You dedicated a good portion of your life building PbNation as well as an almost personal relationship with thousands of its users . How difficult is it to watch PbNation in its current state ? or branding . PbNation was nothing without the players .
PbNation is the first online place where I made friends that I still keep track of in the real world . I will always owe the site for those amazing people . Calvin , Simon , Don , Kyle , Tony , Dan , Chris and so many others that I met online and barely ever see , but I count as true friends .
Honestly ? It ’ s not really difficult . I still swing by and see what ’ s going on . I have a strong personal connection to many of the people I interacted with on there and obviously with paintball itself . However , things change and evolve - especially online .
PbNation was a microcosm of paintball during that era and I ( mostly ) loved being part of it . In my mind , I wasn ’ t building PbNation as much as using the best tools at my disposal to keep people informed and connected about paintball itself . It ’ s why we never really pushed much merchandise
I do feel bad for the programmers ( Kyle and Tony ) who pushed the limits of a forum and created something so many people used daily . They didn ’ t have a roadmap of how or what to do , they were trailblazers creating neat things on a platform used by millions .
Some things are better with paintball people collecting on modern social media sites . I prefer real names , messaging , notifications and images . But the real draw for social media is that ’ s where the paintball people are . That simple . I also don ’ t believe paintball was better back then . It ’ s common for people to romanticize the past or their youth and the game and the online experience was much different . However , paintball keeps changing but the core of the game is the same .
www . paintball . media
019