Patrick

Thank you to everyone who voted in this year's awards. Stay tuned for an announcement where we will reveal our winners.

If you haven't voted yet, please do! Thanks.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree this time is... @wagnerk (for the 4th time)! Thank you for being a part of this community for so long, Ken! 2026 will mark your 20th year here, which is just incredible. Patrick

Thank you to everyone who has voted thus far! There is still plenty of time. Please take a few minutes to review the ballots and place your vote. Every vote makes a difference. It's also a great way to recognize some of your favorite contributors here at KarateForums.com.

Every half-anniversary, I invite a member of staff (in order of seniority) to address the community. Thank you for writing this, Brian. I appreciate you and all of the members who have made this sentiment a reality.

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 24th annual KarateForums.com Awards! Through these awards, we recognize just a few of the individuals who have made outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com in the past year. You submitted your nominations and, from those, we have our KarateForums.com Awards 2025 nominees. In all, 11 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are @KarateKen, @Nidan Melbourne, @Zaine, @Spartacus Maximus, @aurik, @DarthPenguin, @bushido_man96, @sensei8, @Wastelander, @crash, and @Himokiri Karate! KarateKen was nominated in 4 categories, the most of any member, followed by Spartacus Maximus, bushido_man96, sensei8, and Wastelander with 3. Our historical award numbers have been updated and new milestones have been reached! Congratulations to Spartacus Maximus on reaching 20 nominations (now with 22, 6th all-time) and KarateKen on hitting 5 (now with 7, T17th all-time)! I also wanted to highlight Wastelander for reaching the top 5 all-time. Previously, Wastelander was T5th (technically in the top 6), and now is T4th. With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. What You Should Know Before Voting These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2024 and October 18, 2025. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity before or after. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2025. You cannot vote for yourself. If you do, it will be removed. Your votes will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who voted for whom. Please do not attempt to artificially inflate our vote totals in any way. This includes, but is not limited to: Trading votes, encouraging people to vote indiscriminately (publicly or privately), sending spam and any other behavior that could lead to results being artificially skewed. Members found to be participating in these activities will be disqualified from nomination in any category. Please note that you do not have to vote in every category. You can vote in as many or as few as you would like - please go for as many as you feel comfortable with. The more valid votes we receive, the better! Categories The categories are listed below. For each category, you will find a link to the ballot where you can vote. Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52457-awards-25-member-of-the-year/ Community Spirit Award https://karateforums.com/topic/52456-awards-25-community-spirit-award/ Staff Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52455-awards-25-staff-member-of-the-year/ Funniest Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52454-awards-25-funniest-member-of-the-year/ Karate Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52453-awards-25-karate-contributor-of-the-year/ Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52452-awards-25-health-and-fitness-contributor-of-the-year/ Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52451-awards-25-instructors-and-school-owners-contributor-of-the-year/ Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on December 6, 2025 at 8pm Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not post your votes in any thread. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply here. Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Your participation in these awards is what makes them meaningful. I can't wait to see who you vote for this year. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks! I think he will be, just barely.

If you are getting the odd one that comes to light occasionally, it's probably not all that different. But it's only going to get worse globally. I also don't know if you have gambling the same way we have... like you can gamble on literally every single action. You can place hundreds (thousands?) of bets on a single game if you so desire. Sad to say, I agree here. They really rush in and created this massive economy to where so much of the money coming into sports leagues, broadcasters, podcasts, etc. is in some way tied to gambling. It is going to be very challenging to reduce it. But I hope it happens.

Nominations are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted nominations. You made a difference! Stay tuned for another announcement when nominees are revealed and voting opens. You can expect that later this week.

Yes, I have definitely noticed. I can see the value in summaries, though I do share your concern for accuracy because most people won't vet it. We also can't escape the fact that it is pulling from sources that are likely authoritative, but will see no benefit in the form of web traffic, ad views, or even the opportunity to have someone know the name of the website it came from. This will disincentive the further creation of that authoritative content. I tried to block ChatGPT from this community, just out of respect for members and their contributions, but that protection was accidentally removed when I upgraded the software. Come to find, it might not even matter: https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2025/07/23/chatgpt-ignores-robots-txt-rehashes-my-column/

We're planning to try to get tickets to the 2028 Olympics here in Los Angeles. It is, of course, kind of silly to buy tickets in January 2026 for something happening in July 2028, but it feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Kind of scared to see what those prices look like, though.

The deluge of gambling ads across sporting events is a plague. I really dislike it, and while there are always going to be avenues to gamble, the accessibility of it is only begging for scandals. Having a toddler who watches sports, I am already getting ready for the eventual conversations about what it is, why he shouldn't do it, etc.

It is hard to reconcile participating in a scheme like this for such little gain, but addiction is certainly a disease and gambling is one of many forms of addiction.

Hey all, Did anyone else dress up? What did you go with? I was Bobby, manager of HUNTR/X from K-Pop Demon Hunters. Of course, I also brought Axel Foley back.

Thank you to those who have nominated thus far. If you haven't, please take a few minutes to submit a ballot. Every single ballot makes a difference, and it's a great way to recognize some of the outstanding contributions in this community that have made a difference for you.