Forums...... What's the point?

I just thought I'd throw this one out there for discussion

What's the point of a forum?

Is it a sound place to gather information, facts, knowledge of your chosen subject?

Is it a good place to network, find new contacts, new ideas?

Is it a place for experts to share their knowledge and experience with others keen to learn or is it a place for pretenders and wanna-bies to hide behind keyboards and deliver road-rage style rants from the safety of their bedrooms?

Should a forum be allowed to go quiet if there are no interesting questions or threads to discuss or should random stuff be thrown out there for discussion just to keep the forum busy?

Basically - what's good and bad about forums?

Are they a place where people can draw positivity and encouragement, find suport and advice to help them move on in a good way - or are they for reality checks, hard hitting home truths and honest opinion, or simply for bullying and childish rants, or all of the above

And yes - this thread could have been started simply to drum up some activity on the site

Positive and Negative and Neutral responses are all allowed

For me forums are a great way to discuss a common interest with like minded people from all walks of life and from all parts of the world which i would never get the chance to do if the internet did not exist.Bad points are when people develop massive ego's and make personal remakes towards forum members just because that don't agree with what is being discussed.I remember viewing another self protection forum quite sometime ago where one of the moderators came accross as being very arrogant and rude to a high percentage of forum users who he came into contact with.Peter (skillen) was on the receiving end of one of this guy's onslaughts,as was JKD instructor Andre Martin and many others and this guy (moderator) is still more or less behaving in the same way today

Marc

I actually enjoy some of the more light heart.........sorry gotta go.....my mum thinks I've got a girl in my room.......crimmins!...........post when I get a chance.....she knows my bedrooms out of bounds.......has been since I turned 21........19 years ago....anyway back to business......see below! X

I actually enjoy some of the more light hearted banter.......the personal attacks reliability/lineage/credibility always seem to come from the alias brigade........no why would some some these hardcore martial artists......sorry if I upset some of thethe guys who actually TRAIN in combatives........if I use the MA term to lump us all together...........but again why do the nickname boys hide behind silly names..........to me that's worryingly strange.........forums are here to stay......let's keep this one positive! Hahahahahahah.......anytime anyone would like to train and exchange material,ideas and just enjoy what we do........give me a shout!
From now on please refer to me as smelly dogs armpitS hahahahah.......I'm such a wag!
Mick x

I just think they're great for shameless self promotion

Be sure to catch us in the latest editions of combat.......oh and MAI.......and the best selling range of dvds and books.........and also our ridiculously successful and well received seminars........that is everything right?
Mick x

I don't often post and to be honest when I do 80% of the time it's tounge in cheek.There are what I consider to be many more experianced people on here than I ,so I'd rather listen /read.
I personally think this is one of the better forums where you can diagree and it dosen't go totally apesh*t with bad mouthing etc.
On the whole I think forums are a good thing.
The keyboard warriors well they exist in all shapes and sizes on nearly every forum I've ever checked out.
Except on fridays when they help they're Mam carry the weekley big shop home from town

nuff said

IMHO I find most forums painful to sift through and Mick is right about the people who hide behind terrible aliases. I once posted a topic simply asking if anyone knew about a certain kind of ju jitsu that was mentioned to me. A guy answered and then all of a sudden people started tearing this guy apart for wrongly quoting a certain lineage. The forum moderators had to get involved, it was all very juvenile.

With regard this forum, it's the only one that I'm bothered to check out on a regular basis as there is no shite-talk and I know there is no crap tolerated here. Everyone is here to learn or share experiences and have a bit of a laugh in the process...which is a nice bonus!

The thing that sticks out for me in this for/against forums is the massive success of the Seminar held back in Feb, organised and attened by many of the members on here that read and add their posts or replys for the right reasons.

Keep up the good work everyone.

Tim

The main thing I see on here is people who know what they`re on about are genuinely very helpful, I suppose its like most walks of life where if you`re good at something and confident you`ve got no fear of sharing a bit of knowledge with those who are trying to learn.
And there`ll always be the odd fruitcake who wants to type in something to upset some big hitters, but you`d get that anywhere.
Hope this doesn`t sound odd but it feels safe on here, as well as learning the fighting side of things there are others on here with drink problems, families, jobs etc so it helps a lot that we`re all very similar in a lot of ways.

that made lots of sense when I typed it, apologies if it sounds like a load of cock when I press send....

