Google and air guns

[neil180]

I have been reading with some interest all of the information that as been emerging regarding the future licensing of airguns etc. It struck me that there may be a way that we could possibly have a slightly more positive effect but I dont know whether it would work.
The bad press is easy to find - the sensationalist newspapers make a meal of anything to do with airguns and it would seem that the writing is on the wall as far as licensing is concerned. However I think that most people these days when they want to find out about something that they are unsure of head straight over to google and do a search. So here is the challenge - could we make a thread on here and on other airgun forums entitled something like "dangerous airguns" (it would have to be short, simple and the keywords that we wanted) and then continually fill it with stories and anecdotes of safe, lawful and proper use of air rifles used in safe and regulated environments?? Wouldn't it be nice if the first thing folks found when they googled it was what we wanted them to read not what the antis wanted them to read??

Your thoughts?

[TonyL]

Yes; very good thinking, my good chap.

[MikeHW45]

definitely a great plan. Its a shame the anti's try to ruin things for everyone. If they actually open their eyes to the bigger picture and maybe even attended a club or bash to actually see what a fantastic sport/hobby airgunning actually is, they may actually enjoy it. Many people, upon hearing the word airgun picture a spotty teenager shooting windows out etc. Positive press is definitely the key.

[neil180]

absolutely! The general public never hears our voice. I have put this same thread on the other well known forum as ideally we would need the while of the airgunning community to get involved. You would need admin to set up a thread and bring it to the attention of members along with the idea behind the content. Google continually scrapes the internet for content including forums - the trick is to make the content big enough and busy enough to attract the attention of the search engines.

[flyingfish]

Good plan, would we need a web page you know dodgy airguns. Come?

[neil180]

You dont need any separate web page - you just need a thread on here that is massive and added to regularly.

Its the title and content of the thread that are crucial. The title MUST include the words that we want the google hits for ie airgun and dangerous ( or words along those lines)and the content MUSTbe all positive!

[angrybear]

While I applaud the idea, if it's an anti (or journalist) looking for horror stories they'll simply dismiss any & every pro-airgun story, because that's what they do .