Martial Arts Sub-forums?

Black Swan

It was once proposed that an MMA sub-forum be created for SD&MA (I think nothingthatcompares proposed it)? Is it time to break out the SD&MA Forum into sub-forums? Perhaps this might encourage more participation by non-MMA?

For example, the Shooting Forum has 3 sub-forums:

• Hunting
• Target Shooting
• Shooting for Sale...

If this were to happen, what sub-forums would be appropriate? Four come to mind (but perhaps there are better categories you can suggest?):

• MMA
• Self-defense
• Traditional MA (karate, taekwondo, etc.)
• Weapons

Khannie

There was a thread on this about a week ago, no?

Personally, I think the mish-mash is good.

arybvtcw0eolkf

No from me.

cowzerp

Not needed, the mma can stand on its own but the rest would suffer imo..
and the most interesting debates are between mma and tma people anyway..its not a news page its a chat forum so all together is best!

silat liam

I think you be ok with even just two for the moment, with the vast majority of the posts on mma / ufc, this is the only group that warrants its own sub forum. Its very hard to get any thread going which is not related to mma /ufc in some way.

I know in my PM there is alot of people writing to each other to items outside of mma/ufc, but few want to post publicly on the forum. This in term however creates a circle where more and more % of the posts are mma/ufc, which in term puts more and more tma people off.

I think if there were two forums this would give a chance for the the others groups to maybe come online and get some other debates going, if after a peroid of time that still didnt work, than maybe its the time the forum could be call mma / ufc or something similar. At the moment I would say 80% - 85% of the post are something to do with mma/ufc. For me personally I know there is 4 others silat players on Boards.ie who post on other threads, as they are students of mines, but would not post a single thing on this section, mostly in fear of starting a flame / row. If people like myself cant get people to join in on matters relating to their own system, its going to be hard to encourage others to take part. Its very frustrating as I would like to have conversations with others who share my passion, but been a very minority art, the chances I know are slim.

Another thought would be, maybe the reason why there is more mma/ufc is because these guys are the ones, who have took up the mantle and open up clubs and gyms and teaching part time/ full time and maybe a) have more spare time to post regularly b) use forums as a way of promoting/letting people know about their gym. If full time teachers and gym owners and their assistants stop posting, the threads would really slow down on this forum. I'm not suggesting them to do this, just trying to work out, is this one of the reasons why the threads are so mma/ufc dominated and why other TMA don't post.

At the end of the day fair play to the mma guys for taking their sport and developing it, and if the forum slowly turns into a mma/ufc forum, than so be it. We all have a equal chance to promote our ideals, but maybe forums are not the media for thoes ideals who think differently to grow.


Cheers

Baggio...

The mods could give it a trial to see how it goes - it may promote more posts from guys who may be reluctant to post here.

I guess it also depends on the workload. Is it a lot of hassle setting up and running the sub-forums?

Black Swan

Baggio... wrote: »

I guess it also depends on the workload. Is it a lot of hassle setting up and running the sub-forums?

Only our mods could answer that... and we have good ones on this forum, so I wouldn't want to discourage them with extra work.

Judomad

I'll say what i said on this conversation last week, why fix what isn't broken, this forum works well because people are always going to say there MA is the best and it leads to a bit of debate, taking MMA out of SD&MA would be like taking the fig out of figrolls!!!!

Mark Hamill

silat liam wrote: »

I think you be ok with even just two for the moment, with the vast majority of the posts on mma / ufc, this is the only group that warrants its own sub forum. Its very hard to get any thread going which is not related to mma /ufc in some way.

I know in my PM there is alot of people writing to each other to items outside of mma/ufc, but few want to post publicly on the forum. This in term however creates a circle where more and more % of the posts are mma/ufc, which in term puts more and more tma people off.

I think if there were two forums this would give a chance for the the others groups to maybe come online and get some other debates going,

There's nothing stopping anyone starting any thread they wanted to, if they're not doing this for fear of being questioned then tough luck to them, this is a debating forum, if someone wants to put something online without being questioned then they can start a blog. If most of the threads are ma/ufc based, then maybe this is because everyone else is having private PM conversations?

Personnally, I think a sub forum for upcoming events/seminars wouldn't be a bad idea, it would make them easier to find.

Baggio...

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Only our mods could answer that... and we have good ones on this forum, so I wouldn't want to discourage them with extra work.

To be honest I think the idea of sub-forums is pretty good, but I can't see it ever happening. It's been brought up a number of times here, and the majority of people don't seem to want it. From what I've seen recently, people tend post on their own forums, or a forum that is more congruent with their beliefs and style, etc.

Also, I seem to remember Colm saying, some time ago, that it would be quite a bit more work for the mods.

So for those reasons it seems more logical not to have multiple forums. Even if I do like the idea, in principal.

silat liam

Mark Hamill wrote: »

There's nothing stopping anyone starting any thread they wanted to, if they're not doing this for fear of being questioned then tough luck to them, this is a debating forum, if someone wants to put something online without being questioned then they can start a blog. .

I don't think to be honest its anything to do with fear of being questioned, why should they be afraid? If someone is doing an art form that they enjoy doing and can make it work, than what do they lose by being asked questions. I think its more to do with the answers that are given in return, and the acceptance that others may follow other paths, that you either don't agree with or may not understand.

