The Big Question: National or Regional?

[Matt]

Ok, this is not a question about posing nude for an all-guy Airsoft calendar, but I think it may be equally important to the members of this community. (I hope). I value the opinions in this community and hope you guys have some feedback on this.

With AP's popularity skyrocketing and with many of our local event promoters on the brink of national recognition, the question needs to be asked; should AP cater to the whole nation or just our area? You've already seen it happen, players in other regions are posting events or discussing Airsoft in their own regions. Some folks welcome this, others tend to say get the hell out.

Despite the fact that we're categorized as a Pacific Northwest site, we're ranked number 8 in the world for popularity according to the ranking site Alexa.com. If you count only US sites, we're 3rd. And that's for Airsoft in general, not just forum sites. Not bad for being a single region site, eh? Without constraint, AP could be more popular, but would we lose our local feel and community?

I see pros and cons with each.

Staying Regional
Pros - AP continues to be a tight knit community, we don't have folks outside our circle influencing our flavor. Everything here is relevant to the Pacific Northwest specifically.
Cons - Smaller audience, less exposure for the teams and event coordinators here from AP.

Going National
Pros - More traffic, more sponsor interest, more recognition for local teams and events
Cons - Growing pains, more content on the site that may not be relevant to you such as events in other regions

So, think about it. I'd like to hear what you guys think. Also, for those of you outside the Pacific Northwest, I'd like to know if AP wasn't so NW focused, would you make use of the site more? Would you discuss your own events/games here?

[Nightshade]

I think we work fine the way we do now: we have a site that is primarily for the Pacific Northwest but we don't discriminate against people from any other place in the world when they post. The only people that we need to do nasty things to are stupid people and you'll get plenty of those no matter which way we go.

I don't think AP can really be classified as "PNW only" anymore; we have posters from all over the United States and even a team that posts here from mainland China. That's a pretty big demographic.

[MetraDirty]

I like this community just the way it is. Why?
I know it well, it meshes.
Although I do believe that is a tad bit selfish.

If you think that going national would be a successful endeavor, I'm all for it.

I will be here regardless.

[Mobius]

yes it may bring more traffic and it may be nifty...

but I say: If it aint broke, Dont fix it.

I like how tightnit we are as a community now. yes we are predominantly pac NW but there are several people here who do come from different areas.

Im here for the long haul reguardless but I like us the way we are.

[Nocte]

National recognition will only serve the relatively few event promoters we have, and will alienate the community members. AP and BSP events have plenty of sponsors as it is, they don't NEED any more.

In my opinion, the only good event promoter outside of AP that regularly puts out quality events on a consistent basis (BSP) already has the means to be nationally recognized without the need for AP to push them there.

Until there is more major out-of-region foot traffic to our events, I see little need to risk diluting the amazing community we have for 15 minutes of fame. The Pros for staying regional FAR outweigh the Cons, and the opposite is true for expanding nationally.

This, to me, is a no-brainer.

[Matt]

Thanks for all the great feedback so far guys. This will pretty much help me decide how to move forward with a few of the custom mods I'll be putting up this next year. Everything on the site is organized in a specific way, and when you start to raise the question about the rest of the world, it complicates things.

[Lunchbox]

I think by staying regional you have a closer knit community that will actually play together and be able to see each other on the field. By making it a national you tend to lose the close knit community and you may never be able to meet the people you talk to on the forums. We do already get quite a few people from outside the Pacific Northwest and they are always welcome with the exception of a few, to be a part of the forums, but its a lot harder for them to make the games. By opening it up nationally the moderators jobs will be greatly increase to watch the forums and make sure all is running smoothly. Just my two cents

[Beran]

i don't want to seem all isolationist and shit, but i like how we are a local community. most of the people on these forums live within a couple hundred miles of each other and i like that for some reason.

[Crusader 6]

Yes, the tightly knit community here is great and I like it. With mass amounts of people from all over the US flowing to this site, there will be

A. More mind numbing crap from people like TOURQER, Aircraft Killer, DOA, etc. We get enough of that already.

B. More space to look when we hunt down the retards that piss the hell out of us. (if they stay in Pac NW, we've got a much smaller search area )

Stay the way it is.

[msawiel]

Regional.

AP has gotten to this point by being regional. National recognition will come if we continue to produce quality events and maintain a strong community. No need to go out and seek it.

[Raging Hormann]

There is a reason it is called Airsoft Pacific. I say keep it that way, but if someone wants to start nationalizing, then there should be a "sister site" make it something like Airsoft USA or airsoft Nation, or some random shit. But AP is AP. You shouldn't take the localization away from those who only participate because it's local. We get more people coming to the northwest so they can be a part of us. If we go national, then there will be more people yes, but a lot of them wont be as excited to be part of an area group. It's the same thing as being more excited to be on the West coast than anywhere else in the US.

[Variable]

National organizations are very very very very diffifult to "police". At that point "we" would be no different than any other "national airsoft org" that wants to unite everything and such. Even if you aren't trying to police or unite, or make giant ranking systems and all that shit; you are still going to end up with tons of faceless asshats being dumbasses because the people on the west coast aren't ever going to airsoft with them in PA.

[Matt]

Tim - I'm not talking about any form of organization at all. Ew. No. Don't use the "O" word or the "L" word, I'll barf. I just mean the types of services AP offers and how we organize the site.

Example:
Pacific Northwest - We have event forums for our region.
National - We have event forums for every region.

[KA-BAR]

i say stay regional, i agree with the statment that national recognition will come to us, because we are the tightest knitt, most honorable, and bring the level of milsim/tacsim, that other communities can ony DREAM OF.

we set the standard as a regional. i say keep it that way, if ever comes to national tournoments then i want the PNW to be the gold meadalists, every one else can fight over who wants to lose first... i mean take second.

[Variable]

Example:
Pacific Northwest - We have event forums for our region.
National - We have event forums for every region.

The way I see it, having event forums for the rest of the nation would only result in (and please excuse my use of the terms) more Joe Newbs coming in and saying "Is teher enyone from (insert locality) tht wents 2 play with my (insert leet team stuff) team?"

Most of the rest of the nation has its' own community boards, posting their events here would be redundant as they'd get less viewership than their local boards.

A more fitting and useful forum or database on AP would be a larger database of regional boards where the proprietors or visitors of said boards could plug them. That way when a visitor to AP says "I'm in San Diego, where can I find a game?" we can point them to that list and they'll have gained knowledge. Kinda like we do with google as it is, but having that list might result in less flaming.