Forum Rules and Guidance

[BTDT]

Members Old and New, please read.

Accounts. You are limited to one personal account. The creation of multiple accounts with different user names is strictly forbidden and any such accounts will be terminated with no recourse to appeal, along with the originator's membership. Your profile must contain your postal town to allow access to the Sales sections.

The BBS Police. The board is ‘policed’ by voluntary Moderators who are experienced shooters and experts in their respective fields. They are also busy people with lives, jobs and families who give freely of their precious time to enable this place to exist. They have a sense of humour, which coincidentally lives right alongside their sense of annoyance at people who post inappropriate things. These require the moderators to regularly trawl through the guts of the BBS to edit out these posts and delete offending material and gets very tedious very quickly. If you post inappropriately, you will not be on their Christmas card list and may well find your ability to log into the BBS next time mysteriously difficult. Our mods are human and appreciate a little respect and remember, their word is final. Always.

The Moderators are in Charge. This BBS is wholly owned by a well-known and successful businessman. He pays for all the hardware, software and bandwidth associated with running this popular and busy board; we get the whole deal for free. Also you should be aware that whatever gets posted on here is, ultimately, his responsibility in law. Because of this members join here, and remain as, guests. When you join you agree to abide by the BBS rules and to do whatever is required of you to ensure the reputation and integrity of this BBS and its owner remain unsullied. The rules were in existence before you arrived and trying to change them, decry them or circumvent them will not be appreciated. In short they are non-negotiable. All our long-term members are perfectly happy with this arrangement – we want you to be as well.

Look Before You Leap. If you're new, take the time to read a few threads first. Get a feel for the place; hang out a little; get an idea of what goes and what doesn't. There are countless conventions and unwritten rules on this, and every, forum, which you will only understand by observing others. If in doubt, keep quiet - it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

That First Post. When posting for the first time, consider introducing yourself, preferably with your real first name. This helps people think you're a real person. If possible, try not to use screen aliases like 'Rambo', 'Superstud' 'Brainshot-Boy' and 'Nightslaughter'. It gives an impression that you're a little short-changed in the intelligence department and we're sure you don't want that. If you have accidentally forgotten to fill in most of the details in your profile, like where you come from or what you do for a living, consider going back now and plugging a few gaps so that, when somebody clicks to see whom you are, they don't find a load of blanks. If you don't trust US why should we trust YOU?

Be Circumspect. This forum is one of the most widely read shooting boards in the world and is read by a huge number of people in many different countries. Not all of these people are sympathetic to our sport, our ownership of rifles and our penchant for eating small animals. What the members of this BBS post is out there for all to see, including those who would see our pastime curtailed and our rifles taken from us. Therefore you should be careful to ensure that what you post does not bring discredit to the BBS and shooting sports in general. For that reason, posting accounts of mass slaughter in graphic detail along with photographic evidence of your ability to kill is not acceptable in this PC age. Put simply, no photos of dead animals! Talk of shooting unsuitable quarry with airguns, such as foxes, falls within the above remit. This will lead to the poster being moderated. Be warned!

Do The Puppy Thing. If you want help or advice, start off by using the word 'Please'. Try not to post a numbered list of 20 odd things you want answered, and finish your requests with the word 'Thanks!'. It also helps to briefly explain why you want the help – if it’s a really BIG favour, try doing the puppy thing, if necessary rolling over, showing your tummmy and widdling in the air a little - everybody loves a puppy ..... and it all oils the wheels of communication - in your favour.

Play Nice. This forum is a community that developed before you got here. Think of it like walking into a bar in a strange town - if you go in with a bad attitude and throwing insults at all and sundry, don't be surprised if someone 'flames' you pretty quickly. This BBS is a club formed of people who've been helping each other out for quite a few years now. You don't have any automatic rights of access nor a guaranteed place at their virtual public bar .... you should wait to be invited and, in time, you will be. There are a lot of people on this BBS who are the very salt of God's earth - they don't need insulting by you. If you don't ask nicely you may get ignored . or worse – insulted - not a pretty sight!!! Similarly, if you come on here specifically looking for a fight, you may find we throw you out without giving you the pleasure.