Martial Arts is what we all share as a common goal, but we may all want different things from it. Thats why there are many formats of it. If what others do is accepted, we can all learn from each other, but in the other hand if we feel what we do is the best and everyone else is wrong, than we seperate and begin to lose touch with each other, which ends up, us just hanging around a few people who all agree with each other.

Life has a way of bringing like minded people together and grouping those who share a common goal or purpose.

Mark Hamill

silat liam wrote: »

If what others do is accepted, we can all learn from each other, but in the other hand if we feel what we do is the best and everyone else is wrong, than we seperate and begin to lose touch with each other, which ends up, us just hanging around a few people who all agree with each other.

Isn't thats whats happening with people having PM conversations? Everyone on this forum believes that what they are doing is right (why would anyone willingly do something they think is inferior to another available MA?), or at least right for what they are looking for, and there doesn't seem to be much problem between MMA, Judo, BJJ, Boxing or Muay Thai posters, so whats wrong with the TMA posters, what type of answers don't they like?
Besides MMA is all about accepting what others do an applying it to your own style, sometimes though you find that what some other people isn't actually effective at all, should you accept things that you know don't work?

cletus

I tink the discussion aspect of this board works fine re.discussing m.a.'s

If there was to be a subforum, perhaps it could be for discussion of mma events, results upcoming etc, something similar to the ufc thread here thats about 1300 posts long, cause a lot of stuff gets lost in that thread.

otherwise leave it as it is

Baggio...

Mark Hamill wrote: »

should you accept things that you know don't work?

Well, it depends on what you want it for. Say if you're just doing as a hobby, for fitness, or sheer enjoyment. Last thing someone wants to hear is how crap their hobby, or life's pursuit is. So naturally they will avoid posting so they don't have to take the flak.

Now if someone puts up a clip and asks for analysis, that's one thing. Obviously people are going to put their opinions forward.

That's why I very rarely talk about "self-protection" or post clips (unlike the old days where I'd constantly jabber at people ). Theres not much point, as a lot of guys here aren't into it, which is fine. I generally PM people, or chat on other forums now.

I would agree with you however, that if someone is putting something forward that is supposed to be viable for self-defense and "save lives", then they should have to prove that it works. And it should be open to scrutiny. Just like any other field - Rather than the usual, "just take my word for it" affair.

How do they do that? Well, at least show it working well under pressure.

Roper

This always comes up, and to be fair, I think it has merit as there are a lot of MMA types on here. That being said, if your a Kenpoist and you want to post up a video, then there are plenty of other forums to do that in. Just go to google and type Kenpo forum. There it would probably be accepted, here, dissected.

So you have the best of both worlds, one place where everyone agrees with you, and one where everyone questions you.

Baggio...

One thing I always liked about the old Geoff Thompson forum (unfortunately it's gone now:(), was that the criticism was always constructive, and often you'd see "guy X" to go off and re think his game, and often he'd come back with some good improvements. Negative comments that were not useful, were not allowed.

I know I criticized a certain clip recently, but I could, if asked give several reasons why that material wouldn't work for real. The reason I stopped the conversation (or my analysis) was the guy asked me to get back on topic.
Which was hard for me to do.... old habits and all.:o

Musashi

I find that I post a lot less here than I used to, some other forums are of more use to me currently. I do still look in here and try to help out if I can.

I just don't want to go down the same old road again with the same lads over and over. I think if people want to learn a "style" whatever it be, leave them to it, they are happy to have a hobby and a bit of fitness training. Some take it more seriously and gravitate to more contact oriented styles, even to MMA.

That does not make all the Karate and TaeKwonDo people foolish or misguided, they are doing what they want to do, or are seeking out other training.

A lot of the arguements I see on this board boil down to "I do TMA and you must respect me" vs. " I do MMA and we Rool, show us why we should respect you cause we RooLz". Yes there are pompous guys in the "TMA" and there are young lads who are loud and obnoxious in "MMA". These are usually not the norm., but they get all the attention. Who wants to argue cases when there are stereotypes to poke at!

MMA has a lot to teach the "TMA", but the way a lot of the proponents go about it sticks badly with the TMA crowd. I am not sure there is a happy median, but I'm heading to Wexford to train with Steve Morris, so ya boo sux to all sides!

"Take what is handy and kinda cool, leave the rest cause that's just hard work!"

Fozzy

cletus wrote: »

If there was to be a subforum, perhaps it could be for discussion of mma events, results upcoming etc, something similar to the ufc thread here thats about 1300 posts long, cause a lot of stuff gets lost in that thread.

I agree with this, I posted something similar last week. The only split that I think would work would be splitting off talk of UFC and other MMA companies and local MMA events

The way the forum is at the moment, practically everyone on it does a martial art. I don't at the moment, but I'm still an MMA fan and most of my posts are about UFC and other MMA companies. A lot of my friends who are UFC fans don't train in any martial art and I'd say that there's a lot of people like that on Boards. I think that if talk of MMA from a fan's perspective is split off then there'd be a lot more posts about it, as there's a lot of conversations that can get lost in the big MMA thread

Splitting anything else off would lead to less posts rather than more I think