An appeal to return this to a real Kung Fu forum again

Wai Jia: The Kung Fu Forum Kung Fu Forum
21

Um

I don’t really consider this place as a commercial venue. It’s always been KungFu Online to me, and always will. I don’t buy KungFu Magazine or anything from MartialArtsMart. I buy whichever magazine I like on the shelf, and get my equipment from my local dealer who I know personally.

The reason I come here is because there are like-minded people here who I can talk to, learn from and maybe educate. I like this. There are people on this board who share a similar sense of humour to me, and its a laugh. There are people here who have taught me something great, like Merryprankster, WushuChik and JFSpringer [mainly via e-mail to avoid spamming]

Its a shame there is so much trolling, flaming and abuse. Its so easy to do when you’re 1000 miles away hiding behind a screenname, but it really is unnecessary.

I came here mainly to learn, sometimes to laugh. I end up spending 90% of my time adding people to my ignore list…

22

Old Jong

I think that both you and Wushu Chik are on the right track. No one is looking for another cyber kwoon, and I enjoy the loose atmosphere and off topic posts, it’s almost “Cheers” like.

My main contention is just that there is a time and a place for foolishness. I just wanted to get a feel for where the people that post here want to see this forum go. As many have pointed out, a post by Ralek automatically gets 300 reads and just as many responses.
Has anyone here actually met Ralek? it would be funny if he was just some 12 year old kid sitting at a Commadore-64 causing everyone so much stress and irritation.

As to the idea of multiple user names…it is possible to screen users by i.p. number so only one screen name can be used per computer. I don’t know if they do that here but it might help.

23

If this many people feel so strongly about it, maybe its time for a more drastic change.

Ryu

24

Re: Old Jong

Originally posted by jaz1069
It’s almost “Cheers” like.

“Where everybody knows your screenname…”

25

Originally posted by Ryu
[B]If this many people feel so strongly about it, maybe its time for a more drastic change.

Ryu [/B]

No way!

All it needs is to ban the trolls, free up the humour and let the good times roll…

26

The thing I like about Cyberkwoon is that they have a General Discussion forum, so all those people that want to shoot the breeze and tease each other or whatever can go there. There is a Kung Fu forum specifically for talking about kung fu and martial arts. There are things that I don’t like about Cyberkwoon as well.
It just seems that their is a contingent of people on this forum who want to use it as a place to air their opinions no matter what the topic. There is another contingent that genuinely wants to discuss MA’s. Until the managment does something about separating those contingents there will continue to be conflict.

27

If there is a thread I like, irrelevant of its subject, I’ll post. However - I post my own serious threads on the specialist boards. Problem is that I only get Wing Chun people or Southern Style etc. posting.

Its a shame. Main board = troll board = me p!ssed off.

The irrelevant humour is OK, its doing no harm. What p!sses me off is when someon posts a serious question and it gets flamed in seconds, before anyone gets chance to answer the real question.

28

Ryu…what kind of “drastic change” are you thinking about?? I am interested because this is all getting pretty old!

~Wen~

29

During my active socialist days, I used to post over at “Che-lives”.

What they did there was to have a “GoodMembersOnly” board, where you had to make 50 posts without trolling or flaming before you could post there, and it was ZeroTolerance. One flame and you could never post in that room again.

It really worked - and was a great board.

It probably wouldn’t work here though. This place is WAY too commercialised, and the moderator over there was the most committed guy I’ve ever seen. No offence to KungLek and RM, but that guy cleared flames before they were posted!

30

This has been requested repeatedly…

WHY doesnt KFO have a “general discussion / OT” forum?

I think this would solve a lot of the problems the board is experiencing at the moment. All topics that arent kungfu / MA related go into this forum, and get moved there by the moderators if they are posted elsewhere. This way the MA forums can be more effectively (and consistently) moderated, and people who dont want to bother with the fluff and hot air can avoid it by simply not going to the OT forum. The MA forums can be kept informative and relevant, while the OT forum would mean that KFO would keep the casual community atmosphere that we all love.

Ive been here for over two years and the troll thing does ebb and flow, but i think it is something we are going to have to get used to as the membership grows. I do agree though that if someone is repeatedly disrupting good threads, or causing or inflaming arguments (im not talking about useful debates) in the MA forums, they should be deleted and/or banned… no matter how amusing other people may find them. Of course, if we had an OT forum the moderation would be more lenient in that forum, and trolls would be tolerated more (to a point).