Disagreements. These will inevitably occur (this is a discussion forum after all, which relies on differences of opinion to exist), and when they do we ask you to maintain your dignity keeping personal insults to a minimum. You are entitled to express any opinions you choose, but you will be required to defend them in rational debate should we disagree. 'It's just my opinion' is not a valid excuse for being wrong. If you think something you are about to post might risk inadvertently offending another member and you want to tone it down a little, try using one of the smilies to introduce a grin or a wink into your post.

Make sense. The only things that matter on this forum are your words and they're the only way you have of gaining respect from this community. Use them wisely. While you won't find yourself gagged for mis-spelling, we do urge you to take time over your posts so that we can read them. If we can't read it, we'll usually ignore it and you'll look stupid. The chronic mis-spelling of words is often frowned upon - especially when it’s obvious that it’s because you can't be bothered to check what you’ve written - it makes the forum unnecessarily tedious to read for everyone else and invite criticism. Refrain.

Think. Think before you press 'post'. Think about what you've just written, and the impression it will give us of you. Think about whether it's even worth posting at all. If it doesn't add anything to the topic at hand, click 'back'. If it makes you look like an idiot, then we're liable to laugh at you, so we'd advise against posting it. When you're about to start a new thread, think about whether it's likely to have been done before. If your idea or joke isn't startlingly original, check back a few pages through the forum to see if a similar topic has been active recently. If it has, post your thoughts in there rather than starting a whole new topic.

The Airgun BBS is not a sales site If you've just come here to buy and sell stuff without contributing anything to the forum, you may well be gagged and offending posts removed.

Commercial interests. The not inconsiderable running costs of the BBS are, and always have been, paid for by Edward Ramsbottom, and the BBS is run by a team of volunteers, the moderators and administrators. Membership of the BBS is, and will continue to be, free for airgun enthusiasts. The BBS is not provided so that those with a commercial interest can use it to line their own pockets, or promote their own products or services, at the forum owner’s expense, and off the back of thousands of hours of unpaid work by the moderators.
The administrators and moderators will take a very dim view of anyone who seeks to use the BBS as an advertising or promotional platform for their products or services, and will not tolerate comments from members with a commercial interest on the products or services of their competitors.

Tasteful Sigs. Don’t tag on something offensive that will annoy the moderators and do try to refrain from writing the entire story of Sinbad the Sailor under your name in huge pink letters. We have to read this stuff under every post you make – scrolling through 3 screens of gibberish to get to the next bit gets tedious.

No AT (Anti-Tamper) threads/posts allowed on here
There will not be threads or posts AT on here, several members received permanent bans, even though they lost access for the exact same thing for a few days they ignored the fact we don't want threads or posts about AT on here and started again so they are now permanently banned

We will not have the BBS brought into disrepute, this is in order to protect the long term interests of shooters by keeping the BBS going and safe from criticism.

There is no conspiracy involved, No one has asked for this subject be banned, it is a decision by the Admins simply because if a real problem arises over it then it is nothing to do with this forum.


Baz


Gases other than air, just say 'NO!'...

During the past couple of weeks I've spoken to two people who advocated the use of gases other than air in precharged pneumatics. One of them told me that 'all my mates use........' and he named two gasses which he claimed 'improved' the performance of his gun.

I asked both callers which other gasses they'd tried, and one had tried oxygen, the other 'knew someone' who had used acetylene. I kid you not. Both of these morons also claimed that they knew what they were doing with gasses. Both were told in no uncertain terms what their status really was, and I suspect both put down the phone with a very much reduced opinion of me.

Now, for at least the tenth time since the BBS has existed, can we nail this one right here, right now?

Forget the alleged 'advantages' of one gas over another, forget the 'but this gas is inert' protestations and forget completely any idiotic notions of me, and the airgun industry, wishing to hold back the march of progress. The fact is, experimentation with gases other than air WILL lead to someone getting severely injured and possibly killed.

The guns are already out-shooting us by miles and air-power is safe, manageable and perfectly capable of providing all we need. Sticking with divers' quality compressed air ONLY, keeps the safety message clear and un-muddied by life or death lessons in chemistry.

Please, stay safe, promote safety and never join the ranks of the dangerously moronic. Above all, never, ever use anything but clean, dry air in a precharged pneumatic airgun.

Sorry about the sermon, but I'd rather bore you than leave you open to the influence of potential Darwin award winners.

Terry Doe.

