Patrick

Hey Justice, Thank you for sharing this with us. I can't even imagine the incredible struggle that you have gone through. But I definitely noticed your absence, and I'm so glad to have you back. I'm happy that we can continue to be a part of your martial arts journey. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After a month of nominations and votes, the 2016 edition of the KarateForums.com 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. That's 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: Spartacus Maximus 2. New Member of the Year: LLLEARNER 3. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 4th consecutive year) 4. Staff Member of the Year: bushido_man96 (for the 4th time) 5. Funniest Member of the Year: MasterPain (for the 4th time) 6. Karate Contributor of the Year: Wastelander 7. Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year: tallgeese (for the 4th consecutive year) Note: tallgeese won by unanimous nomination. There were several nominations in this category, but they were all for him. For the sake of suspense, I did not include this nomination in our overall nominations tally on our awards page when the ballots were announced. I have now added it. 8. Equipment Contributor of the Year: JR 137 9. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: Nidan Melbourne 10. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: sensei8 (for the 4th consecutive year) 11. Article of the Year: Using YouTube for Your Martial Arts School's Marketing by tallgeese (for the 3rd time) Congratulations to Spartacus Maximus, LLLEARNER, sensei8, bushido_man96, MasterPain, Wastelander, tallgeese, JR 137 and Nidan Melbourne! LLLEARNER was our only first time honoree. I would also like to congratulate MasterPain on reaching 5 total award wins, which puts him as 5th all-time. 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

Hey strangepair03, please share it here if you can. Maybe someone else will be interested. Thanks. Patrick

I appreciate that, Bob. Thank you. Patrick

Love reading these replies. Especially the stories from JR and Mo! You are appreciated, Bob. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. November 15 marked 5 years since Bob (sensei8) joined our staff on KarateForums.com. There are many different ways to talk about Bob's contribution to our community. For a lot of people, he's the first person they encountered here. Either the first post they read or the first one to respond to them. Not a few people, not a dozen, somewhere in the hundreds. Bob is held in high regard by so many of our members. As a member of staff, he has brought his consistent energy and love of the community behind the scenes, where he helps to maintain this wonderful thing. He's one of the many members who makes it wonderful. Another way to mark his amazing contribution here is to look at the KarateForums.com Awards, where members of our community have nominated him 26 times (second all-time) and honored him 16 times (first among all members). There is, perhaps, no award that speaks to this more than the Community Spirit Award which, when I announce the results of the 2016 awards on Monday, he will have won his fourth consecutive. (I've never revealed an award winner before the actual reveal before, but I thought it was fitting, for this occasion). Bob, thank you for the amazing contributions that you have made to KarateForums.com. I am grateful for your loyalty to the community and to me, and I appreciate the knowledgable, thoughtful and open way in which you have participated here over the last (nearly) 9 years. Sincerely, Patrick

The voting results have been audited and are ready to be announced! We will reveal the winners on Monday. Thanks, Patrick

Thank you, Noah and Danielle, and thank you for the amazing contributions that you have made over the years. Hard to imagine KF without you! 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... Tempest. Congratulations! Thank you for the great contributions that you have made to our community since joining in August! Sincerely, Patrick

Welcome aboard, Lowkickr. Glad to have you. Patrick

Thanks Bob. Before yesterday, in the history of the franchise, after being shutout for the first 3 quarters, our record was 0-31. So, that doesn't happen very often. Everything is amazing right now.

Thank you, Brian, for taking the time to write so thoughtfully about the support that you have felt from the community. It means a lot to me to read it. We have been fortunate to have so many great members over the years, including you, that have helped others, offered them advise and made them feel welcome. It's one of the main things that has made this community a great place to be. Happy 15 and one half birthday, KarateForums.com! Thanks again, Patrick

Thanks for participating, MatsuShinshii. And with that, voting is now closed! Thank you to everyone who voted. The results will be revealed soon. Patrick

Thank you for the replies and to everyone who has voted so far! We have a little over two days left until voting will close. If you have not yet voted, please take a moment to do so! Thanks, Patrick

Welcome to KF, Prince. Glad to have you. Patrick

Welcome aboard, aurik. Patrick

Hello, Welcome to the voting period of the 15th 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 2016 nominees. In all, 22 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are Spartacus Maximus, The Pred, IcemanSK, Luther unleashed, LLLEARNER, Alan Armstrong, sensei8, DWx, mazzybear, ninjanurse, Nidan Melbourne, bushido_man96, Zaine, Wastelander, MasterPain, JR 137, MatsuShinshii, Kyonovice, Struggling_Mudansha, yamesu, tallgeese and Lupin1. Congratulations to all of you! JR 137 and sensei8 lead the nominations with 4 each, followed by Wastelander and DWx, who have 3. Our historical award numbers have been updated and several members have hit amazing milestones. Congratulations to sensei8 on reaching 25 nominations (now with 26), DWx on reaching 20 (22), Wastelander on reaching 10 and Nidan Melbourne (6), mazzybear (6) and Luther unleashed (6) on 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, 2015 and October 18, 2016. 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, 2016. 3. You cannot vote for yourself or an article that you wrote. 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 http://www.karateforums.com/member-of-the-year-vt50109.html New Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/new-member-of-the-year-vt50108.html Community Spirit Award http://www.karateforums.com/community-spirit-award-vt50107.html Staff Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/staff-member-of-the-year-vt50106.html Funniest Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/funniest-member-of-the-year-vt50105.html Karate Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/karate-contributor-of-the-year-vt50104.html Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year The community only nominated one member for this category. As such, that member is the winner. The honoree will be announced with the other winners once voting has closed. Please note that the nomination in this category was not counted in our historic totals above, for the sake of suspense, but we will update those numbers once the honoree is announced. Equipment Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/equipment-contributor-of-the-year-vt50103.html Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/health-training-and-fitness-contributor-oty-vt50102.html Instructor Central Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/instructor-central-contributor-of-the-year-vt50101.html Article of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/article-of-the-year-vt50100.html Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM ET (GMT/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 2016. 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: Spartacus Maximus The Pred IcemanSK Luther unleashed Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. Award Description: This award is intended to acknowledge the new 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. To be considered a new member, a member must have registered on or between the dates of October 19, 2015 and October 18, 2016 and made at least 50 posts by October 18, 2016. Here are the nominees: LLLEARNER Alan Armstrong Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. 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 DWx mazzybear ninjanurse Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. Award Description: This award is intended to acknowledge the staff member who you feel is deserving of speical recognition because of their outstanding contributions to the community, in public and behind the scenes. Here are the nominees: Nidan Melbourne sensei8 bushido_man96 Zaine DWx Wastelander Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. 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: MasterPain mazzybear JR 137 Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Karate forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: Wastelander sensei8 MatsuShinshii JR 137 Kyonovice Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Equipment forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: JR 137 Struggling_Mudansha Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/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 2016. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health, Training and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value in that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: bushido_man96 Alan Armstrong JR 137 yamesu Nidan Melbourne Voting will be closed on November 22, 2016 at 5 PM EST (GMT/UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.