One of the greatest powers of the Internet is the ability to rapidly share information between users, independent of a large media corporation. Social networking maximizes this ability and allows people to quickly tell their friends about the newest YouTube movie, the best place to buy things or even where to play paintball.

While forums have been around since the start of the Internet, sites like Facebook and Myspace let people keep in contact easily and effortlessly. Seeing the success of these social networking sites, web-savvy paintballers have created the concept of the Social Paintball Site (SPS). An SPS focuses on what's important to paintballers: finding new people to play paintball with, space to brag about exploits and a convenient way to share information about equipment, strategy, teams and events.

The first true SPS that I'm aware of was the Special Ops Brigade that is now run as a partnership between Special Ops and Tippmann. More recently, mySplat.com has come online with a similar focus on linking up paintball players. Additionally, for you players up North, CanadianScenarioPaintball.com caters to you.

My experience with the SPSs has been great - they are the quickest way I've found to meet new people to play paintball with and the best way to learn of new fields and events. If you haven't tried out an SPS, yet, you should. Also, if you know of another SPS (not just a forum, but a true SPS), email me or post a comment.

An updated list of SPSs is available here.