...the following is a (rather long) email message that went out to all of the ASF members in case you missed it...

UPDATE: This announcement is also being refered to as:


AMAZING TOP 10 AIRSOFT UPDATES FOR AUGUST!

Hello

This email is being sent to all of our "ALMOST" 40,000 Members! You are receiving this email because you have joined our website AirsoftForum.com (abbreviated ASF) and you have agreed to receive updates from us. If you do not wish to receive them, simply review the opt-out link at the bottom of this message. (or reply with something rude and I can just delete your account for you if you prefer that :-)

"AMAZING" !@#$ TOP 10 AIRSOFT UPDATES FOR AUGUST!"

Sorry about the hype, I generally try to keep it real and don't use superlatives like that when addressing you, but I think you'll find some of the things going on with ASF right now pretty exciting and warrant the kudos so I thought you might like to know!

If not, just delete this email and go on about your business :-)

Firstly, if English is not your primary languages or you don't know what a "superlative" or "kudo" is, click these dictionary links for a definition:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/superlative
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kudo

Second, I have a truck load of things to tell you and I will try
to be as brief as possible because I know your time is valuable too.

<<<For everyone that actually takes the time to suffer all the way through this massive update, I promise to make it worth your while with a special bonus at the end only available to people who actually read this email.>>>

#1 At the time of this email, we have 39,551 registered members and are very quickly approaching 40,000. In fact we average about 700-800 new members a month, so chances are pretty good that we'll actually hit 40k members in the next few weeks! For the last 8 to 10 months, ASF has averaged about 20,000 people a day viewing at least 10 or more pages per visit and that was a huge accolade for us when we hit that - some of you may remember it...

Recently beginning in June, we're up to about 35,000 - 40,000 visitors a day on average and it seems we almost doubled our website visitors in just 2 or 3 months!

Last month for July, ASF broke (or should I say crushed!) our previous traffic and website visitor record when we received over 1 MILLION visitors for the month. 3 months ago and prior, we were sustaining around 500,000 - 600,000 visitors a month and then in June it jumped to over 800,000 and then over 1,000,000 in July! If you missed the announcement about this, check the following topic:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/ASF-groWING-t191144.html

#2 We are very pleased to announce our NEW AIRSOFT AUCTION System! Most of you are familiar with our BST or Buy-Sell-Trade classified ads area on the forum, and now we have an Auction System for "Buy It Now" and auction style listings to be used along with the BST area. After some debate, we do not have any plans to replace the current BST, which was previously considered. The new auction system is to be used along with the current BST area - we hope you like them both.

#2a. Right now it's free for everyone to list items in the new auction system, so don't miss out on some great deals and getting your items listed before we start charging for this! In terms of "charging for this", I think what we're going to do very soon is just make it so that only "Authorized Sellers" can list items for sale just as it is in the BST forums. For information on the new Airsoft Auction System, take a look at the following link and be sure to vote on some discussions about it in there:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Online-A...tions-f254.html

#3 Those of you that have been around ASF for at least the last 2 years (or longer), you may remember me saying things like, "We're the number 3 largest airsoft forum in the world" or maybe something like: "We're probably the 2nd largest airsoft board in the world" and similar comments by me. ...Those were not spoken in arrogance and I really hope you can appreciate the magnitude in which they suggest!

Those comments were made based on observation and I hate to say this at the risk of being labeled some sort of "who knows what", by our good friends over at ASB, but...

From some of the traffic tools and analytics I am using, it looks like we're quickly moving to be #1 in the world. Here are some example public tools you can use to see for yourself. Feel free to copy and paste your favorite website in there to check them or compare them to AirsoftForum.com

(broken link fixed)
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/airsoftforum.com/
then enter arniesairsoft.co.uk and airsoftretreat.com as comparison sites.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/airsoftforum.com
http://sitetrail.com/airsoftforum.com
http://www.siteluck.com/en/airsoftforum.com

And please don't take my comments the wrong way, I am greatly humbled and proud to be telling you these things. I want you to be proud of AirsoftForum.com too because this website isn't about me or our staff, it's about You guys...

