Patrick

I'm glad! Good point! Totally agreed. Patrick

Thanks ashworth. I should say that hopefully my post didn't come off as negative at all. I think these are all totally reasonable things and just because this community isn't active/as active/active enough, it's not anyone's fault, e.g. you don't need to feel any pressure to post more, haha. But, of course, would love to see you more regularly again. Discord is another platform, like Slack. I feel similarly in that there are good use cases for it, but it's very much a chat room sort of thing for me, like you do need to be there in the moment. I use Slack for a couple of work projects, and I use Discord to talk with my brothers while we play video games together. All good platforms, just different experiences. Patrick

No worries, ashworth! Welcome back. I'm glad you saw it. Patrick

Hey ashworth, I don't think you are imagining anything. I see it really as platform diversification. As time has gone by, there have been more choices available, for how you might spend your time online, and people have gone to those choices as their patterns of use fit well with in them. There are so many more things to do online that take up time than there were when, for example, this community launched back in 2001. A platform like Facebook or Twitter is more centered around the individual. You follow this person, you friend this person. They have their profile that they control (relatively speaking). So, patterns of use centered around the individual make more sense there. Forums and hosted communities are more shared spaces, and there are a lot of communities that are still very active and growing. In some ways, I have seen a pendulum swing back to these types of environments as some have grown tired of how the big social media platforms work and of how often they are very directly tied to identity, instead preferring a more focused experience around specific topics, commonly under a username. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Facebook Groups because I find that it leads to people behaving like they would on their personal Facebook profile, as if they own the space. Facebook Groups are also largely hidden, so we've lost a generation of community knowledge to that walled garden, which I think is a net negative. Our own activity here ebbs and flows, and we're not as active as we once were. But I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. I think it's okay for communities to be less active while still being valuable and available for those who enjoy the type of environment that we have. Overall, the diversity of choice is a good thing and people will find what works best for them. Those are my thoughts, anyway. Patrick

Thanks Bob. A note here to say that we have now begun this process. Please excuse our dust as we work through 4,808 threads over the next few weeks. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After more than a month of nominations and votes, the 2020 edition of the KarateForums.com Awards have come to an end. It is now time for us to announce the winners! Before I do so, I wanted to once again congratulate everyone who was nominated. Regardless of whether or not you won the award, the fact that you were nominated means that, when asked to identify a member who really stood out in the past year, your fellow community members thought of you. Out of the 18,396 registered members in the history of this community, only 160 have ever been nominated for an award. To be nominated is pretty cool, and you should be proud. If you did not win or were not nominated, please don't take it badly. These awards do have meaning, but they are also for fun and not everyone can win or be nominated. Please join me in congratulating our winners. I would like to specifically thank everyone who participated in the process by nominating and voting. It is the community that selected the nominees and decided the winners. There are no KarateForums.com Awards without you. Several nominees took the time to vote in categories where they were nominated. Since you can't vote for yourself, your choice is to vote for someone else or not vote at all. Though I can't reveal who voted for whom, please know that I appreciate everyone who thoughtfully voted in the categories where they were nominated. It says a lot about you, and I love to see it. Before I share the winners, I wanted to prepare you: This was a different year for our awards! The most ties we've ever had in a single awards year, before this one, was 3. In 2020, we have 5 ties! But that just means that more members are honored. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: (tie) Fat Cobra and RW 2. New Member of the Year: (tie) Capella and MAD Mike 3. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 8th consecutive year!) 4. Staff Member of the Year: bushido_man96 (for the 4th time!) 5. Funniest Member of the Year: (tie) Bulltahr and JR 137 (for the 2nd time!) 6. Karate Contributor of the Year: (tie) Wado Heretic and Wastelander (for the 3rd time and 2nd consecutive year!) 7. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: bushido_man96 (for the 4th time and 2nd consecutive year!) 8. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: (tie) DWx (for the 2nd consecutive year!) and Spartacus Maximus Congratulations to bushido_man96 (2 wins!), Fat Cobra, RW, Capella, MAD Mike, sensei8, Bulltahr, JR 137, Wado Heretic, Wastelander, DWx, and Spartacus Maximus! We had 5 first time winners this year, including Fat Cobra, RW, Capella, MAD Mike, and Wado Heretic! Congratulations as well to DWx on reaching 10 wins in the history of the awards, 4th all-time, and to Spartacus Maximus and Wastelander for picking up their 5th wins, tying for the 6th most ever. For past winners and all of the awards historical data, please check out: http://www.karateforums.com/awards.php Thank you for reading and for supporting the KarateForums.com Awards. Sincerely, Patrick

I just corrected an error in my initial announcement that had stonecrusher69, last month's honoree, listed in one area, with the other references being to skullsplitter. Sorry about that!

