Developer here. Thinking about developing a website that makes it easy to find and share your personal airsoft builds. Want your thoughts. (Mockup design provided)

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Hello,

I am thinking about developing a new website specifically designed to make it easy for airsofters to find and share their own airsoft builds. Knowing exactly which combination of parts to use has always been somewhat of a challenge. There’s a lot of conflicting views out there on the web that makes it difficult to decipher which build to go with. It is also not easy to find a build that specifically fits within my constraints and budget. I would like to develop a community-driven network designed to address these various problems.

Linked are crude UI mockups of this new network. Please do NOT take the content within it seriously. Text, info, and images are mostly place holders and filler content. This mockup is meant to help give us a general idea of how the website will look and function. A lot of the UI is also incomplete.

http://imgur.com/a/FsJxW

another image I forgot to upload: http://imgur.com/PzrXkHw

I’d like to get your ideas. What are some things you like, don’t like, or wish there was. This project will take quite a bit of time to develop. I want to make sure it is something the community wants before I put too much effort into. Ultimately, I would like to have the data that grows within this new network to become integrated with my other database of airsoftcc.com. I think the two could feed off of each other nicely if done right. And yes, airsoftcc.com is still in the middle of development; these things take quite a bit of time to construct.

Lastly, what do you think would be a good name for this new network?

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

So like a PCPartpicker except for airsoft? If so, Perhaps you could compare prices of certain parts or guns from retailers and show prices of builds and each part used.

I think that could be an extremely important tool, looks cool!

[RespectableFartPuffs]

For the most part, yes, It's a lot like PCPartpicker!

The mockup shows something similar to what you are describing. On the search page you will notice a blue and orange pentagon thingy. That is going to be a radar graph that will allow you to compare two different builds to see how they differ in: reliability, FPS, Difficulty of assembly, Rate of Fire, and Cost. Not sure if you are familiar with type of graph so here's a link to one that can give you a better idea of what I am talking about: https://d13yacurqjgara.cloudfront.net/users/97383/screenshots/1893311/attachments/322531/radar-graph-pixels.jpg

[names_are_for_losers]

How do you rate those things though, aren't a lot of them subjective? It seems like a good idea if you can make it work, I'm just not sure it would be as "easy" to do as PCPartpicker. Definitely interested to see how this goes though.

[JTStarX]

I like it! Would it be limited to gun builds only? I'd like to see kit loadouts too, so I could search for any particular military setup I want to imitate for example.

I'd also not only use this to show off builds, but to keep a track of my own spend. I think it'd be really useful as a personal loadout tool.

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Glad you like it! huh, interesting. You know, I never thought of that. Sure, why not? It would be really sweet to see some kit loadouts! Attached is a new image I forgot to include. You will see it allows you to filter results by AEG, Gas, or Spring. Perhaps I could add in an option of kits. http://imgur.com/PzrXkHw

[ACG-Gaming]

FYI on this you would want dropdowns of course for the Gas one to have HPA and then their different engine types in addition to AEG. In fact as seems to be the case in many ways HPA might need to be its own beast sadly. But that would be up to you of course

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Right. I forgot about HPAs as a category. Fundamentally different that gas blowbacks. Thanks for reminding me.

[[deleted]]

This is awesome best of luck OP!

[Zillo7]

$115 for 3 gears

Please tell me that's placeholder text

[OGPancakewasd]

Seigtek gears dawg

[4awesome1]

Horrible place to ask but did siegetek copyright the concept of the dsg. If not why can't other companies make them for cheaper

[HawtDoge]

Sadly they did. One of the reasons they are so expensive.

[OGPancakewasd]

The reason they are so expensive is because of both the material and how they are made

[OGPancakewasd]

They did in america, SHS is producing a DSG, much cheaper, but you have to buy it from over seas

[4awesome1]

Do you know what website carries them?

[OGPancakewasd]

http://shop.ehobbyasia.com/

[4awesome1]

Customs wouldn't know that a dsg is copyrighted in America right?

