Archive CalGuns vs. CAguns What's the difference?

[treelogger]

At the end of the day, isn’t it the owner’s fault of calguns that the site is broken because he didn’t update the forum software for years? Is this what actually happened? I’ve been under the impression outdated software is what killed it because he was afraid of legacy features not working. At the end, it killed everything.

Or did i get this completely wrong? Lol

You got it right for recent history.

If you go to ancient history, it's more complicated. The forum (including its software) were set up by the previous owner, a gentleman named Ramon. At the height of the OLL revolution (in 2005, when the Calguns site was pretty much solely responsible for roughly half a million ARs coming into the state, because a few people had figured out that they can be legally bought here), Ramon wanted to sell the site, as he was overwhelmed. He sold it to the current owner, username is kestryll. Who since then has done little or zero software maintenance on it.

But, as usual, there is a little more to the story. Shortly after he bought the site, kestryll needed to find a new hosting company for it. At that time, Ben Cannon (username was artherd, today is called Lady Benjamin Cannon and has purple hair, a very colorful character) referred to himself as the owner of Calguns, and to kestryll as his staff; kestryll has always denied that Ben was the owner at any point. The new hosting company was a friend of Ben's, username M3, and who (like Ben later when he ran 6x7 Hosting) thought of himself as god's gift to hosting; the tagline of his company was "GeoVario the premier 2A hosting provider". For nearly 20 years, this worked pretty well, until M3 wanted to get out of the hosting "business" (I think his only customer was Calguns), and after years of warning, shuttered the servers and forced kestryll to find a new provider. The rest is history, how kestryll managed to screw up the transition to a new hosting provider (and being forced to switch to up-to-date software, since no provider wanted to support that ancient version), and that caused the forum to go down most of the time for the last year or two.

 

[Wolkenflieger]

I think the edit feature only being available for a certain amount of time is a good thing. It helps hold people more accountable for what they say. I think that outweighs the negatives.

Also, one of the most annoying things about Reddit is how frequently responses are deleted. There are countless threads on Reddit with so many deleted posts that all sense is gone.

My entire Reddit account is banned because I agreed with someone that men should not be allowed in women's sports. My entire account! Got the big ol' red "This account has been permanently banned" banner every time I visit. Reddit is an ideological wasteland.

It's too bad because I really enjoyed some subs there such as the CZ sub, CAGuns sub, the Keto sub, etc.

 

[blackhawk556]

You got it right for recent history.

If you go to ancient history, it's more complicated. The forum (including its software) were set up by the previous owner, a gentleman named Ramon. At the height of the OLL revolution (in 2005, when the Calguns site was pretty much solely responsible for roughly half a million ARs coming into the state, because a few people had figured out that they can be legally bought here), Ramon wanted to sell the site, as he was overwhelmed. He sold it to the current owner, username is kestryll. Who since then has done little or zero software maintenance on it.

But, as usual, there is a little more to the story. Shortly after he bought the site, kestryll needed to find a new hosting company for it. At that time, Ben Cannon (username was artherd, today is called Lady Benjamin Cannon and has purple hair, a very colorful character) referred to himself as the owner of Calguns, and to kestryll as his staff; kestryll has always denied that Ben was the owner at any point. The new hosting company was a friend of Ben's, username M3, and who (like Ben later when he ran 6x7 Hosting) thought of himself as god's gift to hosting; the tagline of his company was "GeoVario the premier 2A hosting provider". For nearly 20 years, this worked pretty well, until M3 wanted to get out of the hosting "business" (I think his only customer was Calguns), and after years of warning, shuttered the servers and forced kestryll to find a new provider. The rest is history, how kestryll managed to screw up the transition to a new hosting provider (and being forced to switch to up-to-date software, since no provider wanted to support that ancient version), and that caused the forum to go down most of the time for the last year or two.

I remember Ben Cannon! He also started GunPal which was supposed to be a gun friendly alternative to PayPal, but I think it got infested with scammers and was shut down.

So Ben is now is lady boy? Is that what you mean? Lol

 

[Plenty_Pack_556]

My entire Reddit account is banned because I agreed with someone that men should not be allowed in women's sports. My entire account! Got the big ol' red "This account has been permanently banned" banner every time I visit. Reddit is an ideological wasteland.

It's too bad because I really enjoyed some subs there such as the CZ sub, CAGuns sub, the Keto sub, etc.

I was banned of subreddit r/caguns because I wanted to argue that the sale of public lands measure to less than 1% of 300 million acres of BLM, when majority thinks it'll be more... and well, the sale of public lands is off the BBB now.

Buncha pansies getting worked up over "not a big deal."

But then again, r/caguns is full of Biden, Liberal lovers.

 

[compulsivegungrabber]

Feature Matrix

We've had a lot of people come from Calguns recently and I've received quite a few messages about things were done at CG. We do things differently here because we've included a lot of new features that don't work with the CG way. They use more resources and as a result we have some limitations on certain heavily used features.

This matrix should help users navigate the differences between Calguns and CAguns. I've had a few messages recently asking me why the service isn't completely free and I wanted to provide a breakdown of what you're getting vs. what you're not getting to really show the extent of features we've added here.

This is still not a full list of Features at CAguns.net. I'll be adding more feature over time. Funds go toward the Development of the software. This site does not sell any physical goods. CAguns, LLC maintains the website & Community.

