What's the point of these forums?

[eXcessiveForce]

Hi all, After going through the last month or so's post I was left wondering what's the point of these forums.

I've been hanging around here for a couple years. First under one name that disappeared when the board crashed and now under the name I use. There have always been trolls since I have been here some were worse than others but they have always been here. But it seems that either the trolls have become the regulars or the regulars have become trolls.

It used to be that there where many posting on all sorts of topics and new members from all different areas came in and asked questions and got some decent replies but now it seems new members are chased off if they do not practice an approved art.

Recently a younger female came in asking about martial arts, she took Karate, and most of the posts were gibberish posted by Regulars. Since when was the board about taking young martial artists and teaching them that some martial artists are ass's. They figure that out on their own in time. Think of the opportunity that is lost by telling these young people that their styles are stupid and that they should take something else. Let them discover if they are in a good school or a bad one on their own. If they stick around the board long enough they may start questioning the things they are taught instead of leaving the board and thinking that this is just a place full of ignorant assholes.

Contructive posts seem to have damn near stopped recently. Maybe I am way off mark but it seems that the die hard martial artists that used to post are gone, or maybe they are just lurking now and don't feel the need to post.

I don't know, I have personally enjoyed reading and posting and getting feedback on what people think. I like to have people challenge my views because it makes me think out what I believe and sometime go back and test what I think just to make sure it is valid.

But i'm sorry most of the posts recently have offered very little in the way of substance. Mostly just opinions that have no backing.

Someone asks how they can develop better skills and they are in Karate, then someone posts "take Muay Thai" Lead people to find their own answers, maybe they will one day grow enough as a martial artist to change their training.

Let people find enjoyment in martial arts where they wish. If they want help developing their skills help them. Don't just drive them away of this forum will eventually die.

[Lizard]

Perhaps you should have put this in a more popular forum (like BJJ and MMA, not that many people come here. That's why people put things on the BJJ/MMA forum, it's the most popular one.

"What do you think of segal?"
We hate him, go away newbie

"What MA should I do?"
MT or BJJ everything else is rubbish

"Do you believe in chi/dim mak?"
No it's BS, go away we don't like people who beleive in things like that

I saw a thread (I think it was about submission escapes) turn into a dissing match about whose penis was bigger and who was giving who pleasure. Luckily it was moderated (which I am thankful for).

OK I'll try to restrict my posting and make some origional threads. That's my contribution.

[Szczepankiewicz]

Don't just drive them away of this forum will eventually die.

People have been saying that for years. It hasn't happend yet. Unless of course the forum really is dead and we are in forum heaven.

As far as forum behavior is concerned, there are times when everyone posts serious posts. Then there are times when the entire thread is just plain silly...

MSDA will always be MSDA. The mods don't ban people for being stupid. You only get banned when you go way over the limit.

There are much tighter forums to be found. People may take flack for posting stuff here, but they don't get banned when they deviate from the groupthink.

You're welcome to come to MDF where the traffic is low but the topics are serious.

Spanky

[Tom Yum]

I think the answer is more trolls. For the past month or two, there have been less constructive posts due to the trolls that waste space. Thus, the quality gets diluted.

Instead of having someone introduce themself and talk about their art, training and experience or perspectives of other arts you get someone coming in with the following:

- Trolling - posting insults and purposely instigating arguments.
- Public opinon & PR type polsters - trying to appear 'constructive'
- BS ing into threads and then trolling.
- Mimicking or mocking fictional characters that poke fun of martial arts.
- Hard sell of why system X is the most feared system in the entire universe; i.e. "This system is so scary that..."

This site is about martial arts, its techniques, training methods, philosophies and such related issues.

If the trolls are just bored teens gone wild, its somewhat understandable but needs to be regulated. If the trolls are people who hold college degrees and work for very public or private organizations, I would think this would come across as strange at best.

Fellows and moderators, whadya think?

[Szczepankiewicz]

This from a guy who wants to watch me rassle in a duck shaped flotation device is a vat of KY jelly???

[Tom Yum]

Hey man, it wasn't you I was watching... it was your two opponents.

