Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. With Hanukkah beginning this evening, we are now entering the winter holidays. Soon enough, we'll be at the end of the year. I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday season and a happy, healthy and successful 2014. This has been a great year for KarateForums.com, highlighted by our 500,000 posts milestone. I am thankful for our longevity and for the members who truly add value to our community and, in turn, appreciate the value that it creates for them. Great members are why I continue to run this community, more than 12 and a half years after launching it. Thank you. Happy Holidays! Patrick

Voting is now closed. The winners will be announced soon. Thank you to everyone who voted. Patrick

Happy Thanksgiving. Patrick

Tonight's the night! Voting closes in roughly 6 hours. Please get those last minute votes in. Thanks, Patrick

With things like this, you just have to make the decision that you can live with. I can understand why athletes come back as long as they can, I can understand why some leave early. Neither is right or wrong, it's just their path. You don't want to wonder "what if?" Patrick

Thank you. Patrick

Thanks for the replies, CredoTe, Nidan Melbourne, Gareth, Alex, Noah, Bob and Brian. Agreed, Alex. Patrick

That's cool, badclams.

I appreciate the kind words and sentiment. That said, I don't need to be honored. Thanks, Patrick

Heh. Between the two of us was meant to refer to me and my programmer friend Chrispian, who was mentioned in the first post. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. For whatever reason, when we turned six months old, I posted an announcement celebrating that. And we have continued to mark the six month anniversary ever since! KarateForums.com is now 12 and a half years old. With the 500,000 posts celebration still going on (though winding down), we have just been celebrating our community in a major way. So there isn't much that I can add to that. That said, thank you to everyone who has positively contributed to KarateForums.com over the years. Your contributions do stand out. Sincerely, Patrick

Thanks Nidan Melbourne. Between the two of us, it was probably in the neighborhood of 7-9 hours.

I don't follow the UFC, but this even crossed my radar. http://mmajunkie.com/2013/11/17/video-replay-ufc-167-post-fight-press-conference/ http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/ufc/dana-white-rips-gsp-after-ufc-167-win-retiring-speech/ http://www.tmz.com/2013/11/18/georges-st-pierre-pregnancy-illness-derail-ufc-fighter/ Thoughts?

Thank you for sharing this, AdamKralic. I'm not sure if you meant for people to critique the technique, heh. I like the personality. Patrick

Welcome back, Bill. Glad that you have that behind you! Patrick

Rest in peace.

Thank you to everyone who has voted thus far. If you haven't, you should! It doesn't take that long and is a great way to recognize some of the great members within our community. Patrick

Haha. Nice. Here are some details on the safety: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/11/15/how-volvo-created-the-jean-claude-van-damme-video/ It says they did it on the first take. Pretty impressive. Patrick

Yeah, it's amazing how big the story became. But, still, with or without them, it's a mediocre team. Probably going to have to suffer through this season, get these issues flushed out of our system and improve next season, hopefully. Patrick

I would just treat him as you would like to be treated. I like mal103's idea. Managing online communities like this one, I've come to a simple understanding: when it comes to what I can expect from a person, attitude wise, I can pretty much throw age in the dumpster as far as it being a useful indicator. I believe that a majority of all of the worst people I've ever had to deal with here, the people I have had to ban, the people who wouldn't follow a set of guidelines if you held it in front of their face every day for a year, were people in their late 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. What can I say about the 38 year old woman who flipped out, started spamming people, sending emails to members telling them how awful I was, hounding all of the moderators and talking about how they were all terrible at life? Was that her "teenage attitude"? Though it can be easy for one to become jaded, I don't go around saying "well, that's just adults for you" and that's that "adult attitude" coming through. Meanwhile, some of the greatest members we've ever had, joined when they were teenagers. What does this tell me? Nothing. Nothing except for the fact that, when it comes to drive, motivation, a good attitude, etc., age pretty much means nothing. There is an endless stream of adults who just skate by in life, putting in a half-hearted effort (or worse) in pretty much everything that they do. You know plenty of them, don't you? Of course, there is also a stream of teenagers who this applies to. In all, there is a stream of people, of all ages, who do this. I'd encourage you to just treat a teenager like any other decent human being and also understand that it's not easy being a kid, especially a teenager because while you are growing to become an adult, you are still pretty much in charge of nothing. People expect you to act like an adult, yet you literally get almost none of the perks of actually being an adult. Heh. As a reminder, you are all a member of an online community that was started by a 15 year old. It was incredibly frustrating when people approached me in this manner as I was trying to find my way. I remember one person told me, "I'm older than you, why should I respect you?" That always stuck with me and I've always endeavored to treat all members here the same, regardless of their age or experience in the arts. Just something to think about. Thanks, Patrick

Glad that you enjoyed it, Nidan Melbourne. Patrick

The Dolphins are just a mediocre team. That pretty much sums it up. Expectation is 7-9 or 8-8 at this stage. If we get hot and get some breaks, of course, anything can happen, but the likelihood of that happening seems ... slim. Oh well. At least we know what our priority should be next offseason: offensive line. Patrick

Hello Nidan Melbourne, Yes, that is Kansas. You can see a full list of state abbreviations here: http://www.50states.com/abbreviations.htm Patrick

Thanks for sharing that, Nidan Melbourne, and for pointing out the duplicitous questions. Not sure how those made it in there, that was funny. I have fixed it. Patrick

Hello, Welcome to the voting period of the twelfth 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 2013 nominees. In all, 23 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are CredoTe, ps1, yamesu, Hawkmoon, mal103, AdamKralic, lowereastside, Kusotare, Wastelander, ninjanurse, sensei8, bushido_man96, DWx, Harkon72, MasterPain, ShoriKid, cheesefrysamurai, pittbullJudoka, tallgeese, JohnASE, Evil Dave, JusticeZero and KarateGeorge. Congratulations to all of you! Voting Guidelines These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2012 and October 18, 2013. As a voter, you should place your vote based upon activity made during this period - not activity prior to or after it. With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. In order to do so, you must have a KarateForums.com account that had at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2013 (Eastern Time). There are just two guidelines to keep in mind when voting: 1. You cannot vote for yourself or an article that you wrote. 2. 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), mass mailing/posting 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 get, 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-vt45864.html New Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/new-member-of-the-year-vt45863.html Community Spirit Award http://www.karateforums.com/community-spirit-award-vt45862.html Staff Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/staff-member-of-the-year-vt45861.html Funniest Member of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/funniest-member-of-the-year-vt45860.html Karate Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/karate-contributor-of-the-year-vt45859.html Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/jiu-jitsu-and-grappling-martial-arts-contributor-vt45858.html Korean Martial Arts Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/korean-martial-arts-contributor-of-the-year-vt45857.html Equipment Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/equipment-contributor-of-the-year-vt45856.html Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/health-training-and-fitness-contributor-oty-vt45855.html Instructor Central Contributor of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/instructor-central-contributor-of-the-year-vt45854.html Article of the Year http://www.karateforums.com/article-of-the-year-vt45853.html Vote Now So, that's all there is to it. Please vote. We need as many valid votes as possible! Voting will be closed on November 26, 2013 at 10 PM ET. 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 to this thread. Please do not post a reply on the poll threads. Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Your participation in these awards is the most important ingredient to them being a success. Sincerely, Patrick