Trying to find years of information.

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ajshoots

ajshoots

Member
Apr 1, 2015
2,054
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Uniopolis, Ohio, United States
Over the years Harry(Yrrah) has shared alot of his work via the Yellow Forum and now here on AGN as well. I am thankful that he posts links to reference some of his older work, but trying to find all his posts and info can be difficult. Others like Steve in NC who has posted countless formulas to help airgunners figure out all sorts of things has also proven invaluable. There are others who over the years have made great contributions to airgunning knowledge like LD, Timmy Mac, and others. Most of these folks posts are on the Yellow Forum and can be found via the Yellow search function. However, typing in the correct words to unearth a certain post can be difficult. Then there are guys like Bob Sterne who has posted tons of research on the GTA forums. Once again you can search that forum for info, but again, searchs can be difficult to find exactly what you want. Then there are tons of posts that hold amazing information and research that you might not know about, so would have no clue to even search for.

Even as a rather new forum, AGN is already compiling amazing research and information. Finding that info can be just as difficult as finding a 10 year old post on the Yellow. Understand that I am not complaining about search functions on the different airgun forums, but rather pointing out the immense library of airgun knowledge that is saved on the multiple forums servers. It would be wonderful to have all the years of research and knowledge archived in one place on the internet. It would truely be amazing if there were actual books written by Harry, Steve, LD, etc....

Since an internet library containing all of the airgun knowledge in one place does not exist nor does a real library filled with airgunning books, we must search out info amongst the multiple airgun forums.

I am fortunate to be friends and live close to Mike Reames. For those that don't know Mike, he is another member of airgun royalty in my book. http://www.bluebookofgunvalues.com/Airgun_Values/Airgun_Manufacturer.aspx?id=REAMES_MIKE
After a conversation with Mike last week, he got me thinking about all of the folks that have contributed so much in the way of research and knowledge. Then, after a conversation with our own NMshooter about his friendship with Van(founder of Airhog) another innovator in our hobby, lead me to this post. I really hate to see any of the work that others have contributed be lost over time and forgotten about. I really do wish that someone had the time and resources to create a "Airgun Library", but I know that is just simply a dream. I do however urge everyone with a thirst for knowledge to search amongst the airguns forums. There is ALOT of priceless information floating around this thing we call the internet!!
 
Couldn't agree more with you Aj. That's a fantastic idea. A knowledge portal for Airguns would be super cool. Could be classified by specific guns. That would be fantastic. 

I have to confess that all I have learnt about Airguns have been through these multiple forums. I know some stuff today because I research a lot and I have borrowed more knowledge than I have gained through my own experience. 
 
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"Michael"Great idea AJ, I am keen to hear some of the suggestions.

As for AGN, our search function is good, but it needs some more work. I've also found the "Bookmark" & "Subscribe" features works well for keeping track of information long-term. 

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Suggestion 1: Tuning section (a place where all members have instructions on how to tune various guns) 
 
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Great idea.

How about an Airgun Wiki sub-site as part of the AGN?

It is relatively easy to implement technically, is awesome for search engine optimization (read - AGN will be ranked higher in Google), should not create a lot of burden for admins due to its peer-review/community driven philosophy (like wikipedia), and on top of that, quite structured and easy to search.

It can have sections ranging from individual airguns, where owners could chime in real tips/facts about their guns, to things like shooting techniques and auxiliary equipment.

Something like that could become the ultimate airgun encyclopedia, a go-to destination for many and an envy subject.
 
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I have no clue as to how to make a "library" and never thought that such could happen. Actually, my intent was simply to make everyone aware that there is ALOT of valuable info floating around the net that can be hard to find and I would hate to see lost to the future. However, I am very glad to see ideas of how this could happen!! Would really be amazing if it became a reality!!

 
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Great Idea AJ and a large undertaking. This may be a ongoing thing. If these old posts on the yellow or GTA could be copy/pasted, maybe we could add these theads in an archival section under specific topics. As our members do their research they could add these old post in these sections.
If someone was to collect all this data and publish a book, there really could be a financial payoff for the person collecting and eventually selling this information. Sometimes a labor of love can pay dividends!
Just thinking out loud,
Doc
 
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"ztirffritz"The wiki idea is a good idea but only if it is actively used.
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Agreed. Wikipedia is a proven model with 2% of members contributing and curating 99% of content. The rest of us - just use it. Articles have high information density, structure, no duplicates, very little in the way of personal feelings and stuff like that. Even companies use it to document internal knowledge. There is no need to re-invent the wheel.

How many people does it take to fully document and compile a topic? A couple, really, and then hundreds of people can consume it. For example, I researched everything I could find on FX Indy. It would be my pleasure to compile all that information, along with the sources of it(sometimes linking back to forum threads), under a single topic. I'm sire there will be people passionate about a wide range of topics, scope cams, ballistics, regulations, techniques, etc.

In any event, I hope we all agree that forum threads in their raw form, even when categorized and made searchable, are not a good way to document knowledge, there is simply too much noise, emotions, too little structure, and lack of ability to revise content in a typical forum thread to be consumed effectively.
 
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