I dont agree with the “one username per IP address” idea, mainly because there are three of us in my household who use these forums under our individual names. It would solve some of the problems (im sure there a more than a few regular members with multiple names), but its not really practical.

anyway, think about it Gene…

31

Gene…

Make an OT forum, and let me be the mod…i am about as lenient as you can get!!!

~Wen~

32

Whiners. The lot of ya.

As near as I can tell, the numbers around these parts continues to grow. There continues to be daily movement and there are many who ‘leave’ and then pop back a while later.

Sounds to me like the folks for profit are doing a fine job. The more traffic, the increased % even one of them clicks on an ad or orders something- the internet is about numbers and movement.

It’s been said and said again, especially by the Mods - bless their martial artist souls - ya don’t like, don’t read; jump over a dumb reply; blank out the male peesing contests. The site isn’t going to change, get used to it or move off. There’ll be 3 more signing up and or returning before the sound of your shuffling feet becomes nothing more than an empty echo…

nospam.
:cool:

33

I have to agree with Nospam. The moderators can’t control all of us, and theres quite a few of us who, though we aren’t trolls, have managed to be total jerks on a bad day. When I first started reading this forum, but wasn’t yet posting, it was exactly like this, sometimes soap opera drama(or should I say kung fu opera?) and sometimes good kung fu talk. I see no change, except, now that we can ignore each other, we complain more about the annoying stuff.

Police ourselves, and let the moderators police what they need to, like profanity/just plain sick stuff. We can’t exactly blame kung lek for our own conduct, and I’ll be the first to mention that I have managed to be completely rude and unacceptable in posts that I have placed in the past. Maybe I’m the only one, but I don’t think so.

And adults, when you’re posting, and you feel that the direction the topic is moving in is about to get unacceptable, act as if your nephew/neice is in on the conversation, and steer it away from over the top, because, as we all know, some members here are children, chronologically. At least once in a while. Having read martial joes’ topicless thread for a while(and participated), there is no way any of us should have felt surprised by its deletion after the conversation got out of hand, and Joe even asked that it not be deleted, a sure sign that he thought it might. It wasn’t Joes fault, but if you were Kung Lek, which would be a better use of your time: deleting posts from a thread that is likely to repeatedly get out of hand, or just wipe the thread?

34

To be honest KC, it’s easier to pull the plug on the thread.

There is plenty of stuff on this board that justshouldn’t be here, but hey, I can’t spend all my time here. I spend a lot of time here to begin with and frankly it’s overwhelming.

There is so much non relevant, useless stuff in here now, sifting through it has become a once a week thing with a no prisoners attitude.

Joe’s threads are fine, but when 10 posts are talking pornography or some other such thing, it can’t stay. This is a Kung Fu site not a death metal porn lets’ talk about our personal vices site no mater how much everyone wants to tout free speech.

If you found your young son/daughter online exchanging some of this stuff you wouldn’t be happy. Many wouldn’t.

So many people are fine with anonymity, but at the same time many are “nimby” types.

I get 20 e-mails a week from members of this forum complaining about other members of this forum for something they said or a link they posted or whatever.

I get maybe one or two a month from members of this forum asking stuff about Kung Fu figuring I might know.

people do the darnest things!

By the way, nimby stands for “not in my back yard”.

I’m all for free exchanges of ideas, especially regarding Kung Fu. I find a lot of the history of styles and stuff to be interesting, even though much of it is sketchy. I also know that many are bound to say nothing by their teachers. That’s how Kung Fu is, some for you but not for that guy or that guy. And so it goes. It’s to bad really and I still don’t fully understand that position beyond the reasons to not teach bad guys, but then there are many bad people who have martial skill, so once again go figure.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, actually have been for a few paragraphs now. :slight_smile:

So, I’ll be taking the goofy stuff out according to the rules of the forum. And I’ll be posting what stuff I can about Kung Fu. Let’s hope everyone else does same.

peace

35

I figured it was easier for you to burn the thread. I agree, we need to try to make it a majority kung fu. I’ll do my best to limit my off topic stuff, and keep my on topic stuff non-confrontational. You do a good job, kung lek, don’t let the complaints get you down.

36

Response frmoa guilty party

Being an ‘x’ martial artists, and not a very good one to begin with, I am guilty, a shopper to this forum.

