Patrick

Hey all, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season! Thank you for being a part of KarateForums.com, and thank you to all of our members who appreciate the environment that we have here, and work to make it even better through their contributions. We have a great group of people that treats each other with respect, no matter their level of knowledge or years of experience, and who selflessly share what they know, while also recognizing what they don't. You make the community a special place to be. I hope 2019 is a great year for you, and those you care about. 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 December is... JazzKicker. Congratulations! Thank you for all of your contributions that you have made over the last 15 months. I've definitely enjoyed your posts and what you have brought to the community. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks Ken. Patrick

First, I appreciate the effort to ensure this discussion does not delve into general politics, as that wouldn't be appropriate here. Specific candidates, specific non-martial arts issues, etc. would not be welcome here, as you eluded to, MatsuShinshii. Thank you for that. Though potentially awkward, the best way for the conversation to exist here is it to focus on the relevant side of the conversation: School owners and instructors, and the level to which their choice of association should impact whether or not students continue to choose to learn from them, or patronize their business in some cases. ----- It's possible that the students are being unreasonable and acting in an immature way. That said, I believe that instructors serve the community (or, at least, a community), and if their political views lead to them supporting candidates or causes that may harm that community, or members of it, then it seems like a reasonable outcome for those members to stop supporting that instructor or that business, and choose to go somewhere else. The fact is, you will be judged by those you associate with. The instructor can exercise their right to support a particular candidate or party, and the students can exercise their right to go elsewhere. I don't think either is necessarily wrong. In my life, there is plenty of room for respectful disagreement on any number of serious issues. But then there are definitely some specific issues that are close enough to me personally where if I were to find someone supporting a candidate who crossed the lines on those issues, it would be difficult for me to continue supporting them. I may have known them for many years, they may be my friend, I may have been a loyal customer. But we all have lines of where polite disagreement meets a serious threat to me or someone I care about. And if you are threatening someone I care about, then it seems pretty natural to want to distance myself from you. I may not make a big, public show of it, I might just bring the relationship to a close quietly. Relationships shift and change, and one of the ways that they do that is based upon how the members have that relationship change and/or grow. I don't think this should be any different for the instructor/student dynamic. Just my thoughts. Thanks, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After more than a month of nominations and votes, the 2018 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 18,167 registered members in the history of this community, only 153 have ever been nominated for an award. So 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. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: MatsuShinshii 2. New Member of the Year: OneKickWonder 3. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 6th consecutive year!) 4. Staff Member of the Year: JR 137 5. Funniest Member of the Year: JR 137 6. Karate Contributor of the Year: MatsuShinshii (for the 2nd consecutive year!) 7. Equipment Contributor of the Year: Bulltahr 8. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: (tie) singularity6 and Alan Armstrong 9. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: sensei8 (for the 6th consecutive year!) Congratulations to MatsuShinshii (2 wins), OneKickWonder, sensei8 (2 wins), JR 137 (2 wins), Bulltahr, singularity6 and Alan Armstrong! OneKickWonder, Bulltahr and Alan Armstrong are all first time honorees. 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

Thanks for sharing this with us, DeskWarrior! Welcome. Love the responses on this thread. Patrick

Welcome to KF, Mitlov! Congrats on the 4th gup! Patrick

Congrats Ken. Patrick

Thank you for taking the time to reply and add your thoughts, Bob, JR, Ken, Noah, Fat Cobra, Brian, MatsuShinshii, Bulltahr, Ken and Alan!

Welcome aboard, John. Glad to have you. Patrick

Hey all, December 2 marks 10 years that Alex (tallgeese) has been a member of our staff at KarateForums.com. There are many cool things about Alex, and I'd like to talk about a few of them today. First, let's start with his contributions to KarateForums.com. He's up to exactly 6,800 posts now and there's a lot of wisdom there. I read a lot of posts, obviously, and we have so many posts that contain insightful martial arts wisdom. But there is something about Alex's posts that, even as a non-martial artist, I enjoy reading them. I think his posts feature a mix of elements that, as a whole, represent what makes KarateForums.com great. These are: 1. Solid knowledge. 2. An ability to communicate that knowledge in a way that isn't self-serving. 3. A friendliness that encourages a response. 4. The opening for others to respond and, as such, the opening for growth, where his posts don't read as someone trying to be end the conversation or be definitive. 5. Comprehension of the posts he's responding to. His posts are just really outstanding. Next, I'd like to discuss Alex's contributions as a staff member. He's a really outstanding moderator. To become one of those, you really have to want to be one. It's easy to be a bad one, to try to moderate as an individual and apply guidelines in your own way, to miss details, to be sloppy. But Alex is a really strong moderator. His law enforcement background helps, but what also helps is that he cares. And it shows. A lack of caring leads to inconsistent decisions and cutting corners. Alex doesn't do that. Finally, I'd like to highlight his journey since registering here in May of 2008. He touched on this recently, and I'd love for Alex to expand on that a bit here to refresh our memories, but he's really come a long way as a martial artist, especially in BJJ. Specifically, it's been amazing to watch him grow to the point where he felt comfortable to start his own school, Alpha BJJ, which has become a focal point in his life. That school didn't exist when he joined, and now it does. Alex, thank you for your consistent, meaningful contributions to our community, as a member through your posts and on staff. Thank you for all of your support over the years, and for really believing in this community. I feel fortunate to have you. As a small token of our appreciation for Alex, we have sent him a physical award, which he hopefully has received by the time he reads this post, pictured here: http://www.karateforums.com/img/photos/tallgeese-award.jpg Please join me in recognizing Alex, in honor of this milestone, with a reply to this thread! Thanks, Patrick