Altering PCP muzzle energy

The BBS general airgun section is open to non-members, and threads are also picked up by search engines. Posts describing methods of lowering PCP muzzle energy would also inform anyone reading them how to increase it, and so we will not allow any posts on the subject. The BBS mods are not alone in this; it is fairly common practice across responsible airgun forums.

Don't offer to buy, or try to sell off the back of a valuation thread

Hi. Am posting this to clarify things. When a valuation thread is posted, it must be treated as that, and nothing more. Once an owner of an item has a sound valuation figure, if they then wish to sell, they must start a fresh sales thread in either the main sales section, or if a collectable, in the collectors section, or with my blessing (if it is a collectable), in both . Turning a valuation thread into a sales thread will result in a two week holiday.

Similarly anyone posting on a valuation thread, or sending a p-m to an o-p that they would like to buy, or swap, with an item in question, irrespective of their motivation, is also unfortunately going to get themselves a two week holiday from the BBS. Asking an owner to let you know when they offer their item for sale, too, will imo constitute offering to buy off the back of a valuation thread, so please don't do it . Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Gareth W-B (o.b.o. The Airgun BBS Admin Team).

Common sense in distance selling and easy ways to lose your money:

1. You are essentially giving that sum of money to a bloke in the pub who you've never met, who lives many miles away, and is promising to go home and send you an item some days later. You'd laugh at this concept, but you do it on here simply because the person has joined an internet site and claims to be a shooter. errrrrrrrrr hellooooooooo

2. If you do this and the person asks you to pay via paypal as a gift, he is pretty much asking you to waive any right or redress to save a couple of quid. Errr helloooooooooooooo

3. The police won't help. It will come down to a civil claim, and the best you'll get is a fiver a week which will stop coming after a few weeks and your back in court, or you'll just give up. Your "mates" on here won't go and break his legs despite lots of offers.

4. Don't rely on the mods. We are not Judge Dredd, all we can do is ban the scrote, but he'll probably come back to take another lame beast from the herd

Solution: Don't send your hard earned cash to somebody hundreds of miles away who can't be verified by a trusted member. It's a simple gamble, I'd prefer to wait for the item to come on sale closer


Posting rules

If the item goes missing in the post, you have a problem unless you have insured it for the full value. If you have to gamble then it's not much of a bargain is it? The law says proof of postage is not proof of delivery, but for a private deal this offers little protection. You MUST clarify the delivery terms - is the deal concluded when the item is posted or when it arrives?. This then identifies who takes the risk. Personally, if I sell something on here, my sense of honour means I take responsibility until it is delivered and as such post insured, building this into the price. However in some cases the BUYER could ask "I'll have it, knock £20 off and post uninsured" <<His problem>> or the seller could offer "OK I'll knock £20 off and post uninsured at your risk <<Buyers probem>>" Make sure the terms are agreed, that way if both parties are honest there is no unpleasantness afterwards

Honorable misunderstandings

If the seller mis-describes the goods he is liable for all costs and a return of the purchase fee, that is common sense, and there is no negotiation on here over that. However, where there is a genuine and equal misunderstanding it is fair that the out of pocket costs are borne equally and the item returned with no bad feeling.

Gary C.

Fraud Warning

Occasionally, members are banned for trading irregularities. Some of them sneak back onto the BBS using a different user name, Internet Service Provider and email address.

To make it easier for the mods to spot them, we introduced a rule that all members who wish to use the sales and wanted sections MUST give their nearest (postal) town in their user profile.

If you see an advert that does not show a postal town at the top right of the screen, please feel free to either place a post on the thread to remind the thread starter to fill in their user profile (this will NOT be deemed as 'interfering' with a sales thread) or PM a mod with the details. Members who refuse to comply with this rule will either lose access to the sales areas or be banned.

When responding to an advert, check that the town given in the shipping address is the same as the town given in the seller's user profile. If it is not, you are strongly advised not to progress with the transaction and to PM me with details. "

If you do not have an acceptable location in your profile you may lose access without warning. To request access, first correct the error using the user CP and edit your details, then pm a member of the Admin Team to request it be granted again.

Delta1

Moderators' decisions

If you wish to comment on, or query, a moderator's decision, including any forum rule, please contact a moderator via PM or email. Moderators' decisions and forum rules are not to be made the subjects of posts on the open forum.



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