A level of professionalism

[Jake Steinmann]

I know that I've been posting here for a while now, but in light of some recent events, I felt the need to put this up.

This was the first martial arts forum I ever visited. Though some of my first attempts at posting were clumsy, everyone responded politely, and the discussion was able to continue on well.

I have recently been venturing onto some other martial arts forums...and was stunned to find the amount of garbage that exists out there. Forums where every post is filled with vulagarity, and topics run for five pages all filled with slander tossed back and forth like high school children (at best). Some of these forums I found to offensive to even read.

Don't mis-understand me. I'm not squeamish...I can handle the language, and the antagonism, but frankly, I think it's pitful, unprofessional, and just darn pointless. Even the most heated debate in any academic or professional journal does not find it self reduced to tossing four letter words back and forth. They, being professionals, use at least 6-7 letter words.

Seriously though, everyone on these forums deserves a pat on the back for conducting themselves so well. It may not seem like much to you, but compared to some out there...

Train Harder! More Chi!
Jake Steinmann

[student]

Second the motion!


student

[david]

Jake,

I've traveled through a number of cyber martial arts forums since my old compuserve account about five years ago. As you noted, there are a number of forums out there where a "wild west" atmosphere prevails. For the most part it's a lot of bluster, ego fulfillment and downright nastiness that go on. At the same time, there are gems offered by some folks who really know their stuff and are willing to share. One has to be able to discern. I have met, trained and stayed in contact with several people through those forums whom I would have never met otherwise. That makes it worthwhile.

I second the vote that of the cyber forums, this site is among the best in terms. I think part of this is that many folks here know each other and there is a built in accountability. The other part is that the moderators do a great job in ensuring that issues are discussed in a respectful manner by all, or get the cyberboot.

david

[Scott Danziger]

Some forums, especially many of the newsgroups, are mainly occupied by NHB wannabe's, Bruce Lee experts & detracters, and mainly cyber martial artists. In other words, if they actually trained as much as they pretend, they may actually become martial artists.

I'm not in no way saying they are all like that, just many (most) of them. Lot's of kids too. rec.martial-arts.moderated is pretty good.



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