Voting in the KarateForums.com Awards 2020 is now closed! The winners will be revealed soon. Thank you to everyone who voted. Patrick

Hey all, For years, we've been planning to reorganize our forum sections here on KarateForums.com, to reflect the current activity and makeup of the community. We have several forums that were once active, but have now grown inactive as different members have left and entered the community. This is only natural and absolutely okay, but it leaves us with a set of forums that do not display our current activity in the best possible way. KarateForums.com will celebrate 20 years on May 21, 2021. As I considered this milestone, I wondered: What would be the best way to honor the community? The answer I came up with was to get this community into the best possible shape for the next 20 years by reorganizing it in an optimal way and upgrading our forum software to address some of the silly bugs we've had to put up with for too long. I can't say much about the software side yet because I haven't gone too deep into it, but the reorganization is finally happening! Starting in the first week of December, we'll begin to make changes by renaming existing forums, adding new forums, and merging the contents of old forums with other ones that match well based upon subject. The end result will look like this: Art-Specific Discussions Beginner's Section BJJ, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, and Grappling Martial Arts Karate Kung Fu, JKD, Wing Chun, Tai Chi, and Chinese Martial Arts MMA, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Boxing, and Competitive Fighting TKD, TSD, Hapkido, and Korean Martial Arts Beyond Specific Arts Comparing and Combining Different Styles (if we keep it, more on that below) Equipment and Gear Health and Fitness Instructors and School Owners Martial Arts Gaming, Movies, TV, and Entertainment Martial Arts Weapons Pro Fighting Matches and Leagues Share Your Testing, Grading, or Promotion General Martial Arts Discussion Community Center General Chat Introduce Yourself KarateForums.com Announcements We'll go from 25 forums down to 18 or 17, depending on whether or not we keep a Comparative Styles and Cross Training-type of forum. These changes will take time, and it'll require our whole team working through all of the threads in several large forums to ensure that they are moved to the proper home in our new structure. Our goal is to have it all wrapped up by December 19. I'll continue to post updates as needed, as we make progress. That's the high level version, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know, either here or via private message. For those curious, I am going to go into even greater detail below, just to break down what is happening with each forum. Thank you for reading and for being a member of KarateForums.com! Patrick More detailed breakdown follows! Let's look at our current forums one-by-one, and then break down what is happening with each one. First, we have 11 forums that are remaining exactly the same, but with new names. These are: General Martial Arts = General Martial Arts DiscussionChinese Martial Arts = Kung Fu, JKD, Wing Chun, Tai Chi, and Chinese Martial Arts Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts = BJJ, Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, and Grappling Martial Arts Kickboxing, Boxing and Muay Thai = MMA, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Boxing, and Competitive Fighting Korean Martial Arts = TKD, TSD, Hapkido, and Korean Martial Arts Equipment = Equipment and Gear Health, Training and Fitness = Health and Fitness Instructor Central = Instructors and School Owners Testing, Grading and Promotions = Share Your Testing, Grading, or Promotion Weapons = Martial Arts Weapons Introductions = Introduce YourselfSome of these new names are just to help people find the right place faster. Others are for clarity. For example, removing "Training" in "Health, Training and Fitness," so that less members think that it's about martial arts training. Same for the Weapons forum changing to Martial Arts Weapons. 3 forums will remain unchanged, title and all: KarateForums.com AnnouncementsKarate General ChatSo, that's the easy stuff out of the way! 1-2 forums will be kept in a very similar position, after we completely review their contents. These are: Comparative Styles and Cross Training (if we keep it) = Comparing and Combining Different StylesMartial Arts Entertainment = Martial Arts Gaming, Movies, TV, and EntertainmentComparative Styles and Cross Training has become a bit of a catch-all. We want to fully review it, to move any threads that shouldn't be there, and then see what we are left with. If it still seems viable, we'll keep it. Otherwise, we'll move the remaining threads to the most appropriate place. For Martial Arts Entertainment, we are taking any threads that relate to pro fighting leagues out of that forum. For example, UFC fights. We feel like it's worth testing those conversations having their own forum, called Pro Fighting Matches and Leagues. Meanwhile, any other entertainment-related martial arts content (movies, TV shows, video games, etc.) will remain in the same forum, and it'll be renamed to reflect that clarity. To that end, we will be adding 2 new forums: Beginner's SectionPro Fighting Matches and LeaguesBeginner's Section isn't really its own forum. We want it to be a place where people can post if they are not sure where their post should go, and then we'll move it to the right forum. The general idea is to keep it relatively clear, but give new members a comfortable place to start. It's an experiment, so we'll see how people respond! That leaves us with the last 9 forums, all of which will be removed or merged after their contents are completely reviewed. These are: Combative Martial Arts (August 31, 2016)Internal Arts and Philosophy (July 17, 2017) Sport Martial Arts (November 9, 2015) Getting Started in the Martial Arts (July 6, 2015) Martial Arts and Politics (June 1, 2014) Self Defense (November 9, 2016) Strategies and Tactics (December 20, 2017) Game Threads (August 1, 2011) KarateForums.com Articles Archive (September 19, 2014)Why these 9? Well, if you open each one, take note of the last reply date of the last thread on the first page. That means that since that date, only 30 conversations have been active in that forum. That is what the dates included above represent. So, for example, Sport Martial Arts has only had 30 active conversations in the past 5+ years! As you can see, this is long overdue. The process for each of these forums will essentially be the same: All of the threads within them will be moved to the most appropriate forum from the new list, with a specific effort to avoid placing them into General Martial Arts Discussion, which is already too full. To say this another way: We are not losing the conversations from these forums. We are just moving them to a new place. The only exception to this is Game Threads. Any game threads that do not lend themselves to conversations will be removed from public view. In addition, all KarateForums.com Articles Archive thread will have a note added to them that will mention they were originally KarateForums.com Articles (an older forum that we used to have - so old that many of you will have never heard of it!). And that's the full breakdown! Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks, Patrick

