Have the Glory Days of Martial Arts Forums Passed?

[sanjuro_ronin]

I don't think this forum should be restrictive, obviously. I like the trolls and their anti-CMA rants. It's just a forum. Frankly, the real enemy of CMA is when it goes unchallenged. In fencing, we have what we call "Salle Fencers" - those are people who are good in their salle d'armes (fencing guan, if you will) but can't fence successfully outside of it. They aren't exposed to outside competitors. Same goes with the forum here. It's all about exposure.

mickey, I don't remember saying that our forum members can't get any, which is not to say I never said it. For the record, I'll say all many of our members probably get are pics from sanjuro_ronin, and for that, sir, we salute sanjuro_ronin.

* Bows*
One does what one can.

[David Jamieson]

I like the trolls and the blowhards as well.

It gives me a chance to vent and release when I go off on them.
They're my mental rage-porn so to speak.

Better here than in my own house or to real flesh and blood people. lol

Only a few of you actually represent real people in my mind, the rest are archetypes I form in my own mind and attack or side with at a whim.

Like anyone else I guess. :P

[Reverend Tap]

Most forums do tend to go through cycles of activity, too.

In any case, this place is still significantly more active than most other forums I've been seeing lately, so things can't be too bad.

[SimonM]

This is very true. When I grump about kungfumagazine being dead I'm often told how lucky I am to have a forum with more than 1 new message posted per day!

[Lucas]

IMO CMA haters are a good thing. To a degree anyway.

A lot of times things that these people say can put certain aspects of ones training in a specific light. A light that can force one to scrutinize further what they are experiencing, comparitively to what others are doing, to decide if what they are doing is in fact helping them towards their goals.


there is, of course, an extent to what can be tolerated. That is the point where I read and just dont respond to drivel I feel is a waste of time responding too.


Its refreshing to have people coming in from all angles and giving their input.

I mean this is martial arts, defending ourselves and what we do is our business. Its all part of the training. Mental as well as physical.

Debating is a good thing.

Some people just go beyond actual debating sometimes and get childish. I just laugh when that happens, why let the internet and its evil cronies actually effect you.

[SimonM]

This is wisdom.

The day that ANYTHING said on Kung Fu Magazine REALLY gets under my skin is the day I will be taking a good 6 month break from the forum.

Honestly internet fora are, in general, nothing but things to do to kill time.

[Yum Cha]

This forum has a unique character - Martial arts is about contention and strategy as well as about combat and technique.

You can't really expect people like that to act like ladies at a tea party on issues they feel strongly about. AND WHY WOULD YOU! Cry havoc!

That being said there is a certain polarity between TCMA and MMA on this board which seems to take control of many topics, diluting or re-directing the conversations back to a lower denominator.

I disagree with David partially about the Social Networking sites. They are popular and draw traffic, but its a different experience. Social not technical. Competing for a users internet time, sure, but not for MA content.

There is a Martial Artists Facebook-ish site. Dead. No critical mass.

That's what makes this site different to all the other MA Forums and social networking sites, critical mass on topic. It may be lower, but its still big enough to generate a real time experience through out the day.

The forum might say, "News of my death has been slightly exaggerated."

[GeneChing]

We've now been connected to two social networks specifically connected to martial arts: MartialRank.com & iMartial.com. I'm still on iMartial.com occasionally. We've looked into integrating a social network more, but frankly, it's challenging enough to keep this monster running. We're doing admin updates all the time. That being said, we're developing a lot of new stuff for KungFuMagazine.com, but it's only in the development now, so I can't really commit to it's success. We don't even have a beta up yet.

Anyway, I still enjoy the forum even though for me, it is work. I find the forum to be really funny on the whole. Many trolls are really translucent, mostly because they are poor writers or just haven't developed a sense of second intention with their posts, so there's a certain one-dimensional simplicity that's very amusing - especially when they do get to someone. It's always kind of funny to me when I do get a cease & desist - it's kind of like holding that little crying kid's hand after the first time their ass was handed to them. I also get a lot of good news leads from the forum, plus the occasional history lesson.