Belated thanks Brian, Alex, JR, Bob, Fat Cobra, MatsuShinshii, Danielle and singularity6! Much appreciated. Patrick

Thank you so much, Alex, for taking the time to think about the community, and what it means to you, and for sharing those thoughts with us. I've been fortunate to have many wonderful moderators and staff members here over the years, like you. Their efforts behind the scenes, to help create a community that we can all be proud of, is something that many members probably don't think much about, but without it, this wouldn't be the same community. Thank you for your kind words, and for all of your incredible contributions over the years. Patrick

Voting is now closed! Thank you to everyone who voted. Results will be revealed soon. Thanks, Patrick

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far! If you haven't, please take a few moments to do so! We'd love to have your perspective included in this process. Thanks, Patrick

Have found this thread really interesting. Thanks for starting it, Himokiri Karate! Patrick

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 17th 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 2018 nominees. In all, 19 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are MatsuShinshii, singularity6, P.A.L (first time nominee!), OneKickWonder (first time nominee!), Wayofaswede (first time nominee!), Fat Cobra (first time nominee!), sensei8, bushido_man96, DWx, JR 137, Lupin1, TJ-Jitsu, Wastelander, shortyafter (first time nominee!), neoravencroft, cheesefrysamurai, Bulltahr, Alan Armstrong and Spartacus Maximus. Congratulations to all of you! JR 137, sensei8 and singularity6 lead in nominations with 4, followed by bushido_man96 and OneKickWonder with 3. Our historical award numbers have been updated and several members have hit new milestones! Congratulations to DWx on reaching 25 nominations (now with 26, third all-time), JR 137 on reaching 15 (now with 16, fifth all-time) and Alan Armstrong, cheesefrysamurai, Lupin1 and singularity6 (now with 7) on each of them reaching 5! 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, 2017 and October 18, 2018. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity prior to or after it. 2. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2018. 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-vt52006.html New Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/new-member-of-the-year-vt52005.html Community Spirit Award https://www.karateforums.com/community-spirit-award-vt52004.html Staff Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/staff-member-of-the-year-vt52003.html Funniest Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/funniest-member-of-the-year-vt52002.html Karate Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/karate-contributor-of-the-year-vt52001.html Equipment Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/equipment-contributor-of-the-year-vt52000.html Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/health-training-and-fitness-contributor-oty-vt51999.html Instructor Central Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/instructor-central-contributor-of-the-year-vt51998.html Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 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 Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is intended to acknowledge the member who you feel best exemplifies the qualities that KarateForums.com puts a premium on. Knowledge is valuable, but most valuable is a kind and helpful nature. You don't need to be a martial arts expert to be nominated for this award - you need to be someone who is kind and who shares what they know in a productive fashion that helps others. Here are the nominees: MatsuShinshii singularity6 P.A.L OneKickWonder Wayofaswede Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the New Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is the same as Member of the Year, except that this one is strictly for members that registered on or between the dates of October 19, 2017 and October 18, 2018. Eligible members must have made at least 50 posts by October 18, 2018. Here are the nominees: Fat Cobra OneKickWonder Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Community Spirit Award in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award should go to a person whom you feel has a strong passion for this community. A person who is all about the home team - in this case, KarateForums.com. Here are the nominees: sensei8 bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Staff Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this award is for current staff members only (except Patrick). Here are the nominees: DWx JR 137 sensei8 bushido_man96 Lupin1 Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Funniest Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: Humor is an important aspect of the forums, and this award recognizes the member who has brought a smile to your face many times. Here are the nominees: JR 137 TJ-Jitsu Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Karate Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Karate forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: MatsuShinshii JR 137 sensei8 Wastelander shortyafter Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Equipment Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Equipment forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: neoravencroft singularity6 JR 137 cheesefrysamurai Bulltahr Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2018. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health, Training and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: OneKickWonder singularity6 bushido_man96 Alan Armstrong Voting will be closed on November 25, 2018 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.