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 for November is... skullsplitter for the second time! Next month will mark 12 years since skullsplitter joined our community! skullsplitter, thank you for all of your contributions over the years. Thanks, Patrick

Hey SLK59. Welcome! Patrick

Oh man, that stinks. Sorry!

Thank you for addressing the community, Bob! I'm grateful for all of your contributions over the years, and I am so glad that this community can be part of your support system in your fight against cancer. The kind words about this community mean a lot, Brian, Colin, and Fat Cobra. I really appreciate it, and thanks for making it that way through your posts here. Patrick

This is great news! So good to hear.

Voting has been extended! Ballots will remain open through November 28 at 8pm Eastern Time. If you haven't voted yet, here's your chance!

The deadline for votes is approaching quickly! If you haven't yet voted, please do! Thank you for being a part of the process!

I was trying to get up to running 3 days a week, but I think 2 is the right number because 3 is just making me a bit too sore. But will still do 3 some weeks, probably.

After pushing through the channels, if it gets to that point, please let us know. Patrick

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far. If you haven't yet, please do! It takes a few minutes, and it's a great way to recognize some of your fellow members. Patrick

That's frustrating. I'm sorry, Bob. Patrick

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 for October (we're still a bit behind, sorry!) is... stonecrusher69 for the second time! stonecrusher69 joined KarateForums.com in our first year, and in 6 months, we'll be celebrating our 20th! Thank you for your long term contributions to this community, stonecrusher69! Thanks, Patrick

Hey Alan, I think some additional context might be helpful here. Are you raising them or lowering them why? Because of COVID and not being able to train in person like you used to? Or within some other context? Thanks, Patrick

Why did you have to cancel?

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 19th 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 2020 nominees. In all, 15 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are scohen0300, Fat Cobra, RW*, aurik*, Spartacus Maximus, Capella*, MAD Mike*, Wastelander, sensei8, JR 137, bushido_man96, Bulltahr, Wado Heretic, Alan Armstrong, and DWx. Congratulations to all of you! An asterisk (*) denotes a first time nominee! sensei8 and Spartacus Maximus lead the nominations with 4 each, followed by JR 137 with 3. Our historical award numbers have been updated and new milestones have been reached! Congratulations to sensei8 on reaching 40 nominations (now with 41, 2nd all-time), JR 137 on reaching 20 (now with 21, 5th all-time), and Spartacus Maximus and Wastelander on reaching 15 (now with 17 and 16, respectively, which is 6th and 7th all-time). With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. What You Should Know Before Voting 1. These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2019 and October 18, 2020. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity prior or after. 2. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2020. 3. You cannot vote for yourself. 4. Your votes will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who voted for whom. 5. 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. 6. 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://www.karateforums.com/member-of-the-year-vt53218.html New Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/new-member-of-the-year-vt53219.html Community Spirit Award https://www.karateforums.com/community-spirit-award-vt53220.html Staff Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/staff-member-of-the-year-vt53221.html Funniest Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/funniest-member-of-the-year-vt53222.html Karate Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/karate-contributor-of-the-year-vt53223.html Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/health-training-and-fitness-contributor-oty-vt53224.html Instructor Central Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/instructor-central-contributor-of-the-year-vt53225.html Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on November 28, 2020 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not post your votes in this or 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

Please vote for the Instructor Central Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2020. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Instructor Central forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: DWx Spartacus Maximus Alan Armstrong sensei8 Voting will be closed on November 24, 2020 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.