isn’t yet posted here, tell them to post it here or just post it yourself.

 

Welcome back.

 

~Joker

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Thanks, Joker. Any events I see that aren't here, I'll definitely send this way. I'm also recruiting/peer pressuring my coworkers.

 

About places to play, has anyone talked to the Paintball Barn? They're right in my backyard. If no one has contacted them, I could give it a shot.

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Trigger, where are you at in NWI? 

Teams are still active minus the forums and FB, they do not dictate or control our media. Most of the true blue groups still follow forums even though we don't say much. (our bad but it i what it is) Most social media is BS, but a lot of us are still very active ;)

 

So true... Login records show fairly constant forum logins from folks just not a ton of posts. This could be any number of things honestly though. I'd like to think we all just did such a kick ass job answering questions that no one has to do anything more than use the search feature but I know how people are these days, :lol:

 

 

Anyways, AS in Indiana has had some rough years as of late. Lots of big name teams fell out of hosting, decline of fields, and yea Facebook (sigh). I'm making it a personal goal to get more involved again this year. I miss the sport and the people.

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Thanks, Joker. Any events I see that aren't here, I'll definitely send this way. I'm also recruiting/peer pressuring my coworkers.

 

About places to play, has anyone talked to the Paintball Barn? They're right in my backyard. If no one has contacted them, I could give it a shot.

The Purdue Airsoft Club had access to paintball barn a few years ago and likely still does, but I haven't checked. You can follow them on Facebook and send them a message.

 

RG, I live by Notre Dame now.

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It makes me sad the way the FB pages have killed forum traffic. It use to be exctic to track down games to travel to. It also use to be a real community. FB, is the devil! Learned that from Bobby Bouchés mama.

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I find Facebook to be a pretty garbage way to deal with group discussions anyway. It feels...unintuitive. I'll admit that traditional forums feel be bit archaic, but I still prefer them to Facebook. Has anyone thought to try Reddit? There's an Indiana Airsoft subreddit, with 6 subscribers (including me), lol. Was that one of y'alls doing?

 

I still don't think that it would be as effectively laid out as the forum though.

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I find Facebook to be a pretty garbage way to deal with group discussions anyway. It feels...unintuitive. I'll admit that traditional forums feel be bit archaic, but I still prefer them to Facebook. Has anyone thought to try Reddit? There's an Indiana Airsoft subreddit, with 6 subscribers (including me), lol. Was that one of y'alls doing?

 

I still don't think that it would be as effectively laid out as the forum though.

 

I should've known there was a sub-reddit... There's a sub-reddit for everything! :lol:

 

The forum does provide us the greatest amount of flexibility on any platform. It's own by people not a corp so we can change/add things as needed; which is really nice!

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I should've known there was a sub-reddit... There's a sub-reddit for everything! :lol:

 

The forum does provide us the greatest amount of flexibility on any platform. It's own by people not a corp so we can change/add things as needed; which is really nice!

Been trying hard to use Facebook to drive people here..  its like pulling teeth sadly.. But worth the fight.     It will be a struggle until they nuke all the pages and hopefully we can get back to the old ways.  Not really a reddit fan myself.. or discord or even really facebook..  So if anyone has idea how to better drive the traffic here i'm all ears.    I get about 3 requests for new members on their every day.   And just keep pointing them here.  

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Been trying hard to use Facebook to drive people here..  its like pulling teeth sadly.. But worth the fight.     It will be a struggle until they nuke all the pages and hopefully we can get back to the old ways.  Not really a reddit fan myself.. or discord or even really facebook..  So if anyone has idea how to better drive the traffic here i'm all ears.    I get about 3 requests for new members on their every day.   And just keep pointing them here.  

Reddit has grown on me but only for crowd sourcing information and helping others with topics I can help on. Aside from that, it's for the laughs as there are some comedy gold subs on there! I'll refrain from de-railing the topic though!

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I'd like to think we all just did such a kick ass job answering questions that no one has to do anything more than use the search feature but I know how people are these days, :lol:

 

99% of the questions on facebook groups go something like this:

 

"What is the best gun for a beginner? Just got into the sport and wanna make the right decision! Btw it must be an M4 with m-lok rails, preferably an HPA, and I'm not really interested in anything that isn't unique. I wanna stand out from the crowd, ya know?

 

Looking to spend around $150. Thanks in advance!"

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99% of the questions on facebook groups go something like this:

 

"What is the best gun for a beginner? Just got into the sport and wanna make the right decision! Btw it must be an M4 with m-lok rails, preferably an HPA, and I'm not really interested in anything that isn't unique. I wanna stand out from the crowd, ya know?

 

Looking to spend around $150. Thanks in advance!"

 

Ouch... That's painful to read... 150 for HPA? :blink:

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Crimson has pointed out in a couple of places now that the post limit for new accounts, as well as necroposting rules, may be limiting some of the willingness to interact. I mean, I've only got 3 more posts I can make today, until 1840 tomorrow evening. I understand the intent to prevent spam, but it has kind of hampered my ability to join discussions.

 

As for necroposting, there are a ton of ancient threads on here that a lot of new folks can't (or at least shouldn't) reply to. I don't really think that we ought to be necro-posting necessarily, but without more fresh posts it leaves newer members with little to contribute.

 

I'm glad to see such good conversation in here though! And I also seem to have noticed an uptick in forum traffic the last week or so.

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I'm glad to see such good conversation in here though! And I also seem to have noticed an uptick in forum traffic the last week or so.

 

Not to rain on the parade, traffic hasn't really changed much believe it or not! Number of discussions has increased though. The forum really hasn't ever seen a low in quantity of traffic only in the amount of new discussion. Still bad, yes but acting like the forum was alone and abandoned is mis-leading, lol.

 

Crimson has pointed out in a couple of places now that the post limit for new accounts, as well as necroposting rules, may be limiting some of the willingness to interact. I mean, I've only got 3 more posts I can make today, until 1840 tomorrow evening. I understand the intent to prevent spam, but it has kind of hampered my ability to join discussions.

 

As for necroposting, there are a ton of ancient threads on here that a lot of new folks can't (or at least shouldn't) reply to. I don't really think that we ought to be necro-posting necessarily, but without more fresh posts it leaves newer members with little to contribute.

 

What stops them from starting new topics? Serious question. I'm trying to get a pulse on the people in the sport these days.

 

The post limits are easily changed but no one has wanted to have a discussion and propose ideas on how to combat spam without hampering legitimate people posting abilities. It's been merely a lot of complaining. Again, I'm all for correcting issues but we have to look at it from both sides. If we drop the post requirement, how to we combat spam? Believe me it will come back and it's not difficult to write things that crawl the Internet (I've done many non-malicious ones; mainly looking for memes. *Purely for academic reasons..... :lol: )

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