I think Kung Lek’s job is incredibly difficult, and bares much responsibility. And as far as I can see, Kung Lek, Gene, KFO are doing a tremendous jobs; albeit the odd censorship thingy, and if anything, I am adding to their headache with every of my lousy post…(including this)

My point is that I come here because I feel that there are many kind and excellent people here. My take is that we come in different shapes and sizes but we all breathe the same air, and so deserve respect. This is a great cross-way where east becomes close to west, and many of different cultures unite. I am primarily brought up the eastern way, and the mystical is not so mystical for me as it is say for some of our western friends.

I also am a regular at a few different forums, and this being one of the best, and the one I religiously come to, the only thing KFO does not have that many other forums have is an OFF-TOPIC discussion area, such as, asking each other programming questions, or sharing music, computer troubles, fun area.

Another thing I can see is that many people sometimes bring their anger onto the internet, and if that be a source for outlet, that is great (heheh I am thining of Turiyan, our Brahmin man. My bad). It is better than to have to take your anger to an IRC channel full of very disturbed people with no common interest only to be dumped into the dumps somemore. But at least, these people come with only minor jokes, and place to gain some happiness. And after all, isnt this what each and every one of us wants, just a plce to share, give, receive and ultimately, be that little bit happier ?

Let me give an example, the internet is funny because people forget that these nick names are humans behind them. But when two people on this board meet, as they have, they instantly treat each other with newfound respect. Some come from a difficult, more hostile background, others from a happier place. But we all want happiness…

  • My Unworthy 2 cents -
37

"The site isn’t going to change, get used to it or move off. "

That is the saddest thing I’ve heard so far.

Gene, pay your board moderators so they will actually moderate. Otherwise, you’re tossing your $$$ down the cybertoilet and running an online daycare center at your company’s expense.

Have fun. y’all. My money is green and I can spend it in nicer places.

38

JasBourne - I agree this place is becoming a creche for lonely little boys, but don’t knock Kung Lek and RM, they struggle hard against the tide of sh!t.

I actually pay nothing to come here [free Net and I never buy anything off the net, or KFM] so I’m OK.

Maybe we need to talk about something other than:

*Ralek
*General Trolling
*KF vs BJJ
*MMA tourneys
*Challenges
*The sh!tness of this board :smiley:

39

"don’t knock Kung Lek and RM, they struggle hard against the tide of sh!t. "

No. They don’t. There wouldn’t BE a tide of sh!t if they made and carried out the hard decisions right off the top. Banning Ralek alone would clean up 50% of the noise here instantly.

I’ve been a forum moderator. You ARE the thin blue line, you DO have to make the tough calls, and you DO have to be the bouncer at the door. If you are doing the job just to have people like you, you are not doing the job.

Here’s the bottom line: This place is run by a for-profit business as a way to attract customers. If you don’t think of martialrtsmart.com as YOUR MA supply provider, it’s because TC Media, the company that foots the bill for the forum, is doing a lousy job with their investment in it.

TC Media is not in the business of altruism, they are not paying for this forum out of the goodness of their hearts - it is a business marketing strategy, and it’s ROI has got to be magnitudes of degree less than what it should be. If I ran TC Media, the marketing director would be called on the carpet for the way this resource is being squandered.

The caliber of people who come here is for the most part extraordinary. The degree of quality associated with this forum is plummeting. The caliber of people who remain is underwhelming. That is lousy turnaround and retention. That is money down the cybertoilet.

It makes me angry because it can be so easily fixed. Ok. I’ve said my piece, I really don’t need to say anymore. Besides, I get paid a bucket of money to do corporate marketing strategy, any more professional advice and I’ll have to generate an invoice.

40

I guess. There are some great people on this board, many of who refuse to post 'cause of the tide of sh!t that is allowed to lap into every post.

Like I’ve said - during my socialist days I used to visit a great forum where sh!t was wiped before you could reply to it. Good thing was, decent humour was allowed to stay. Pretty good moderation. Anyway, Kung Lek and RM are decent guys, incompetant or not :smiley: [if this gets edited…]

As for TC Media and the commercial aspect of this site, I never read the banners and never pay attention to adverts. Just the way I am.

You would think that the best way to increase profit would be to increase the number of true Martial Artists that are here. After all Ralek hardly needs a pair of Butterfly knives to practise Bot Cham Doe on his PlayStation does he. Real Martial Artists do.

Ah well, I’m not a corporate marketing adviser, so this is just IMHO. I’m off to listen to the rest of Californication. Man, Road Trippin is one sweet tune…