Poll/Survey: What would you like in a martial arts forum?

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I admire anyone that tries to do what you are trying to do. But I personally don't like these web sites for one big reason. Well meaning martial artists are always creating a forum or site with the intention of doing good. They intend to create sites that educate the public and newbees as to what is correct and who is valid or a fake. Bullshido is one such site. When I first saw it some time ago, I thought it was a good and noble thing. But I have seen it Do great harm to people that are actually very good martial artists. While they warn people to the ATA's, Dillman's, and Shullmann's out there, they also trash some people that are valid martial artists.

In reality we live in an imperfect world and are imperfect in ourselves and our knowledge and understanding of other martial arts. Y/A is a very good example of both good and bad comments about every art and every name mentioned. Does anyone really think that they or even a group of people can create something that will be better ? I don't believe that it can be done. There will always be our own ignorance, prejudice, and personality involved. no matter how a site is structured or divided into mma, traditional arts, ....etc., it will always be that way. Even with the problems here, I feel that Y/A is as good as any other site out there. We carry our beliefs with us no matter where we go or how we present it.

This is not meant to put anyone down. It is only here to make those that bother to read it to stop and be honest with themselves. How can we be impartial and honest with others when our own beliefs and knowledge is flawed. We can't know what we don't know. we never are able to know how ignorant or wrong we are. We can only continue to learn, test, and compare things as we come across them.

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That's a pretty cool idea, and I am interested in that idea. I am a part of a few forums, one being a paid for group. The wealth of information is just amazing, but it is not always an active place.

One of the things I enjoy most about this site, given it's nature as a Q&A place, is the amount of activity. Granted, we have to sift through countless asinine question posts, or those that are consistently repeated, but there are more questions posted that are of a genuine quest for knowledge than I've seen elsewhere.

I definitely agree with having a question posting section, a frequently asked questions (which takes up the majority of the page as one is typing the question like the new google search feature, just something that forces people to take a look at the thousands of similar questions asked as opposed to the minuscule box that shows up here...)

I know that some of the other regulars here are members of other sites as well, and would wait for their answers before continuing. It's a great idea if we can have a lot of the same community members participate there too, but if it's worth it?... how will the traffic get there?

There are other martial art forums out there. I'm thinking one of the things that makes Y/A special is the Q&A format. A forum is more of a discussion while this here is more about general interests coupled with some interesting points and good advise. I know we do kind of discuss things here, but that does actually go against Y/A's guidelines. We're not actually suppose to. I think we're one of the tightest groups on Y/A, so that may have something to do with us getting away with it.

If you have a forum open somewhere I'd love to participate. One thing I've noticed from other forums is the continuous rant. I think some strict policies and community rules would be very important, much like here. Also, I think that there should be an open discussion area just like in other forums and then there should be more of a Q&A type area, much like here.

I can't think of anymore things right now but I'll be thinking. I find this interesting.

1. Yes, of course.

2. Hopefully - I've seen some good forums ending up more or less like Y!A, or fall into disuse. If I may suggest a model, it would be AikiWeb.com's forums: lots of senior practitioners (like here), quite a few newbies asking questions about why is [insert style name here] not effective in 'real' situations (not as much as here though), but strictly moderated. I'm sure there are plenty of other great forums out there, but this is the one I'm used to lurk in. It's a nice place to discuss things, open enough to attract new members, and polite enough so that old-timers still like to visit.

Anyway, if there's a forum with most of the regulars here on board, I'd join in a heartbeat... :D

Only if nothing is private as far as the voting and who is voting for what answers. Some of the people in this forum are more concerned with their own egos and the obvious ballot stuffing that goes on where their contacts vote for their answers even though the answer is clearly wrong or not the best one really says something about them as well as the usefulness of this forum and its ability to help others who seek knowledge and answers to questions pertaining to martial arts.

Also the questions need to be better screened and those that are obviously not really pertinent to martial arts like, "Which animal would win in a fight?" or some of the ones with racial overtones should never really make the forum in the first place. At least they have been pretty quick and proactive in removing the more obvious ones that don't belong once they are reported but it could be better or more widely imposed for some of this where it really does not pertain to martial arts and should not make it into this forum at all.

You might want to consider adding a subsection concerning equipment and training aids for martial arts. That would be useful I think to some who have legitimate questions about various products and pieces of equipment out there and new things that come out each year concerning that.

I have some other thoughts that I would rather not express openly here and will try to contact you directly if your profile allows it and if not I ask that you contact me directly via this forum which my profile allows for the purpose of opening a dialog concerning those things.

In my experience, the trolls are worse in a forum like Bullshido. For one thing, they don't limit themselves to asking one question, but making all kinds of things up that spread themselves out over a weekly period.

The primary consideration is who is posting and who is moderating. Some places have people who produce good stuff. Others do not. There's also the question of feedback. Without an external balance method, there's a tendency for isolated communities to stagnant.

I'm always up for joining a good forum. but if it's one of those that gets comments once a month, I don't really have enough attention span for it. (given if it's an amazing post every single month then it might be worth while.)

I would like to see...

1. a welcome section

2. commonly posted thread section (search here before asking or posting)

3. fight news and discussion section

4. fight theory section

5. technique section

6. training section

7. health section

8. garbage and troll section (mod moves threads here from other threads)

9. chill section (just random stuff that people want to discuss with other martial artists)

Yes it would be really interesting to help my decide what martial art to do and yes

i would really love a forum for martial arts specific workouts, and for help with techniques and forms.

divided into eastern arts (kung fu, judo, etc), western arts (boxing wrestling), weapon arts (kendo, kobudo, fencing), practical applications (defense)