PbNation

PbNation

Type of site	Internet Forum
Created by	Tony Rieker
URL	http://www.pbnation.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Required

PbNation is a paintball internet forum based in Plano, Texas. It is considered to be the largest paintball website on the internet with approximately 411,000 users and the 15th largest internet forum in the world. It is written using vBulletin v3.6.2.

Features

PbNation has had a recent host of new features being rolled out, including a feature which allows users to find fields in the vicinities of their zip codes using their field database, a Youtube-like video sharing service, and a product review section.

Forums

PbNation has an array of different forums to cater to many different types of paintball players.

Professional Teams

The "Professional Teams" forum is a forum with a devoted section for many professional teams, and many members of the teams also have an account and regularly answer questions in Q&A threads.

Field/Store Owner Forums

A forum devoted to the field and store owners in the paintball industry, including tips on how to start a field.

Newbie Forum

A forum for players new to the game or any other simple questions that would not fit in the other forums.

Paintball Videos

A forum for videos regarding paintball, whether it is a promotional video for a product or footage of a team playing.

Paintball News

A forum for news threads regarding the paintball industry. Recently, PbNation has begun to charge $100 for threads that are considered ads or concern a product that has not yet been released.

Paintball Talk

Paintball Talk is a forum for general paintball discussion, and also houses the many clubs on PbNation.

Rec Talk

Rec Talk is a forum for recreational paintball players, who makes up the vast majority of paintball players and are considered to be anyone who does not play tournament paintball.

Regional Player Forums

The forum originally began with 7 separate sections (i.e. Midwest, Southeast, etc), and all the events encompassed by these regions would be posted in one big forum. Due to the growth of popularity of PbNation, the forums have been further broken into individual US states, as well as Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Small Talk

Small Talk has a general discussion section and a number of sub-forums including:

• Automobiles
• Investments
• Literature
• Movies & TV
• Music
• Photography
• Politics
• Radio Controlled Hobbies
• Religion/Philosophy
• Sports
• Technology
• Videos

In addition, OSST (Old-School Small Talk) is available once a user's account becomes 1 year old.

Notable Incidents

There have been a number of things in Small Talk that have been very important to the development of the distinct ST culture, such as the Rick Roll epidemic and the annual scavenger hunt.

In addition, a thread called "Deer God. (deer gore) pics." was created, showing a Chevrolet Trailblazer that had struck a deer. The thread was so popular around the internet that PbNation made a reference to it in their slogan. The thread can be found here.

Tournament Talk

A forum for discussing many of the major tournament series such as PSP (Paintball Sports Promotions) and NPPL (National Professional Paintball League), as well as some of the more regional ones such as PTS (Pev's Tournament Series).

Voided Warranty

"Voided Warranty" is a forum for DIY work and other things that would void the warranty of a marker.

Partners

PbNation is partnered with KEE Action Sports, Save Phace, and PSP. Each of these companies is given their own forum, and when a PSP event is taking place, they get a forum at the top of the website devoted to discussion of the event.

Criticism

• PbNation is often criticized for the conflict of interest that they have, regarding the fact that they are both a source of paintball equipment information as well as a seller of advertising space.

• Many times, companies have been added to the swear filter for promoting their product on the website without paying for advertising space.

• The rules on PbNation are considered to be very open-ended and leave most of the interpretation up to the discretion of the moderators on the website. Users have been banned for animated pornography, and pictures that show semen on a woman's face.