After reading through this thread and closely monitoring what has transpired through MIA for the past several years, I wanted to provide input:

I used to help run the Jackal events and am a former member of the OCAA. For those that remember (such as Gimp), even then I can recollect issues with how the community felt, specifically in regards to being "clique-ish" or "divided." Was this true? To an extent, yes - because many of the smaller, non-MIA oriented communities detested the rules and standards put forth. I am noticing, however, the general attitude these smaller communities pursued then has extended into what a majority of players who do not wish to unify think now; they are not seeing the bigger picture on behalf of our community as a whole. And that's okay. Should they? Probably, but this will take time, and a lot of mentoring/teaching of the old community unto the new with respect to how events were handled, player etiquette, general attitude towards games/the excitement of playing, etc.

It's okay if they do not feel the need to unify under one commonality, as one collective (a la MIA), which is unfortunate for us, where the old framework of the community (as Canto said) fell through after proboards was archived. This surely damaged the foundation built up by the past mods/admins, and for the current ones. As many others have identified, the influx of activity these days is through Facebook, albeit through several groups. This is why I say it's okay to not unify: It's okay for different groups to possess different schools of thought regarding how the game should be played, or to stick to one specific area. There is a lot of nuance to be identified based on this, however a lot of it was outlined in previous posts and I feel it detracts from my point: We need to not only teach new(er) players more about the sport, but we also need to ask ourselves: How can we approach this?

Unfortunately I find it to be an extremely complicated issue, despite airsoft as a sport being rather specific, aside from the different forms of play. As established already, people play for different reasons; they want multi-day operations, they only want to play for an afternoon, they rarely get time to play, etc. This is fine, of course - variety is the spice of life, and it certainly allows the sport, especially in our state, to have more players.

I do not think we should look into how we can unify the community, but rather improving the attitude of players. I took a two-year hiatus until last winter, and based on the dozen times I have played this year, I agree the general mindset of players has changed. The playerbase seems less friendly, less willing to learn. Which is why I suggest we play and lead by example.

Not only should those of us responding identify issues at hand (we already have), we should actively discourage the same issues we're experiencing. At games, we should be friendly and outgoing to newer players. We should help them, talk to them, befriend them, do things to pique their interest and ultimately encourage them to continue playing. We should lead by example to impart a lasting impression on them. After all, our first memories in a sport (especially airsoft) mold who we become as a player. If we can positively impact/help as many newer players as possible and perhaps educate them as soon as possible, our quality should improve. At MCA, for example, when I play with my teammate(s), we are very friendly and helpful to newer players. In fact, I remember a teammate and I defusing a heated player last winter. This is the kind of behavior we should strive to achieve; to be level-headed, calm, and willing to teach/learn. I feel this to be the first major step towards growth.