Putting Others Down

[IcemanSK]

I look at Youtube the same way I look at some MA forums. On Youtube a lot of 16 year olds like to tell us how "mine is better than your's." Some MA forums are like that also, sadly. I guess it comes with the territory when we risk putting our videos on display.

 

[Senjojutsu]

However taking a slightly contrarians viewpoint - that asking pointed questions and differing opinions do not always constitute elitism, negativity or the way of sixteen year-old keyboard warriors.

If something presented is so far outside “the norm” – is it not an obligation of user participation within these online forums to post opinions or to ask clarifying questions?

Think about this, a family friend comes to you and says their teenage child is about to start training at the new local dojo and wants your opinion since they know of your martial arts background.

The parent tells you it is a “modern hybrid martial art” – a combination of Tae Kwon Do, Hung Gar, Ninpo and Capoeira run by a just arrived thirty-one year old Korean grandmaster:

- The school’s tuition is $200 a month, six months prepayment required with contract.
- of course to belong to the Black Belt Club to learn more of the art’s secrets requires an extra fifty dollars monthly.
- the GM claims it is an outstanding street-wise martial art, but they have “no contact sparring” rules for fun & safety.
- and the colored belt testing fees are one-hundred dollars each, cash only.

Extreme examples, but we over the age of thirty have all seen some variants of this during our MA journeys.

 

[MarkBarlow]

However taking a slightly contrarians viewpoint - that asking pointed questions and differing opinions do not always constitute elitism, negativity or the way of sixteen year-old keyboard warriors.

If something presented is so far outside “the norm” – is it not an obligation of user participation within these online forums to post opinions or to ask clarifying questions?

Think about this, a family friend comes to you and says their teenage child is about to start training at the new local dojo and wants your opinion since they know of your martial arts background.

The parent tells you it is a “modern hybrid martial art” – a combination of Tae Kwon Do, Hung Gar, Ninpo and Capoeira run by a just arrived thirty-one year old Korean grandmaster:

- The school’s tuition is $200 a month, six months prepayment required with contract.
- of course to belong to the Black Belt Club to learn more of the art’s secrets requires an extra fifty dollars monthly.
- the GM claims it is an outstanding street-wise martial art, but they have “no contact sparring” rules for fun & safety.
- and the colored belt testing fees are one-hundred dollars each, cash only.

Extreme examples, but we over the age of thirty have all seen some variants of this during our MA journeys.

As you state, those are extreme examples. I think the original post was in regard to wannabees who snipe from the shadows, not the folks who train and study before making informed comments. To me, there's a huge difference between a kid yelling, "You suck" and running away and someone with 10 - 20 years experience offering an opinion from a position of experience.

 

[lhommedieu]

While surfing various forums, I often come across many posts/threads by people who seem to thrive on putting others down. Look at any youtube clip and often, you can see comments that are left by people. Of course, many comments are good, but others also put the art in question down...

...I think its clear where I'm going with this thread, so at this time, I'd like to hear from others. What are your views on people who have nothing better to do with their time, than put another art down?

Mike

Generally people who post on threads or comment on clips fall into three categories.

First are the guys who sincerely want to give or receive information and don't have a lot of ego invested in what they say. Even if they disagree with you they do it respectfully and cordially. Often they will post their real names or their real names are easy to find out due to websites or other contact information that's freely given or easy to find out. I've made a lasting friendship through this forum, and have trained with several other individuals that I've contacted on this and other forums simply because I know that these kinds of people will stand by their own words.

Second are the "haters," "nutters," and other idiots who think that their diatribe must be interesting to others because they are so interesting to themselves. A subspecies of this kind of cretin is "prank caller" - the kind of person who lives to amuse him or herself at other people's expense. Take the guy who joined YouTube for the sole purpose of of trashing all eleven of my most recent clips (and no one else's). Was he on a mission (see #3 below) or just working out issues of sexual inadequacy? Sadly, we'll never know - he left YouTube right after his work was done. These guys aren't too hard to figure out and the best advice I can give is to ignore them. On the rare occasion when I think it's necessary to respond I usually do so with a sense of humor and they just go away.

Third are those with a political agenda. Again, these guys aren't hard to spot. Their message is generally a variation of "you can't be any good because you don't study with my teacher, etc." or "your teacher can't be any good because he didn't study with my teacher's teacher, etc." and they like to throw words like "certified" and "authentic" around a little more than they should. I generally like to respond with kindness because, basically, you're dealing with uneducated children. Sadly, they don't realize how much they discredit their own teachers with their own barking - and if they did they'd probably die of shame.

That brings me to make two points:

1. I try never to act in a public forum in any way that would bring discredit to my teachers. That means acting in a polite, responsible manner at all times - and when I make a mistake I admit it and move on without rancour.

2. I sign my posts, and on the rare occasion when I use my screen name (say, on YouTube) I do so knowing that anyone could google "lhommedieu" and find out my contact information. Individuals who fall in category #2 never, and individuals who fall in category #3, rarely, sign their own names to their posts for good reason - they're afraid to take personal responsibility for their own words.

Best,

Steve

 

[DrunkenBear]

This really is nothing new when it comes to the history of what we now call the internet and started long befor MMA & BJJ became popular with the masses.
Back in the days of USENET I was the moderator of one of the martial arts forums (I think there were two at the time) and it seemed that from my first day as moderator there were put downs, name calling, trolls, haters and all other type of vermin that have been written about in earlier posts in this thread.
I used to get treatened almost daily just for doing my job as moderator and trying to keep things civilized.

It is all about the anonymity!

Just remember it isn't the style it's the practitioner & how you train.