Jonny.....I must take issue with your usage of the term 'shite',everyone knows that is only recognised in eire and therefore has no merit here in cyber space........I await my fellow mods and sycophants to jump in and give you a metaphorical thraping.........oh shit....I'm for it now.....everyone knows that can only be used by northern people...........oh......what a troll!
Hahahaha......I forgot how much fun this interweb can be!
Smelly dogs armpitS aka mick tully.....shite....there goes my anonymity....damn....lucky I train hey? X

The word "Forum" is a Roman word for "meeting place" like "agora" was for the greek. It was a place for market, political discussion and inspiration (plato, pythagoras)
I can only see the usefullnes of a forum if people can be kept responsible for their words. Working under nicknames gives people the opportunity to escape their responsibility. People like freedom of speech but with freedom also comes responsibility. Some people proof not to be able to handle their responsibility. This place along with the bohemian cafe and Dennis Martin's forum are like the old fora, a place of inspiration. Keep up the good work.

Kind Regards,

Nick Engelen

forums are good for sharing info ect but on the flip side you do just get people who want to win an argument regardless of what your telling them or the facts.

Oh no you don't! Hahaha
Sorry guys........some really good points made though,
as always Messr's coppin and engelen spoke sense....as for me?
I take nothing serious........I'm the comedian!
Great posts all round guys
Mick x

Mick Tully wrote:I must take issue with your usage of the term 'shite',everyone knows that is only recognised in eire and therefore has no merit here in cyber space........

acually the welsh sometimes use it as well

Forums are dependant upon their subject area. I use a couple of car based forums to gain knowledge on how to fix the car when it goes wrong without incurring extortionate garage fees, and sometimes people will come round and help with problems too. I use this one as I'm a keen martial artist but have a greater interest in reality based training than the traditional. Thankfully this site caters for all aspects, physical, mental (i see alot of us are a bit - lol), health and general well being. and also a good safe place for banter. I have noticed this forum has a more mature approach toward debate/giving opinion without shooting others down for having a contrasting view. (Possibly the lack of 9-14 year old keyboard warriors?)
Unfortunately there are cases of "Keyboard warriors" that pop up in all forums just to stir trouble. What i find funny is how quickly they tend to shit themselves when confronted in real life!! Quite comical.

If a forum is well moderated it's a good place to exchange thoughts, information and humour. It can teach people to become more broad minded and accept that they are not always right and others may train for different reasons to them and that other systems have their merits.

If it's not well moderated - it's a bear pit.

This is a very interesting question.

I have got some really good ideas on forums. Eg I found out about urban combatives and trained many times with them and the New Blood Seminar. Also got some material for magazine articles

The downside and the reason I hardly ever put any posts on is the rude and plain offensive threads which are all too common (not here thankfully). Personally I have no time for that. Debate is good I have never understood why people can't disagree amicably. I stopped reading the otherself defence forum for that reason.

Well said Simon
After all we have more in common than we realise.......I keep saying this put if everyone put as much time into developing themselves.......and the killer right hand.....then just old fashioned time constraints would negate our ability to slate each other from the safety of our armchairs......hope you are well mate and it was good training with you albeit far too briefly last time we met!
I thought maybe I should have signed off with a sarky acerbic quip....but you know me.....I just wanna love the world
Hahahaha....but only half in the biblical sense
Mick x

As has been pointed out a good forum starts with the leadership from admin through the moderators. They muck up and it travels down to the members so that everyone starts taking libertys. Most forums I am on do not have confrontations as the members are all willing to help each other which is what it should be.

Thanks Mick I am well and I hope you are too. It was very good to train with you and Al and to meet the man behind the posts. And a fellow boxer owner too.
Take care
Simon

Thanks Simon thanks Bill
Good to see some sense....sneaking through.........oh the power of positive action......wait a minute.....t shirt slogan time?
Xxxl for you winging its way........for one of my greatest admirers?
You know who you are.....don't be coy now!
Hahahaha
Mick x

People talking about anonymity...I don't really go out of my way to be anonymous and have nothing to hide, but I don't work in the combatives profession and don't really want my name to come up in a casual google search enquiring about the best knife fighting techniques etc. In this country people have funny attitudes to self protection.

So people have their reasons...as long as you don't abuse it and start posting blowhard crap.

In total agreement there mate!
Thanks for posting
Mick. X

Thanks Nick for mentioning the Bohemian Cafe

I have actually looked around various MA forums and have had a load of crap off people so this one, the cafe obviously and My fellow admin Alan Beckett runs a cracking site, other than these I don't bother anymore,

Be well,

Den.