[Lucas]

it's kind of like holding that little crying kid's hand after the first time their ass was handed to them.

LOL


thats seriously one of the funniest things ive seen posted here in a long time.

thats going in my quote spot

[jow yeroc]

It's all good. There are some really knowledgeable and smart people here and
a few smart asses who prefer their own brand but it's like school, life etc.
Distill the good, useful info from the bullsh-it and to be exposed to diverse angles
of issues, some relevant, many jibberish, and acquaint myself with some cool
people who i could chill with or learn something from one day are my main uses
of this and other fora i frequent. This is the only one with the level of trolling,
**** talking and douchebaggery to the degree sometimes found in Southern, WC
posts, et. al. Yeah, the level of maturity is questionable at times especially from
seemingly intelligent folks but all that stuff kinda makes it interesting and funny
too. It does get old but i still hang around. Just don't feel the need to state
my opinion all the time.

peace

[peace&love]

Overall, I have enjoyed the forum. I read Kung Fu Magazine for years and I enjoy the ezine a lot as well. For over two years, I enjoyed talking MA with my kung fu brother and sisters. When that school closed down and I lost the "family" traditional CMA experience, I decided to become part of the forum and have obtained some good advice during the short amount of time I've been a part of it. I enjoy the private messages I receive and sharing knowledge and info. As Gene pointed out, the forum is also an excellent way to discover some interesting info from the past and that has been helpful as far as clarifying those involved with specific systems and styles. I wish the San Soo guys were more involved because I think they would add some interesting perspectives on things, but I believe they mainly keep to themselves and that is okay. The trolls do not bother me. Like any human being, you deal with those everyday during rush hour, etc. That's just life. Plus a lot of the ones on this forum have some pretty funny one liners now and again. Also, as previously pointed out, in comparison to other forums, this one is by far the most active and productive in my opinion.

[mickey]

Greetings,

Does anyone notice how this thread reads like an eulogy?



mickey

[Lucas]

This forum is too deadly for the street.

[rogue]

Our forum here is still traffic-worthy, so we'll keep it running. While the amount of new posts isn't quite what it was, it's become a search-able web archive. There are more lurkers. You've got to factor in the lurkers. Most members don't realize that what they post stays up for as long as we keep it up. And those old threads get picked up by the search engines.

A few times I've had old posts of mine pop up when doing a search for something. Kind of cool and kind of weird. Thanks Gene for keeping the old gal running.

I wasn't really pointing fingers at here but MA forums in general. I wonder if blogs have taken away some posters (Never have so many written so little for so few ), or maybe we've just run out of things to post about.***



***The exception of course is the WC forum which I think could create new threads for years on 50/50 vs 0/100 weight distribution alone.

[SPJ]

Our forum here is still traffic-worthy, so we'll keep it running. While the amount of new posts isn't quite what it was, it's become a search-able web archive. There are more lurkers. You've got to factor in the lurkers. Most members don't realize that what they post stays up for as long as we keep it up. And those old threads get picked up by the search engines.

Here's an example: I posted about next week's NGC Shaolin documentary, and it currently pops to the top of a Google search. Through that, we were contacted by an NGC publicity rep and, as a favor, I posted the press release. So here, the forum served as a good place to disseminate information.

Here's another: When noted author Joe Hyams passed away, we had a thread going to honor him. I was contacted by his widow, who thanked us for it. We'll run her letter in our next issue. Here, the forum helped with the grieving process, and I couldn't be more pleased by that.

The only thing that limits the forum really, is all of you - all the members. What you contribute is what makes this forum interesting. Over the years, we've built a tremendous backlog of information. Sure, a lot of it is noise, but such is the web. If you know how to do web research, there are a lot of good leads here, and they continue to grow. I find it still very relevant, and for obvious reasons, endeavour to keep it so.

I take a long bow to the mighty power of search engine on the net.

There is an old chinese saying

the eyes may see things a thousand miles away.

the ears may hear voices where the wind goes.

wow, it is the internet.