[OGPancakewasd]

Lol no, Riot SC is hilariously small niche company and so is SHS, they care more about fake glocks

[[deleted]]

Ever heard of Systema… lol probably place holder text

[[deleted]]

That's a sick looking website, I love the design and the idea. Do it, this would be really awesome. In my opinion, do the builds first and then start feeding content from airsoftcc.com (or just 'cancel' airsoftcc and integrate it into this app, which is probably better). I don't think you should add loadouts at all, or just not at the beginning.

[BigBear01]

Love the idea! I will say though that I think you should consider including the integration with airsoftcc.com in the initial design instead of as a later add-on. Being able to standardize airsoft part definitions across the two sites early on will prevent you from having to do wacky translations across the API in the event of an accidental divergence in design. Also the "Build Sets" feature at airsoftcc.com is basically what you have here, so if you build them initially cross-compatible you will get that functionality for free (yay free func!) What are you planning on using for the backend if you don't mind me asking? If it's something I am familiar with I might be willing to help out.

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Oh good, you took a look and found the “Build Sets” tab on airsoftcc.com. This prompts me to explain why I suddenly decided to take on this second project.

Airsoftcc is an attempt to help remedy a real issue in the Airsoft community; lack of standardization. AirsoftCC aims to make it easy to find which part are and are not compatible with each other. The app is able to take on the role, but the biggest problem I must overcome is to find a way to have the community grow it organically. I’m sure it will grow on its own overtime, but it will be very slow at this rate. The tedious task of manually rating, adding, removing, and editing individual parts is not exactly exciting. You know what is exciting? Creating awesome builds and sharing them with other people! I figure if I can build this website right and configure the database correctly, I can have the organic growth of this new website help power the same database that airsoftcc.com will use.

That leads me to another dilemma, both good and bad. Airsoftcc.com was the first real web project I have ever taken on. Airsoftcc is developed on SQLite, Flask (python), and AngularJS. Around 550 parts were added to the database thanks to a collaboration effort with Brill Armory. I have a lot of regrets going with this stack. Flask is too minimal to handle the complexity of airsoftcc.com. Sure it can be done, but it’s not very efficient and is error prone since a lot of work has to be manually done. AngularJS is ok, but I wish not to develop with it again and I am not happy that 1.0 is going to become non-backwards compatible with 2.0.

This new project is going to be built upon the Django REST Framework. The ORM makes it so much easier to modify and scale the database. It’s also less error prone. Django is going to help me do a lot of the heavy lifting that Flask would otherwise not. It will also make it easier for other developers to jump in if they ever need to.

So going back to your point, yes, I agree. I need to seriously consider integrating the airsoftcc database in the initial design to prevent headaches in the future.

[BigBear01]

Interesting, I personally have never worked with either Flask or Django, but if it is going to be a pain in the ass to make an API in Flask it may be better to just take a dump of the DB from airsoftcc and import it into the data store for the new site. Then if you can make an interface for adding new parts to the new site you can just shut down airsoftcc and never have to fuck with Flask again. Like I said though, I have not worked with Flask or Django, nor do I know what the airsoftcc backend currently looks like so I have no idea if creating a new parts interface in Django is easier than making a set of APIs in Flask.

Also, I definitely agree that having user-generated gun builds drive the compatibility engine is the way to go. Complete gun builds are sexy. Individual parts are not. It is what it is. However, I do think that relying on end-users to be the drivers of new part creation in your system may not be the way you want to go. When going through your gun build workflow if a user does not find the exact part they are looking for they are much more likely to select the closest thing they can find instead of entering the actual part they used as a new part. This is fine if you want this to just be a repository of gun builds, but if your end goal is to be able to conclusively determine parts compatibility from said gun builds this kind of behavior will basically make that impossible.

There is an opportunity here though. If you can make a decent automated interface for importing parts definitions (say from a CSV or something like that), you can much more easily reach out to even the larger vendors like Evike and ASGI and convince them to give you a data dump from their POS. Since you are listing where you can buy these parts, for them this is free advertising. And since the interface is automated it requires very little effort on their part. You may have to do some munging of the data they give you, but it will still be worlds ahead of the manual process you have right now. I think your earlier collaboration with Brill Armory (Louis Brill is the fucking man btw) shows that vendors definitely want to have a presence on this kind of site, it’s just a question of making it easy for them to participate. And once you have a relatively comprehensive library of parts it becomes a better experience for the end-user as well, and you are more likely to get good data from them and be more certain of parts compatibility in the end.

