Something I thought was silly i don't think is silly anymore

When I first was exposed to this board, by Steve Maxwell, I thought the sort of very positive tone was silly. I thought all these MA guys just gushing over this stuff, come on. I acted up a little. :twisted:

My first personal email with Scott changed my perspective enormously. I got that he was deadly serious about what he was doing, and had good reasons for his approach. (Also deadly funny)We agreed the net was not always the easiest place to be subtle.

I was lucky enough to have Maxwell vouch for me so Scott knew I wasn't just some troll. Ofcourse as I was exposed to the actual content of CST, it spoke for itself.

Recently I have come to think that close monitering of the board and the rules of engagement - no trolls, post an intro, even "improve on the silence" give a whole lot more then they take away.

Just a lesson learned. :idea:

Bill

[Scott Sonnon]

It sounds as if something has happened. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ping me online or off, amigo.

[Ruairi Quinn]

Since I began moderating on another forum, I have been forced to look a little more closely at the nuts and bolts of ensuring quality discussion an internet BB. I hope Bill won't mind if I stop lurking, run a bit with his train of thought and explain my general thinking on this area at the moment.

Having been reading and posting on martial arts boards for quite a few years, my opinion on them is that they are (at best) an imperfect medium, but nevertheless they have niche. For example, with something like Coach Sonnon's material, information on which is simply not really available to many people living outside the US without the internet, they have a clear role to play. I have found a wealth of information on other topics relating to reality-based self defence and the psychology of fear / survival etc. on-line that has really had an impact on the development of my thinking as a martial artist, which otherwise I would not have been exposed to unless I stepped onto a plane (assuming I even knew where to fly to and who to train with).

However, let's face it, we only have to browse the many discussion boards of the net to find hotbeds of misinformation, egos running wild and generally far more noise than signal. Dave Lowry, the martial arts columnist and well known budoka, once commented to the effect that he often wondered why the martial arts community, which professed to be a hub of self-development and improvement produced so many wack-jobs, con-men and malicious incompetents.

Perhaps the situation is exacerbated by the fact that if you put a bunch of quality martial artists or fighters in a room together they are not exactly an instant team. You might end up with a dozen gyus who all regard themselves as being the alpha male. Maybe in real life this would make for interesting give-and-take and mutual recognition (eventually!), but given that the medium of the internet is one where the subtler aspects of human communication are ironed out totally, things on-line seem to go downhill more often than not. The sheer diversity of training methodologies in the MA community doesn't help this issue given that many of us remain more dogmatic in our thinking than we might realise.

The internet, in my opinion, rarely presents the positive, educated face of the best of the martial arts community. In my experience only a few forums and websites do this. For example, this one and a few others that I regularly check, and they all share something in common: heavy moderation. Limited access, introductions and moderators who at times can seem pedantic are a necessary evil to prevent a slow watering down of the quality of conversation.

The admn and mods contribute to providing the correct environment for discusison and the dissemination of quality info, and then after that its up to the members to decide exactly when they should lurk and absorb information in the background, and when they have the background and knowledge to have something to contribute to a given topic.

[Scott Sonnon]

Well said, Ruairi.

[J.H. Myers Jr.]

Bill:

I remember when I noticed you had changed your POV on CBs.

I'm was really glad you did, you're a valuable asset to the tribe.

Jack.

[Charlie]

Ruairi, what are the other forums you like?

for martial arts I'm mainly interested in Judo/groundfighting, so i also check in on E-budo & the Underground. For physical training i occasionally check out Dragondoor and Animal Ability.

cheers,
charlie

[Ruairi Quinn]

Don't want to clutter up this thread, so check your PMs.

[JasonE]

Great post, Ruairi!

My own experience with many martial arts boards as both moderator and participant supports the points you've brought up, but I want to add one extension to it:

Not only does a quality discussion board require a fairly strict level of moderation applied even-handedly, but it also requires the moderators to genuinely be knowledgeable in the field of discussion.

This is undoubtedly the case with these boards, and I'm glad to absorb what I can from the rest of you.