Features	Calguns	CAguns (Free)	CAguns( $5 Membership)
Forums
Marketplace
Legal Opinion		- Not much	- Not much
Community
Large Community		- Tell your friends!	- Tell your friends!
Historical Data
Avatars
Profile Banner
Profile Posts
Private Messaging
Search
Advanced Search
Region
Sub-Region
Roster
C&R
Modern UI
Dark / Light Themes
Events Manager
RSVP
RSVP Notifications
Mobile Web App	- Tap-a-talk
Mobile Optimized
Larger Font Smaller Payload HD images
Push Notifications	- Tap-a-talk
Classifieds System
# of Open Listings*	1 - per forum	3-5** Total	10
# of Images / listing	5 - low quality	3 Good Quality	5 Good quality
# Days before Expiring	Unknown	90 days	180 days
# of Featured Listings			1
Bumps**	1 / day	1 / 3-5 days	1 / day
Listing Emojis
Discuss Listing***
Ask Question
Make offer
Feedback & Rating System
Community Badges
Performance Boost
Network Acceleration
Resource Library

* This may change in time. We're currently allowing 5 but we reserve the right to reduce this to 3 at any time. Surges in users drives up the cost so we may change this. Existing listings will not be affected. After any change, you may not be able to create new ads.

** Bumps are done via a button on your Overview tab or via Listings Manager. If you use BTT or Bump to go around the limit, you will be warned or may be banned if abused. It doesn't update in the classified section anyways so its not as useful as it was in Calguns and you lose points here. So don't do it please.

The Advanced Search is powerful and if someone is looking for your item, it'll show up. This is to limit the number ads with unrealistic prices trying to be at the top. We prefer quality listings. If you are priced right, your item will get snapped up fast. If you want $2,000 for your Gen 3 Glock with mods, you may not bump that 1/day unless you're a subscriber. This may move to 5 or 7 days as the site grows to keep the market clean with fresh listings at the top. If something sticks around for that long without selling, its priced too high or too niche, so you have to have the right buyer.

View attachment 1775


*** You may only discuss the item but not price. Only relevant new information might be added, but do not add an opinion. IE: If something is coming out on the roster, mention its coming out. That is all. Factual information only. Posts may be moderated or removed. Warning's will be given. Too many warnings will result in ban. So please use facts only or the emoji to show your feeling, this is the only compromise.

Thanks for reading. Let me know you got this far by the Like button or Voting on the poll or both!

Thank you for making this site the fastest growing 2A community in California!

You’re missing a toxic unmoderated off topic section that is fueled by conjecture and personal attacks.

 

[couragewolf]

You’re missing a toxic unmoderated off topic section that is fueled by conjecture and personal attacks.

People in this forum are of an age and persuasion that they actually have sex still and it shows in the post quality

 

[Ajowhan]

As someone new to both forum, 1 site work and 1 site doesnt, thats all.

Heard about Calguns first, tried to access it, took 5 days of trial before being able to access it. Then unable to create an account...

 

[Hit Factor]

You’re missing a toxic unmoderated off topic section that is fueled by conjecture and personal attacks.

And it’s worth noting that the vast majority of people posting in “Calguns” OT don’t even live in California. They’re either out-of-state trolls, or they moved to another state but can’t let go and/or just don’t have anywhere else to go.

 

[grandpapeepap]

an l is the difference

 

[treelogger]

I remember Ben Cannon! He also started GunPal which was supposed to be a gun friendly alternative to PayPal, but I think it got infested with scammers and was shut down.

GunPal at some point in its criminal endeavor renamed itself GPal. It was infested with one scammer, and that was Ben Cannon. He fundamentally ended up using the money that was traveling through it to pay of his 5-digit credit card bill. Not clear whether that was all his doing; maybe his bank "foreclosed" his accounts once they had the GPal money in them. He also failed to get the required permits in several states, I think he got shut down officially in a few southeastern states for that. Lots of people were very mad at GPal and at Ben, because he owes them lots of money (4-digit amounts). Interestingly, that includes kestryll !

So Ben is now is lady boy? Is that what you mean? Lol

At some point, he got married to a very good-looking female, and changed his last name from "Cannon" to "Diaz Cannon". Later, she (Ben, not the wife!) officially changed her gender to female, and her first name to "Lady Benjamin Philip". You can find that in court records. Since then, he has been involved in roughly a dozen legal fights under the "Lady Benjamin" name. Finding a picture with bright purple hair is easy online.

But honestly, the problem with Ben Cannon is not their hair color, nor their gender. The problem is that for as long as I remember knowing them (since about 2005), they have been involved in a series of scams and crimes.

 

[sonofeugene]

Plus completely ignoring members, not answering questions posed to him, not giving updates, etc.

 

[ikeo1]

This document is now deprecated in favor of the new version. We're moving beyond Calguns/CAguns comparison and into our own matrix. There's enough separation now that it makes sense to drop some of the baggage. Thanks to everyone for your input.

Announcement  Thread '🔰 Support the Community. Unlock More Features - User Membership tiers'

Jul 2, 2025

At CAguns.net, our community continues to grow and that’s thanks in large part to the support of our contributing members. With more users, server costs and development needs increase. Your contributions help keep the platform fast, stable, and free of clutter for everyone. We've updated a few limitations to grant more in some places and reduce in others. We try to offer value for the site and hope that you find value in using the site.

We’ve introduced additional membership tiers to make it easier for members to support the site at a level that works for you and in return, we’ve...

• ikeo1
• Replies: 11
• Forum: Announcements