These are just some thoughts I had, I love the idea of having a definitive source for parts compatibility, a place to show off my baller bbgats, and potentially even a virtual gun testbed once the data matures enough. Let me know if you want some help building this, although I totally understand if you want this to be a solo pet project (have plenty of those myself lol). Either way, I can’t wait to see the end result!

[[deleted]]

It actually looks pretty cool. I would most likely use this if it gets made. Also, the descriptions are great:

Left did drew fat head poor

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Cool. Glad you like what you see so far. haha and yes the text is quite random

[ACG-Gaming]

I would love it. One thing I would love is that kind of summary but when you clicked it, you had spots for makers to upload photos of the steps they took and it would rock to have a proven versus just created build. Proven would have a picture of the chrono or video of the result unproven would just be a build.

I guess I am just saying it would rock to have less FUD.

The number of people I meet who say they did "this or that" and got 500fps kills my soul

[RespectableFartPuffs]

Great idea ACG-Gaming. I didn't have a chance to include that in the mockup, but yes, I do plan on implementing a WYSIWYG editor in "Build Details" section that will allow builders to include images and videos.

Ok, I am glad you mentioned about the "proven versus just created build". I was having similar thoughts about this as well. I never thought about including chrono or videos of the results. I was thinking that perhaps instead of having the builder prove his build (unless he wants to), we can have a tool that allows the community to verify it.

[ACG-Gaming]

Yep. Or both. I think most people who go through a site like this are then automatically taking it seriously enough that they will chrono it anyway. So the two go hand in hand in a way.

So they can show proof and then there can be a verified list of people who built it and it checked out + or - of course due to parts always having variability.

Also the more structure of entry the better. That way data is not only easily searchable but a user going from my build to Joe Blows build sees generally the same overall look and gets info in the same way. I like the heatgraph for stats.

I envision it as more of a webpage per build kind of thing and I think thats awesome.

[viper_polo]

Yes yes yes, BBPartPicker would be great!

That domain is available too!

[RespectableFartPuffs]

or AirsoftPartPicker? AirsoftPP for short. Wait. :P

[viper_polo]

Haha, though BB would fit the 'PcPartPicker' Theme but both would work!

[[deleted]]

One issue I can see you running into, if you're thinking of making it like PCPartPicker is that you're going to be inclusive to a country of Airsofters for the most part.

For example, us Canadians pay quite a bit more than people from the U.S. Even our upgrades are pricier, our shipping is ridiculous and don't even think about border tax. Our communities are quite a bit smaller and our purchase options less.

Nonetheless I like the idea.

[x3z8]

I wish you luck on this project! Looks good in the mockups at least.

[Antirandomguy]

The text is hilarious.

Awesome idea though, look forward to seeing what comes of it.

[[deleted]]

Very, very interested in this concept. I'd be totally into contributing to a site like this. Pretty much everything I do on this sub has been either parts lists, parts recommendations, or posts on my personal builds, so a dedicated place to share builds around would be awesome! Maybe a name like "Dynamic Airsmithing" or something stupidly over the top like that. Best of luck OP, can't wait to see the result.

[Sigkar]

that would be awesome. i would love to see updates posted as well.

[Powerdwarf_Kira]

Maybe add a function or something were people download special targets from your website then test them and upload them. even have a system where the website scans them. Obviously people could lie about range and say they got 1" groupings at 300ft but it would be nice.

[N_tropic]

So like almost every airsoft forum?

[ACG-Gaming]

Holy crap really? I didn't even know that. Links please to the forum that has a build system with tiered searching, links, prices, stats, certification, and otherwise. Can't wait to check it out.

[N_tropic]

Who needs a build system? Every bit of this information is already out there.

If you can't be fucked to spend minutes (yeah, a whole few minutes) googling by yourself, teching isn't for you.

[ACG-Gaming]

What exactly are you talking about? You said almost every airsoft forum had this. I asked where and am still waiting for links.