- the members who stick around and help others!

I could tell you some horror stories about what some of the arrogant and misinformed people in the airsoft community think about asf and me personally, but as I said, this website isn't about me or our staff!

This is YOUR WEBSITE! It's only my job to make sure it keeps growing and moving in the right direction. Its the moderator's job to keep the peace and make sure topics are posted according to our guidelines.

#4 If you'd like take control of our future for AirsoftForum.com and help us grow this website to 1,000,000 visitors PER DAY, I'd like to personally ask you to make sure you're doing things like recommending us on other major sites like facebook, arniesairsoft and youtube; However, you have to do it without spamming those sites. Your recommendations of ASF and topics here need to be genuine - not posts on other sites to make you or us look like a spammer. You can do this very easily by using the little orange and white "ADD THIS" button just above the topic area.

Oh and by the way, This website isn't about being #1; This is about being a really great airsoft website with loads of great things to help the airsoft community and individual people who play.

One of the things we catch a lot of flack on is our massive amount of new and young players. We're sometimes labeled all sorts of idiotic claims like, "there's nothing useful on asf - it's just a bunch of newbies" and other stupid comments from some of the more arrogant, elitist and misinformed idiots on other smaller airsoft websites.

I think it's human nature to make fun of, or belittle other people and things you don't understand. This way it helps those types of people feel better about themselves, I guess. (who knows)... Am I calling someone on another airsoft website an idiot? No, not necessarily unless someone's made those ridiculous statements.

...In case there is any doubt, it is because of our massive growth and huge website traffic that we have so many new and young people, but guess what? We all had to start somewhere and I think ASF is the perfect place to shape and evolve newbies into amazing and intelligent airsoft players, don't you?

Nobody is born or magically whisked into airsoft greatness over night so don't let any retard belittle you because you're new to the sport! Just use some common sense and try to do a little research before posting a silly question or comment. If ASF has loads of newbies - OUTSTANDING, let's help these new guys by guiding them in the right direction and posting useful content for them. Let's not be rude to them like so many other smaller elitist airsoft websites out there.

If you find some of these other rude websites that I am alluding to - check your morals and stop supporting them.

The above may seem a little harsh to a few of you, but sometimes you have to stick up for yourself and put the bullies in their place or you will always be a victim.

...ok sorry about the tangent I got off on in those few paragraphs and now back to the ASF updates....

#5 I have recently removed many people from the "Authorized Seller - Free" member group due to incomplete profiles and for the fact that few of them were actually using SOA. If you have been removed and you want to be re-added to the free seller group, then you need to update your profile with your SOA name and as much other contact info as possible. You also need to be actively using the SportsOnlyAuction.com (SOA) website if you want to be considered for our free seller member group here. Once you have done that, please send me a text message or call me on the phone (so I can verify your phone number) and fix your account - I don't bite (unless you can't read or follow instructions) :-)

"Authorized Seller - Elite" members who were placed in that group for free... Um, this is something that we're going to have to re-evaluate because I have removed nearly everyone that was in that group due to the above reasons. The "elite members" are suppose to be leading the way and setting positive examples around here. If you have paid for one of these upgrades and your email stops working or you don't have a completed profile, you may also find yourself being removed as well.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, we just need to hold people accountable and make sure everyone is following the rules - paid or otherwise. If any of you have been removed - its nothing personal and it's temporary - just let me know when your account it updated and I will upgrade you. For more information on the Authorized Seller Updates, check the following link:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Authoriz...TE-t191768.html

#6 Most of you know by now our new chat room has been back up for some time now as that was announced a few weeks ago. if you missed it or don't know about our airsoft chat room - check it out. Its a great way to communicate instantly with people on the forum:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/Chat-Roo...ratio-f103.html

#7 I am currently working on more amazing forum modifications that I hope you will enjoy. I sometimes "count my chickens before they hatch", but if all goes well, you can very soon expect ASF to evolve into more of a social networking website like facebook, myspace or youtube in addition to just being a forum and chat room. We will also be adding a member feedback system to work with the BST and auction systems very soon as well as a few other cool things yet to be announced.