Allright, but that thread was a shot in the dark and did not continue for 100+ posts.

[Szczepankiewicz]

a shot in the dark

Are you surfing with the lights off again????

Sick bastard.

[Thai Bri]

EF, I can see your point. You are right in some ways but, in all seriousness, if someone comes on and says "I do McDojo Karate, what do you think?" then it seems logical to tell them what we think.

But it is a shame that woman didn't stay around. Maybe she would have learnt ina few weeks what took me 20 years.

[Toudiyama[NL]]

Originally posted by Thai Bri
EF, I can see your point. You are right in some ways but, in all seriousness, if someone comes on and says "I do McDojo Karate, what do you think?" then it seems logical to tell them what we think.

But it is a shame that woman didn't stay around. Maybe she would have learnt ina few weeks what took me 20 years.

But who decides what is McDojo and what's not, just because it is TKD it doesn't have to be a McDojo

If someone sez I'm doing style A and want to do something on the side and someone else replies that style A is crap and he or she should stop training it, that what I would call inapropriate, it seems some of us here still have such a high hatred against traditional arts that they do not accept it when someone tells them they have used it

It doesn't matter somehow that eForce used TKD in the streets and won the fight TKD is still crap in these peoples perspection
But somehow never come with the right arguments
In the thread about which kicks are harder I tried to give 1 argument why snapkicks could be harder, no-one disputed the arguments or game with arguments for the MT kick but in the end still say MT is harder.

A lot of BS arguments are used in a lot of threads
based on what people SEE in MMA events they form an opinion but then when some tells them he or she SAW someone use styleA in the streets it is nonsense

Tell the possitives of your art but do not diss the others, this is at least one lesson the trad have learned and most modernist overhere haven't

Bri you are right though that she would most likely have learned more in a couple of weeks here than in a year at her Dojo.


nag nag nag darn how I do drag on lately

[Lizard]

"But it is a shame that woman didn't stay around. Maybe she would have learnt ina few weeks what took me 20 years."

Then it is a shame that people couldn't have a bit nicer to her, maybe then she would have stayed around for another few weeks.

There is a lot of cruelty to newbies, especialy if they do a traditional art. Perhaps we should be nicer to people who have just started posting.

[Szczepankiewicz]

There is a lot of cruelty to newbies

Go back and reread all your posts and you'll see why that is.

MSDA forums got nothing on forumite bashing. You kids got it easy.

Why.... when I was a newbie I had to....

[Tom Yum]

Originally posted by Lizard
[B
There is a lot of cruelty to newbies, especialy if they do a traditional art. Perhaps we should be nicer to people who have just started posting. [/B]

It depends. I was one of the only few that said TKD had some usefull kicks, was a good style to start MA training at a young age and that real Korean TKD is an accurate depiction of what TKD can be, not the Mc Dojangs.

The cruelty isn't random. Some things in life can be 'faked', some things cannot. If you're on stage for a demonstration of what the tango looks like and you really don't know what you're doing I think the audience will figure it out for themselves.

A demonstration of something purely communicative is more subjective to an audience and sometimes only an acute mind can pickup the difference between fact & fiction.

For example, if someone gives an emotionally compelling seminar to an audience that brick breaking is the best form of self-defense, uses a couple of catch phrases from karate and buzz words from gong fu and at least one of the audience members is an experienced bouncer/BB in judo and another is a police officer with jujitsu training, they will tell you otherwise while the rest of the audience might believe the seminar, go home and try to practice brick breaking.

On the otherhand if someone comes in here with experience in Shotokan karate and walks you through each detailed step of the green belt level form and can do it in Japanese too, and you guys start ragging on him, then you're giving him a hard time despite possesing intricate knowledge of his chosen art.

[Szczepankiewicz]

As if Tom Yumsfelt knows anything about anything.

Be gone insolent Newbie.




Spanky

[Tom Yum]

hehe.

I'm not the one sitting in an empty kiddy pool while watching re-run after re-run of "What's Happening Now?" , "Sanford & Son" and 'Weird Science.'

[Szczepankiewicz]

How the hell did you know that???

Bitty you gossipy bastage!!!