#8 As you may have noticed in the last few weeks, our member upgrade subscription packages have increased slightly to help afford some of the massive website growth spurts recently. I really hate to raise the prices for paid memberships (and advertiser rates which are also likely to increase here very soon), but we seriously need help in paying for our 3 servers each month ($650 PER MONTH)

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.ph...&CODE=index

#9 Recent donations have been amazing lately and we truly appreciate your financial support for those of you that are generous enough to donate a few dollars each month. For those of you that have not or can not donate, at least take a minute to say thanks to the people who have and make this website possible. More information on who has donated can be viewed here:

http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.php?autocom=donate

Advertisers who also support us financially each month can be seen on the following link. Please make sure that you only buy airsoft gear and supply from our Sponsors and Advertisers if you truly love this website. They are listed under "Sponsors" to the right on this page: http://www.airsoftforum.com/airsoft-sponsors/

#10 I want to say thanks and REWARD YOU for taking the time to suffer through this massive email update.

I know this was a long message and I really did try to keep it as short as possible, there's just too much to tell you about I guess. So for the next 100 people, to either sign up for the "Elite Member + Authorized Seller" member upgrade at the temporarily reduced rate of $9.95 (normally $24.95) or donate at least $9.95 to the forum, I will do two things...

Donate here: http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.php?autocom=donate
Upgrade your account here: http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/index.ph...&CODE=index

#10a. I will give you a an email account on the airsoftforum.com or chatairsoft.com server (e.g. ****@airsoftforum.com ****@chatairsoft.com) - Your choice, and...
#10b. I will also give you a 25% off discount on selected items from one (or more) of our advertisers over the next few days.

...ADVERTISERS NOTE... I currently have one supplier who wants to participate in the 25% off deal. If you would also like to provide a 25% off discount for a select number of ASF members on some of your retail items, please let me know asap so I can work with you on this. (I didn't have time to confirm this with all of our advertisers prior to sending this email)

YES, you heard me right! For the next 100 people to either donate at least $10 to the forum or upgrade their forum account to "Authorized Seller - Elite", I will personally set you up an email account here on one of our servers for permanent use. It will not expire and you can use it as long as you like. It is a "webmail system" much like yahoo or gmail and only available for this special invitation. User names will be on a 1st come, 1st serve basis. When you want to check your email, you just go to: http://webmail.airsoftforum.com and this is the very same mail server that I use for my admin account. Alternately (at your choice) you can choose to have an email on our chat server if you prefer that ****@chatairsoft.com instead.

I am only going to setup 100 email accounts. Members that already have an AS-Elite account, can donate an extra $10 during this limited promotion for the email and 25% off discount. For anyone who misses the cut off or deadline of only 100 email accounts, you're going to have to bribe your way in with a $100 or more donation. Anyone who does that, will also get special public recognition.

To begin, or if you have any questions please (read the topic you are currently looking at) for a recap on today's email and for special instructions or additional member comments:

Sincerely,

-admin
AirsoftForum.com !


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Airsoft Forum Statistics:
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Registered Users: 39560
Total Posts: 1587870
Busiest Time: 2584 users were online on 2nd March 2009 - 02:07 PM

This post has been edited by admin: Aug 11 2010, 12:10 PM

Umm... Okay, that is completely agains the forum rules. Sexy girls, but agianst the rules. Im reporting you.
But, back on topic, Congrats ASF!!! I wil try to contribute to the max, Newbie though I may be!
Ill also talk to my Parents about this Authorized Selling thing.

This post has been edited by airsoftSCAR: Nov 23 2010, 01:29 PM